#5 The Secret of Shadow Ranch
Copyright 1965. Finally the “titian-haired Nancy” I remember. Also, surprise! Bess and George are here. The “slightly plump blonde”* and “attractively tomboyish” brunette are spending the summer in Arizona at Shadow Ranch, the home of their Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Ed Rawley. As always, “the Rawleys had easily been persuaded to include Nancy in the invitation.”
*In the first four books, Nancy was “blond.” Was there a copy editing shift between 1961 and 1965 or is Bess so plump she needs an extra letter to describe her?
Nancy is plunged into intrigue immediately as the cousins tearfully tell her they all have to leave tomorrow because there is a mystery at the ranch and their uncle thinks it’s too dangerous. One thinks everyone could have spared Nancy the time and expense to fly to Arizona for only one day but I guess they realize that’s not a problem for the jetsetting detective. By page 4, we’ve got the first “Bess is fat” joke and two pages later adventure is afoot. A stranger rifles through Nancy’s bag and leaves a threatening note on their car, warning them to stay away from Shadow Ranch.
After a treacherous ride through the desert (sandstorm! overheated car! empty water jugs!), we meet the residents of the ranch: Aunt and Uncle Rawley; a handful of ranch hands, some suspicious, some hunky; young cousin Alice; the cook; a dog named Apache Chief. Oh, there you are, casual old timey racism!
There is a lot of that “that’s just how things were” casual racism in #5. On page 112, the girls are talking about the upcoming rodeo/BBQ and Nancy says she’d like to go into town to find something special to wear.
“I know,” exclaimed Bess. “Let’s all buy Indian costumes!”
When they reached the city, George directed Nancy to a shop which sold a variety of Indian apparel and souvenirs. The sight of the colorful squaw dresses drove all thoughts of the ranch trouble from the girls’ minds.
…
With their purchases in boxes the girls strolled down the street to a Spanish restaurant. Here they ate a delicious lunch of tacos and spicy chili.…
Bess sighed. “Umm, that was super.”
Umm, tacos - so exotic they need italics! Damn you, umm!
The mystery here mostly centers around a phantom horse that races across the meadow and is thought to be the ghost horse of Dirk Valentine, an old-time outlaw. Also, things around the ranch are being sabotaged, horses are let free and there is a B plot mystery about the disappearance of cousin Alice’s dad. Nancy deduces that the phantom horse is a fake and the sabotage is an attempt to make the Rawleys abandon the ranch so the the bad guys can swoop in and search for Dirk Valentine’s long lost treasure.
Our girl figures out who the saboteurs are and finds both the treasure and the missing dad. This time she refuses any reward.
There is a brief, isolated mention of Ned on pg 111:
“And what’ll poor Ned do?” George teased.
Nancy grinned. “We’ll be home by the time he gets back from Europe.”
and then he’s never brought up again in this book and he’s introduced as if for the first time in the next one (secret! I read up to #8 before deciding to do this project so I stopped and went back to recap before going on). I wonder if 8 year-old Beth noticed these inconsistencies; bless my nerd heart, I’m sure she did.
