The Hidden Window Mystery

 

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 extremely windy and dust got in his eyes, causing him to fall, which seems kinda flimsy to me, but hey, whatever works for the writers) and while she's making sure that the man's okay, he tells her about a magazine article in which a man named Lord Richard Greystone has detailed his search for a family heirloom---a stained-glass window of a knight on a horse, revealing that the man would give a hundred dollars to anyone who found it.  While they're talking, Nancy's new neighbor, Mrs. Dondo comes over all upset because her mail's taking a long time to get to her (Yeah, I kinda get it, I hate waiting for mail too, but geez lady, take a chill pill), and accuses first Mr. Ritter and then Nancy of taking her letter which contained a hundred dollars supposedly sent to her by her brother, Alonzo Rugby.  After the woman threatens to tell the postmaster about what happened, Nancy promises Mr. Ritter that she'll get to the bottom of things.  Honestly, this lady sounds like a real, peach, ya know?

So after this, Nancy tells Bess and George about the article and they agree to help her. I mean, it's a Nancy Drew book, of course they're gonna help her. Anyhoo, once they're all in Virginia, they stumble onto two more mysteries which involve an estate known as Cumberland Manor that has been recently purchased by a man named Mr. Honsho who has walled up the place and strange screams come from it, and strange things happening in a place known as Ivy Hall, which was purchased by actress Sheilia Patterson who lives there with her daughter.   Of course, even though these three mysteries seem to be isolated, they turn out to be somewhat connected as everyone and their mother is looking for the stained-glass window including Mrs. Dondo's brother, Alonzo, and Mr. Honsho's employee, Luke Seeny--what a name, man---all wanting the money for different reasons, which is pretty standard for mysteries like this.

During the course of Nancy's investigation, she and her friends get into several situations, including Nancy being treed by a dog (to be fair, she was trespassing, but I still loved Burt pretend news report of Nancy's adventures).  All appears to be lost when Alonzo calls Lord Greystone claiming to have found the window, but Nancy quickly deduces that he's lying and plans to trick the Englishman.  In her attempt to stop him, she, Bess, and George are captured and all appears to be lost, but of course, they escape and stop Alonzo's plan, and afterwards, the real window's found and Nancy, Bess, and George decide to donate the cash reward to the hospital for a new wing.   As for Mr. Honsho, he had moved to Virginia from England (I think, he was referred to as Indian but said to have a British accent, so I wasn't quite sure where he was supposed to be from) and had a flock of peacocks and was worried that they wouldn't be treated well by his neighbors so he just kept to himself.  However, he's soon proved wrong and he's welcomed by his neighbors.

The story was revised in 1975 by Mary Fisher and largely remains the same, though some characters were updated.  For example, the Carrs' maid Beulah who is described as being "colored" (the socially acceptable terminology in the fifties) is replaced by a maid named Anna and a character "Mammy Johnson" is turned into "Mrs. Johnson" and updating some terminology while taking out some information that wasn't really necessary for the story.  I understand why the changes were made, but I felt that Beulah had more personality than Anna and while I enjoyed the story, this wasn't really a particular favorite of mine.  Thanks for joining me into this foray into the world of Nancy Drew, and like her, be kind, courageous, and determined.  Do the Drew!