#4 The Mystery at Lilac Inn
Copyright 1961. Nancy is now titian blond.
Despite the trouble they had with water transport last time, #4 opens with Nancy and good old Helen Corning paddling a canoe up the river to visit family friend Emily and her aunt at the lilac inn. Emily is also engaged and Nance and Helen are to be bridesmaids.
This time we have to wait til page 2 for our first adventure: the canoe is rammed by something and capsizes!
Fortunately, the girls were excellent swimmers. Each instinctively grabbed her buoyant, waterproof canvas traveling bag, bobbing nearby, and swam to a grassy bank.
To be so competent and so well-equipped! We even learn in chapter two, via an article in the River Heights Evening News no less, that Nancy completed a course in advanced skin diving, in which she finished first in her group, of course. Perhaps she felt this would come in handy since she was in so many boating mishaps.
Other than learning that lilacs are also called “blue pipes” (they exposit this is because the “ancient name of the lilac was Blue Pipe Tree, a reminder of the time when pipes were made of its wood.” Is this even true? And….Google says yes), this was a pretty boring and, in the end, somewhat confusing mystery. There’s a secret undercover G-man, multiple abandoned (or not?) shacks, stolen electronics, an actress/ex-con, a Spaniard named Ron Carioca and a submarine.
The tradition of gifting Nancy with a memento of the mystery continues
…the bride-to-be gave her two attendants pins set with tiny diamonds. Nancy’s was in the form of a lilac spray.
as does the theme of independent Nancy (no Ned Nickerson yet!)
Helen said, “Goodness, Nancy, you must be tired of hearing us talk about steady partners when—” Nancy interrupted. Laughing gaily, she said, “Not at all. For the present, my steady partner is going to be mystery!”
The part where Helen and Emily then exchange smug, knowing looks seems to be missing from my edition.
