The Secret In The Old Attic

 

 

 

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 and plagiarized, and Nancy agrees to take on both cases, eventually learning that they're linked together by a man named Riggins "Bushy" Trott.

In order to help Philip and his granddaughter, Susan, Nancy enlists Hannah's niece, Effie, to stay with them for a bit, and the girl is frightened by what's going on, which, okay, fair enough, especially after she's bitten by a black widow, though Nancy gets her to a doctor who administers the antidote on time.  In the same vein, Nancy, Bess, and George scour the home for antiques that can be sold and Nancy even uses one of the items they find (old glass bottles) as an excuse to see Lucius Dight, who is the father of an old school acquaintance's of Nancy's so that she can search his factory grounds to see if his silk-making process is similar to Booker's, discovering that it is, (though they use black widows instead of orb weavers), learning that Dight had bought the formula from a man named Riggins "Bushy" Trott, unaware that he had no right to do so. 

Along with this, Nancy is being courted by a young man named Horace Lally, who wants to take her to a dance and refuses to take "No" for an answer, which, Dude, take a hint!  She's not that into you.  However, Nancy starts to waver as Ned hasn't asked her to this dance, but as it turns out, this is because Nancy's old classmate, Diane, intercepted Ned's letter in hopes that he would ask her to the dance instead, which, Ma'am!  Interfering with the mail is a crime! No guy, no matter how attractive or nice, is worth going to prison for.

Ultimately, Nancy solves both crimes, catching Bushy Trott as the thief of Philip's music and the person who had stolen the formula, and even though they didn't reveal a motive, I'm gonna say greed, and Horace ends up leaving in disgrace as it was his uncle who was knowingly benefitting from the theft of the music and Ned and Nancy figured out what Diane had done, which she got into trouble with her father for, and the Dights leave town for a bit due to the events of the story.  

The 1970s version revised by Priscilla Baker-Carr is largely the same, except that Carson asks Nancy to examine scarves instead of gloves, Diane's father's name is changed from Lucius to Lawrence, there is no romantic subplot between Nancy, Ned, and Diane, and Horace Lally was changed to Horace Dight.  Finally, instead of the Dights leaving town at the end of the mystery, Dight and Booker decide to merge their companies, which, Booker's awful forgiving.  I'm not sure that I would've been even if Dight did prove to be scrupulous. 

Thanks for joining me for this review, and as always, do the Drew.