#44 The Clue in the Crossword Cipher

I know, I said I would be back but I didn't stick around long did I...but I'm back for real! I experienced a temporary loss of interest in Nancy Drew books because I've been obsessed with Vatican-centered suspense novels lately (thanks a lot, Dan Brown) and reading every one I can get my hands on. But I digress.

I had to force myself  to finish this one. The locations in this book are interesting but this is the book's downfall: 90% "travel guide" dialog about South America, 10% actual plot. The Nazca lines, for example, are interesting but writing about them seems to be just padding out the story. They have no import in the plot at all. Other international Nancy Drew titles occasionally stray into this territory but not this far!

Oh, and at the end of the story, Nancy, after conveniently stumbling through random clues, finds a treasure in South America that the goverment has been trying to find for hundreds of years. Of course.

• This book has some of the lamest cliffhangers ever. The crossword cipher (it's carved on a piece of rare wood) is missing! Gasp! Oh, wait, Hannah put it away for safekeeping. Phew! Nancy is on the edge of a cliff when someone tries to...throw paint on her! Oh, the suspsense!
• The narration gets really "judgy" about Bess's love of food in this book. Leave Bess alone, ghostwriter.
• The Crossword Cipher gets stolen for real eventually, and the girls locate it in a shop in South America. The plaque's owner says that it's really hers, and the shop owner (who doesn't know her from Eve) just takes her word for it. Well, that was solved easily.

Cover image is from Amazon.com

#38 The Mystery of the Fire Dragon

Nancy Drew is on a case--which will find her in both the USA and in Hong Kong! This is the first book I've read where she solves the case first in one country and then the other. Anyway, for fun I put the Norwegian cover up. (Image is from Series Books.com website)
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The plot of this basically involves a group of strong-arms and a couple of women. Nan's aunt Eloise, who lives in NY, tells her that her neighbor's granddaughter, Chi Che Soong, is missing. Nancy to the rescue! Also, the granddaughter's possible abductors are also involved in a smuggling ring. How original.

So I'll just list some of the crazy things that happened to Nancy and friends. The plot skips around too much to really "snark" without being too long.

• When Nancy first gets into the hallway where Eloise's apartment is located, a gigantic firework goes off. It's probably meant to scare Chi Che's grandfather, but of course, something crazy has to happen to Nancy soon.
• Chi Che goes to Columbia U. Nancy helps George disguises George as Chi Che, to see if George, as Chi Che, can get any inside info from students. Later, George is almost kidnapped b/c she looks like Chi Che. The real Chi Che was captured. The captors think George is the (not) escaped Chi Che. Brilliant, Nancy.
  
• Now Bess is missing. Yawn.
• Mr. Drew just happens to have a case in Hong Kong; this time it is a debate over a will (so he's working international now?) and Ned is taking a college course in Hong Kong! How convenient.
• Near Hong Kong, Nancy is waiting for a flight that will take her to inland Hong Kong. A girl who looks like Chi Che is standing outside a small plane. This girl says she really is Chi Che and that Nancy must come into the plane to talk about a message Nancy has to give to her grandfather. They can ONLY talk in the privacy of the plane! Stupid Nancy falls for this and is kidnapped.
• Nancy uses lipstick to write 'SOS' on the airplane window. The pilot of Navy plane that sent after Nancy sees it and forces the kidnappers to land. It must be pretty bright lipstick! Incidentally, the real Chi Che was on the plane, too! Happy ending!

#41: Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes

This book is unique in that it mentions Nancy's maternal family. Carson randomly announces that Nancy is to solve a mystery and earn an heirloom if she goes to Scotland to visit her maternal great-grandmother of the "Douglas clan".

Meanwhile, Bess enters an international photography contest--submitting a photograph of Nancy sleuthing (the classic picture of Nancy with magnifying glass comes to mind). The prize is an international trip with a friend. The details are vague. Of course, Bess and George go along to Scotland with Nancy. Ned comes back from South America before they leave, though, and talks all about an upcoming dance and how Nancy should solve the mystery before. It's kind of cute, though, and in this book, . Nancy pays a little more attention to Ned, despite the prospect of a mystery. Anyway, Nancy gets threats not to go to Scotland, but off she goes!

• Nancy spearheads a spontaneous rescue of some houseboat residents in a storm, but Bess has to bear the brunt of it. She is actually the hero this time!
• Nancy, Bess, and George stop over at Eloise Drew's (Carson's sister) apartment in New York while waiting for a good time to leave for their plane. Aunt Eloise teaches Nancy to play the bagpipes.
• There is a long explanation about driving on the left side of the road. We get it.
• Great-grandmother Douglas lives in the Highlands, which are lonely but beautiful. There are actually some great descriptions.
• Don't you just love Bess? While the others are listening in amazement to the deeds of Bonnie Prince Charlie (look it up) Bess swoons over his romantic deeds and how cute he looks in a painting.
• Ned calls Nancy in Scotland. Nancy picks up the phone is all "OMG! NED!" What has become of her? :)
  
• Nancy is falsely accused of a crime, but is finally believed because of her amazing detective skills. Because she's amazing Nancy Drew, don't you get it? Of course, a smart criminal could have amazing detective skills, but whatever...
• Her heirloom is a beautiful topaz-and-diamond brooch.

Now Nancy can go back to America and nab The Phantom of Pine Hill.

#43: Mystery of the 99 Steps

This used to be my favorite Nancy Drew mystery. It's a fun mystery, but the plot and events are hilariously corny. I think I can summarize it quickly...

Carson Drew's case, involving "Monsieur LeBlanc"'s mysterious financial habits, is almost completely given to Nancy. Nancy is also doing an exchange program with Monique and Marie, two girls from France. Their aunt just happens also to live in River Heights, and she has a mystery for Nancy, too.

Aunt Josette has a weird recurring dream of falling down 99 steps in Paris, where she lived when she was a kid. Aunt Jossette hopes Nan will help her get closure by finding the stairs, and stop the dream.

Nancy and Bess and George go to France--after several attempted break-ins, threats from a mysterious "Monsieur Neuf" (Neuf=#9), who also puts a sign in Nancy's car--"Beware the Green Lion!". According to the story, in the Middle Ages "green lion" was a code for an acid that destroys gold. Also in the Middle Ages, people were trying to turn lead into gold. :P

After randomly looking around for 99 steps, Nancy finds it at a random ruined chateau. It turns out that Aunt Josette's childhood au pair was married to Louis Aubert, who tricked Monsieur LeBlanc into thinking coal could be turned into gold. Louis managed to LeBlanc to sell all of his (LeBlanc's) fortunes in order to purchase diamonds--so that when everything "became gold", the price of gold would collapse and they could sell diamonds for millions at a profit. Not only is LeBlanc very, very stupid, so is Aubert. Even though he might trick LeBlanc into giving him tons of money for the "experiment", LeBlanc is pushing Aubert to introduce his "experiment" to the public. LeBlanc's trick is covering gold with charcoal and then firing it off. You'd think it would be a short-lived trick, right? Wouldn't LeBlanc see past it? Nope. This is a very very clumsy mystery.

Moving on! It is revealed that when Josette was little, her au pair (who is found alive and well in France) was in love with Aubert and dated him.. One day, she had to take young Josette to the lab so she could be with Louis, but didn't want Josette to know about the lab. The au pair blindfolded Josette and pretended they were playing blindman's bluff. She started to lead Josette to the steps, but Josette stumbled and fell down the stairs. Josette was unhurt, but was (understandably) really traumatized.

The bad guys are arrested--the au pair is sorry and is innocent--and all is well.

• Nancy attracts the attentions of Henri, an attractive young man, at a ball. Henri later helps her try to catch a disguised Louis Aubert. Aww, too bad Ned doesn't know. :P
• During a tour of another historic site, an overweight woman almost causes an accident, making the girls stumble down the stairs. This woman is very rude and annoying. Because overweight people are always crude, selfish people, you know.
  
• Nancy saves a little boy who climbs on a statue of Joan of Arc to see a parade. Everyone cheers for her.
  
• As mentioned, there's no Ned. No Burt or Dave either.
• The girls talk about Joan of Arc. "Joan was seventeen when she requested [supplies] to help fight the English invaders," said Nancy. "I bet he laughed at her," George remarked. Then we get a history lesson--complete with dates. Really. These "history lessons" are worked into the girls' conversations, common in the Nancy Drew international mysteries.
  

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Next: Taking a break from Nancy's exploits with a recap of one of my favorite childhood horse stories: Thoroughbred #1: A Horse Called Wonder

#47: The Mysterious Mannequin

Yay! My first blogged international mystery!

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We open with Mr. Drew receiving a package. A mysterious package. There is no name or return address on the package, but it was posted from Turkey. It contains a prayer rug. Mr. Drew assumes its probably from Farouk Tahmasp, a former client and tailor shop owner. Mr. Tahmasp was falsely accused of smuggling rugs (not smuggling rugs!! OHNO!). His name was cleared, but he fled to Turkey before he was told of the sentence. Nancy thinks a message could be hidden in the rug because she "heard that years ago in Turkey, messages were hidden in rugs." Of course she did.

While Nancy unravels (no pun intended) the message in the rug, a Turkish man stalks her. One night, he tries to steal the rug, but Nancy comes down and pulls it away from him. Then he hides a scimitar in the rug (while the Drews and Hannah are away). Nancy rolls out the rug, and gosh darn, she must have unrolled it really violently. The scimitar almost stabs her. This little incident doesn't phase Nancy, though, and the scimitar-free rug is deciphered.

The message says to bring a certain mannequin to Istanbul. The mannequin, one sitting in Farouk's old tailor shop, is gone, though. Nancy remembers it from childhood; she laughs that she once thought it winked at her. Nancy gets clues from a crazy old man who loiters in the tailor shop (under new ownership). "Haw-Haw" shows her the slippers that were once on the mannequin. But..the soles are worn! Nancy surmises that the mannequin must have been dragged across the floor to storage, but a woman in a nearby apartment talks about the mannequin, saying it is strange that it wasn't in the window all the time. Hmm.

Nancy, Bess, and George go about searching for clues from this place to that person, until their adventures take them to the Turkish/Greek district, where they eat at a Greek restaurant and have grape leaves stuffed with meat (YUM). Nancy asks the owner questions about various people connected with the mystery. A man whom is dining nearby gets angry and drives the owner away. The girls get free yogurt and Greek bread as a sort of apology from the owner.

One day, they see the same man who tried to steal the rug showing a letter to a dark-haired, possibly Turkish woman. She cries and runs off. When the girls chase the man, he drops his wallet to distract them, but they keep going. All for naught--the man gets away. There is no ID in the wallet, but there's the letter, saying Farouk's dead. Nancy thinks that the message is fake and deceiving and that it was given to the dark-haired woman for a reason. (ya think?)

Nancy tracks down the young woman. Her name is Aisha Hatun, and Nancy learns that she and the mysterious man, now known as Arik, don't get along. Arik wants to date her; but she doesn't want to date him. She loves Farouk!

Arik was under suspicion at first, but is found to be innocent of the rug stealing/scrimitar crime. He has a doppelganger--his cousin.

Nancy finds discount fares to Turkey and believes that she can find out more in Turkey, and possible find Farouk! He can tell her where the mannequin is and so he can have it shipped to Turkey. What's this? Bess and George get permission to go, along with Ned, Burt and Dave! Guess Emerson has generous semesters. Aisha goes too, hoping to find Farouk.

Adventure abounds. Bess wanders from the gang to buy perfume. Then a boy tricks her, saying her friends are looking for her, but he locks her up. Gullible Bess, after some 47 books, haven't you learned!? The boy is Arik's cousin's brother. Aslanapa, Arik's cousin, delivers an ultimatum: tell about the mannequin, or Bess goes bye-bye! But all by themselves, the crew finds Bess and has Aslanapa arrested!

Nancy, George, Bess, Ned, Dave, and Burt (oy!) goe to the place indicated in the rug, a big ancient cistern. Aslanapa's brother, angry about his brother's arrest, is back. He pushes Nancy into the cistern. The boys save Nancy and have Aslanpa taken away. Nancy insists that she's okay and continues to tour the cistern with the crew. Then a handsome young Turkish man walks in. IT'S...Farouk! There's a big dinner, praise for Nancy, obligatory praise for the others. It's told that Aisha used to be the "mannequin" for some reason. Surprise. Not.

• Helen Corning/Archer appears. The girls meet her for tennis, and Helen thinks she knows where the mannequin is, but it flunks out, of course.
• At a restaurant located by a scenic water wheel, a boy falls in the water, Nancy jumps in and saves him. George helps her; however, Nancy gets ALL the praise.
• I love this part: Nancy is reading aloud from the rug part of the message: "I love..." Ned walks in, saying "Me? That's great!" :D The message continues to read "...her" "Carson, please bring mannequin. I love her."