Do The Drew

  Hey, all!  Welcome back to Do The Drew.  In today's Installment, we have The Mystery At The Ski Jump (renamed Mystery At The Ski Jump in the revision) written by Alma Sasse in 1952. I couldn't find anything about this particular author so let's just dive into the review. Characters : Nancy Drew, Bess Marvin, George Fayne (with guest appearances by Carson Drew, Nancy's aunt, Eloise Drew, Hannah Gruen, Ned Nickerson, Burt Eddleton, and Dave Evans.   Premise : Nancy investigates a fake fur stock company that's swindling people and also tries to help a young man reacquire his inheritance and reunite with an old friend.   Nancy gets pulled into her next mystery when her housekeeper, Hannah Gruen, buys some fur stock thinking it's legit, but it turns out it's not when the company sent their clients a "dividend" which is just a money order instead of a check made out by the company's treasurer, which is noted by one of the swindler's victims, a

Welcome back to Do The Drew! As you can see, again, for the original story, I am using a tweed version of a book, and again, it's because this is the copy that I physically own.  If I find better copies of these two books, I will replace them within the blog.  Now as you may have noticed, I've added the names of the people who worked on the revised stories, though they lack information.  That's because at this time, I've been unable to track down any trace of them and if this ever changes, the past entries will be updated.   Just as a reminder, all pics are from the internet and represent (to the best of my abilities) the state of my own copies of the books I own, though to be fair, the original version of The Secret In The Old Attic belongs to my best friend who graciously allowed me to borrow the book for the blog. Now that that's out of the way, The Hidden Staircase was originally written in 1930 by Mildred Wirt Benson and according to Wikipedia---which, as alway

Okay, first, I will admit, my review is gonna look a little strange.  Instead of the usual book with a picture on the cover, I only show a blue book.  That's because for this particular book---number 11 in the series---this is the copy that I have.  Like a lot of these stories, this was ghostwritten by Mildred Wirth Benson in 1934. Characters : Nancy Drew, Bess Marvin, George Fayne (with appearances by Carson Drew and Hannah Gruen). Premise : Nancy, Bess, and George try to locate the biological mother of a pair of twins that have just been adopted. TRIGGER WARNING: INFANT ABUSE---NEGLECT---IMPLIED.  Yes, I know it's weird to have a trigger warning for a Nancy Drew book, but honestly, I feel that it's warranted with this story. Okay, so a mystery falls into Nancy's lap when her father, Carson, is sent a telegram from a nurse at an orphanage (called a founder's home in the story) begging him to not let an adoption of a pair or twins go through.  Unfortunately, said te

  Time to travel to Virginia with Nancy as she solves a mystery in Virginia. our 34th story, The Hidden Window Mystery was written in 1956 by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, who was Edward Stratemeyer's daughter.  According to Wikipedia---which, I know, take with a grain of salt---she was heavily involved with the series and wrote several of the stories and oversaw revisions to the earlier stories in later years.  This particular volume was the very last of the series to get a revision.  Characters : Nancy Drew, Bess Marvin, George Fayne (with cameo appearances by Carson Drew, Hannah Gruen, Ned Nickerson, Dave Evans, Burt Eddleston, and Nancy's dog, Togo). Premise : Nancy tries to figure out the location of a stained-glass window, if her mail carrier actually owes a neighbor money, and what's hidden in the house next door to her cousin, Susan Carr. Okay, so Nancy's mystery begins with a visit from her mailman, Mr. Ritter, who's injured while delivering her mail (it was e

Hey all! Ya'll got your flashlights and magnifying glasses?  It's time to delve back into the world of Nancy Drew while saying a farewell to ghostwriter Mildred Wirt Benson, as this was the final story (though the 30th volume) in the series that she penned. Characters : Nancy Drew, Bess Marvin, George Fayne, Ned Nickerson (with appearances by Carson Drew, Hannah Gruen, the Marvin/Fayne family, Dave Evans, Burt Eddleston, and Nancy's dog, Togo).  Premise : Nancy investigates a string of burglaries that take place during the parties of River Heights' wealthy patrons. Originally written in 1953, this is one of the later volumes, though no less enjoyable. We start off with Nancy and Ned getting ready to go to a masquerade party.  Before leaving, Nancy's father, Carson, warns her to be careful as there's been a rash of burglaries at several prior parties orchestrated by the Black Velvet Gang (for the black masks they wear, which, guys, you couldn't come up with s

      Hey all, you know what time it is! Our foray into the world of Nancy Drew with mystery #21 The Secret In The Old Attic first published in 1944.  Again, this is a Mildred Wirt Benson offering (I have a feeling that she ghostwrote a lot of the stories)   Characters : Nancy Drew, Carson Drew, Bes Marvin, George Fayne (with guest appearances by Hannah Gruen, Effie Schneider (Hannah's niece), and Ned Nickerson). Premise : Nancy investigates two acts of theft: a silk-making process and plagiarized song compositions. After being asked to examine a pair of gloves, Nancy's invited by her father to take on a case to prove that Lucius Dight stole a method of silk-making from a man named Mr. Booker, in which he takes silk made from spiders (orb weavers) and makes fabrics/clothes from them, which, okay, kind of interesting, but I sure as heck wouldn't do it.  At the same time, Philip March asks Nancy and her father to help him prove that his late son's music is being stolen an