Happy Drews-day and it's time to check the mail for Nancy's Mysterious Letter.
The OTs continue the trend of illustrating a scene from the book on the cover, while the RTs have started to move toward a collage effect showing Nancy with an item or two from the story.
For the OT, Nancy is once again practicing her shocked face as she reads the mysterious letter, and we have a nice snowy scene behind her. I wonder if that's supposed to be the Drew house behind her, because I thought from reading the book that it has more of a porch. Anyway, we have some very bright colors here, especially Nancy's definitely-not-natural blonde hair.
The RT cover is considerably darker, with the damaged mail behind Nancy in a smart pink skirt suit. I guess Nancy missed the memo from Anne Shirley that redheads shouldn't wear pink, but it's still a stylish suit and I still like Nancy's 60s hair.
Let's take a look inside.
Case file:
Nancy, Bess, and George are just returning to Nancy's house from an overnight trip to Red Gate Farm and this time Nancy is driving a new maroon roadster. The girls see Nancy's mailman, Mr. Ira Dixon, an elderly man who is soon to retire to raise guinea pigs; he is struggling in the cold November weather, so Nancy invites him inside for cocoa. He gives Nancy a letter from England and leaves his mail pouch on the porch while he has his cocoa, and tells her about his half-brother Edgar who is pestering him to share a small inheritance. When Ira goes back outside, the mail pouch has been stolen. Nancy's neighbor, 5-year-old Tommy, saw a man in a yellow overcoat take it.
Nancy takes Ira to the post office to report the theft to the postmaster, Mr. Cutter, who is bombastic and prone to very tiresome lectures about the youth of today (which turns into a theme in this book, unfortunately). Ira is suspended and Secret Service detectives are on the case. Ira refuses to believe that Edgar might steal the mail, but of course he is Nancy's prime (only) suspect. Later, Carson theorizes that the theft wasn't to make Ira look bad, but to attack the Drews; Carson has just been appointed a special state's attorney for a high-profile case. Nancy says that there are lots of ways to attack Carson's reputation, but only one way to attack Ira's, so she still thinks the crime was aimed at Ira.
And then we start the football talk (ugh). Ned comes over and invites Nancy to go to Emerson with his parents for The Big Game the following week, and while the men discuss football, Nancy finally gets to open the letter from England. A London law firm is searching for Nancy Smith Drew, who has inherited a small fortune, and Nancy is the first one by that name that they've found. She writes a letter back and says she's not the Nancy Drew for whom they are searching, but offers her services to find the heiress.
Nancy goes to visit Ira, who is ill after the shock of the theft but steadfastly refuses to believe that Edgar has anything to do with it. Back at her house, Nancy and Bess's lunch is interrupted by Mrs. Sheets, who is hopping mad that her mail was stolen and insists that Nancy pay her the $10 that was in her stolen mail. Nancy initially refuses and Mrs. Sheets says that "you Nancy Drews are all alike" so of course Nancy wants info on the other Nancy Drew, and that afternoon she goes to the bank to withdraw $10 (accidentally bumping into Mr. Cutter and receiving yet another lecture). She gives the money to Mrs. Sheets and then finds out that her information on the other Nancy is 8 years out of date, but she knows that she worked as a governess for the Hutchinson family at that time.
George comes over for dinner that night and Nancy asks her if she knows anything about the Hutchinson family because George reads the society pages in the New York papers (really? That seems like more of a Bess thing but whatever). George remembers a small item and promises to find the article later. The next day Nancy goes out shopping for new clothes to wear on the Emerson trip, and she finds a bit more information on the Hutchinsons in the paper so she writes a letter to them. Mrs. Sheets shows up again, delivers another lecture, and informs Nancy that the missing mail turned up so she returns the $10 to Nancy by dropping it on the floor, right after she talked so much about how young people today are so rude. Nancy informs Ira and Mr. Cutter that the mail was returned.
The next day the Nickersons come to pick Nancy up and they all drive to Emerson; they are supposedly in their mid-40s but have iron gray hair (Mr. Nickerson) or prematurely white hair (Mrs. Nickerson) and as someone in my mid-40s I am wondering at that description...perhaps my husband and I are behind the power curve when it comes to gray hair? I only have a few. But anyway, they drive to Emerson and everyone is going bananas for the big game, including Nancy's friend Helen Corning, who is apparently dating Buck Rodman (she's not engaged or married to Jim Archer in the OT books). At the big game, Nancy happens to meet Marion Hutchinson, who is part of the New York family that she's been trying to contact, and then there's a whole lot more very boring football stuff. Snore.
That evening, they all attend a Shakespearean play and Nancy sees Nancy Smith Drew's name listed as assistant director in the program. She and Marion try to find NSD, but accidentally get locked in the building so they miss her. The next day, Nancy asks for Mr. Nickerson's help with the mystery and they visit Edgar's boarding house. The landlady says that Edgar just moved out, but he told her that he had just come into a fortune and was getting married. She gives Nancy a big stack of mail that was left there for Edgar because he didn't leave a forwarding address; back outside, Nancy immediately gets hit by two boys sledding and the letters get damaged. Nancy "happens" to read one or two of the open ones and discovers that Edgar has been running a Lonely Hearts Club scam. She theorizes that Edgar is now trying to get Nancy Smith Drew to marry him so he can grab her inheritance.
Back at Emerson, heavy snow means that everyone has to stay an extra night, so Nancy suggests that the people staying in her hotel have a masquerade that night, making costumes from things found in the hotel (this whole scene is just kind of bizarre). The next day, Nancy enlists Ned's help to find Nancy Smith Drew's boarding house and she overhears NSD and Edgar having a heated discussion (because of course her two cases are connected). Edgar leaves and Nancy takes the opportunity to tell NSD about her inheritance and that Edgar is a con man. NSD decides to ditch Edgar and go to England alone to collect her inheritance; Nancy and the Nickersons take her to a river steamboat and get her on her way. Meanwhile, Edgar shows up at the steamer just as the Secret Service agents catch up to him and arrest him, but he gets away and dives into the river and is never seen again. Very dramatic. The Nickersons take Nancy back home to River Heights, where Ira is exonerated and free to enjoy his retirement and guinea pigs.
Notes:
This is the first book not written by Mildred Wirt Benson; it was written by Walter Karig and in my opinion it *feels* like it was written by a man. First there is all the extended and technical talk about football (snore), and then at least four long and repetitive lectures delivered by Mr. Cutter and Mrs. Sheets about the proper behavior for young women (ugh). Then there are long scenes of Nancy shopping for clothes to take to Emerson which kind of feel like they were added because the author was guessing girls would be interested in that (or, perhaps more likely, because those scenes were in the outline provided to the author by the Stratemeyer Syndicate). Can you tell this is not my favorite book in the series? Oh, and the football thing--Ned is not the star quarterback, he is second string, and yet he still has newspaper articles written about him and he basically wins the game for Emerson. I don't do sportsball at all and even I know that the second string quarterback wouldn't be doing all that.
We do have some fun moments though, like Hannah threatening to swat Mrs. Sheets with a broom if she doesn't leave, George struggling to carve a roast duck, and of course my favorite the repeated mentions of Ira's post-retirement plan to raise guinea pigs. That detail just makes me laugh every time. It was also interesting to get some screen time with Ned's parents, James and Edith, who never figure much into the RT books that I remember. Nancy acts like she hasn't met them in this book, though in The Clue in the Diary she goes to Ned's house and leaves a note for him with his mom so that's a continuity error. One more thing I liked is that Nancy sends the letter to the law firm in England and there's a detailed description of how the letter will be sent via ship-to-shore post, which was particularly interesting to me.
The only non-white characters we have are "colored porters" at the bank and the hotel in Emerson; their parts are much smaller than the Black characters in earlier books, but at least here they're just mentioned as working at those places and they're not described as degenerates like in The Secret of the Old Clock or The Hidden Staircase. During the masquerade scene, Nancy dresses as a "Hindu prince" and other characters dress in blackface so we still get some pretty terrible moments here. Yow.
Nancy's Knockout Tally, OT Edition:
Nancy has managed to stay conscious for two books in a row, so the tally remains:
Blunt force trauma: 2
Near suffocation: 1
Nancy's Skills:
Mr. Nickerson lets Nancy drive his car. Uh, dude, MY dad rarely lets me drive his car unless we're on a long road trip and switching out drivers, no way have I ever driven any cars belonging to my friends' parents! But Nancy seems to be really tight with Mr. Nickerson, maybe Ned and his mom should be nervous about that.
Nancy Drew, Fashion Model:
Nancy wears a raccoon fur coat several times in the book. She debates whether she should wear her lavender evening dress or a deep yellow one with a corsage of violets for her Emerson trip (she wants to match the school colors, purple and orange). It's not really clear if she's choosing this evening dress to wear TO the football game? She buys a felt hat in a deep rusty brown and accents it with burnt orange feathers and a fluff of violet down to show her Emerson school spirit, retaining the plain pheasant feathers to put back on the hat when she doesn't want to be Emersonian. For the masquerade, Nancy fashions baggy pants out of a tablecloth and wears a turban, sash, and a short suit jacket for her Hindu prince costume.
Cooking with Hannah:
Hannah has made cocoa and fancy cakes when Ira stops in at the beginning of the book. She makes soup, roast, and apple turnover for dinner one night; Nancy brings Ira soup that Hannah made while he's recuperating. Hannah makes bouillon and toasted cheese sandwiches for the lunch that is interrupted by Mrs. Sheets. She later makes roast ducks stuffed with apples that Nancy brought back from Red Gate Farm, and clear tomato soup (uhh, every tomato soup I've ever had was red?).
On to the RT!
Case file:
The basic case in this one is the same as the OT, but sadly all mentions of guinea pigs are edited out. Ira and Edgar's last name is changed from Dixon to Nixon; Nancy is titian again, and Bess has dimples (I don't know why, but I like that detail). This time, Nancy's letter from England is stolen with the other mail, but Ira remembers one of the names on the envelope and Carson is able to track down the London law firm and get another copy of the letter sent. Carson's client Mrs. Quigley regularly sends him cash in the mail even though he tells her not to, and that is part of the stolen mail. The next day, Nancy talks to some of Ira's neighbors and they find the missing mail, which was blowing around the neighborhood after it fell out of Edgar's car and the neighbors are indignant that they had to clean up after him.
In this version, Nancy confers with Chief McGinnis several times, giving him a description of Edgar and partial license plate of his car (thank you Tommy). Mrs. Sheets' name is changed to Mrs. Skeets, though her abrasive personality remains the same. Carson's secretary Miss Hanson gets a small mention (still waiting for Chief McGinnis and Miss Hanson to show up in the OT books), and the family that Nancy Smith Drew works for as a governess is changed from Hutchinson to Wilson (and Marion to Marian).
This time, Nancy, Bess, and George visit Edgar's former boarding house before they leave for Emerson, and this time Bess and George go along to Emerson for the football game and Helen isn't in the book at all. They spend a lot of time trying to find out if Edgar has gotten a marriage license anywhere because Nancy decides pretty quickly that Edgar is trying to get Nancy Smith Drew to marry him so he can get her inheritance. Mrs. Skeets shows up to tell Nancy the mail was returned to her and her neighbors, which is a bit of a plot hole since Nancy had found the damaged mail outside of Ira's house...unless it was returned to the post office and sent out again? Hmm.
At Emerson, a man throws a rock at Nancy and Ned pulls her down so she doesn't get hit. They keep trying to track down Nancy Smith Drew and/or Edgar, and by calling all the overseas airlines in New York Nancy finds out that they're planning to fly to London. We still have all the boring football talk, but this time Ned is the starting quarterback (which makes more narrative sense); he gets tackled in the first half and collapses on the field, but he's able to come in at the last minute and kick the winning whatever. That night, on the way to a dance, Nancy and Ned are almost run over by a red car (supposedly driven by one of Edgar's henchmen) and then two fake detectives try to lure Nancy away from the dance. Where is Edgar getting all these henchmen??
Nancy goes to NSD's boarding house and finds that she's left a cryptic note of Shakespearean quotations, and then Nancy, Bess, and George decide to fly to New York in an attempt to intercept NSD and Edgar before they leave for London. Nancy gets drugged by a woman at the River Heights airport (another Edgar hench...person), but they find NSD at Kennedy Airport just in time for Edgar to be arrested and confess to everything. The whole mystery started when Mrs. Quigley joined Edgar's Lonely Hearts Club and blabbed about how she sent money to Carson in the mail, which is why Edgar was trying to steal the Drews' mail specifically. He also got the letter from the London lawyers and then saw an article in the Emerson paper about NSD working with the university's drama club, which is when he decided to woo her for the money. Nancy tells NSD to go to London on her own to claim her inheritance, and NSD has to leave us with yet another Shakespearean quote to close out the book.
Notes:
In this version, instead of Ira telling Nancy about his ne'er-do-well brother, it's Hannah who spills all the tea and seems to be up to date on all the hot gossip in River Heights. This time it's mentioned that Edgar and Ira have the same mother but they're 30 years apart in age; the OT implies that they have the same father instead, which makes more sense just from a biological standpoint. In both books, Ira's inheritance that Edgar wants to help himself to came to Ira from a relative on the side that Edgar isn't related to, so he has zero claim to that money, he just feels entitled to it because he stinks.
This book has the first mentions of Burt Eddleton and Dave Evans, Emerson students who turn into regular dates for George and Bess respectively; now we have three boys and three girls who will work on a lot of the mysteries from here on out. Near the end of the book the plan is for the girls to stay overnight with Nancy's aunt Eloise in New York, which is the first mention of her as well. Nancy talks to Aunt Eloise on the phone, but the book closes out at the airport in New York so we don't actually meet her.
Several things have been added to up the excitement level, with the various attempts to harm Nancy and the race to New York, but again I wonder where Edgar gets all these henchpeople. In both versions, Nancy Smith Drew had been studying to be a Shakespearean actor, but only in the RT do we get several Shakespearean quotes from her. As a child I found that part tiresome and pretentious and I have to say, my opinion of that has not changed now that I'm an adult.
Nancy's Knockout Tally, RT Edition:
Blunt force trauma: 3
Drugged: 1
Nancy's Skills:
She has zero compunction about making a zillion long-distance phone calls to track down the Wilson family and later calling all the airlines about Edgar and NSD's travel itinerary. Okay, so that's not really a skill, except for her patience in making all those phone calls. She is able to decode the Shakespearean quotations left by NSD at the boarding house when the quotes just confuse everyone else.
Nancy Drew, Fashion Model:
Nancy puts on a pale blue evening dress that Hannah has to hem before the Emerson trip; later Nancy trips on it in stocking feet so Hannah has to redo a seam to fix the damage. Hannah deserves a raise. Here's another instance when we have more discussion of Nancy's fashion choices in the OT than the RT.
Cooking with Hannah:
Hannah has cocoa and cookies ready for Ira and the girls at the beginning of the book. She sends Ira a jar of homemade stew when Nancy visits him and I think Ira is sweet on Hannah, not that I blame him. Hannah broils steak for dinner and Nancy makes a salad of cottage cheese and tomatoes (I like those things separately, but it doesn't sound appealing together). Hannah makes fresh vegetable soup to send to Ira, and later makes mashed potatoes and roast beef for Nancy and Carson. (Hannah, can I hire you?) For another dinner, she serves chicken and lettuce sandwiches, cut fruit, and chocolate cake. (Seriously, Hannah, I have a guest room all ready for you.)
Rating:
Two stars for both. This is my least favorite ND book up to this point; the football stuff is seriously boring and takes up a lot of space in both versions. The OT has SO many tiresome lectures in it, but at least that's offset with some amusing episodes (guinea pigs!); the RT has fewer lectures but also fewer amusing episodes. Glad I'm done with this one.
