Check out the cover!. A dark, creepy passage, Nancy with her trusty flashlight ('torch' for the Brits ;) )...the classic image.
This always was my favorite Nancy Drew book. It's one of the first ones I read and I was thrilled to death. Gullible ten-year-old me. :)
Helen Corning (Nancy's best friend before George and Bess) calls Nancy with a mystery to solve. Helen's great-aunt and great-grandmother's mansion is being "haunted". Nancy is interested, but minutes after she hangs up, a man named Nathan Gomber arrives at the Drew house, scaring all thoughts about the mystery from Nancy's head. Mr. Drew is in trouble and should keep his wits about him. Supposedly this is due to some confusion over a case involving disputed ownership of railroad property; Carson is one of the he lawyers involved. Nancy is worried, but Carson says he'll be okay. With some apprehension, Nancy takes on Helen's mystery and goes to Twin Elms mansion.
Nancy's days and nights are filled with some weird happening, on top of worrying about her father. Swaying chandeliers, radios turning on by themselves, stolen items, sliding furniture, an owl somehow placed in the house are creeping everyone out. And then Mr. Drew goes missing, but of course, he is found.
- Par for the course, there is at least one sweet, innocent old lady for Nancy to save; in here, there are TWO! St. Nancy to the rescue!
- Some scenes from the early (revised) books read like a food fetish. Among the meals: "Hannah Gruen served sherbet dishes of grapefruit and orange slices...spring lamb, rice and mushrooms, fresh peas, and chocolate angel cake with vanilla ice cream" "'Um, steak and french fried potatoes, fresh peas, and yummy floating island for dessert,' said Helen. 'I can hardly wait.' 'Fruit cup first,' Aunt Rosemary announced."
- This book is pre-Ned, and Nancy goes out for a date with Dick, the high-school tennis champion. Nancy is always getting the sports champions...
1 comments:
I think there are so many descriptions of food because at the time the first books were written, the U.S. was in the throes of the Great Depression and a lot of people were going hungry. Maybe the writer thought a little food porn was in order, so the readers could live vicariously through the books.
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