Nancy's Mysterious Letter

Hi everyone!  First, I apologize for being away so long.  Life kind of....got away from me. But now I'm back and ready to dive back into the world of Nancy Drew. Originally written in 1932, the 8th offering of Nancy's tales is the second of my offerings that is ghostwritten by Walter Karig, who as you recall from my review of The Password To Larkspur Lane didn't really like pairing up Nancy with Bess and George as he apparently wasn't a fan of the formula, though why this is, I still can't tell you. 

Characters: Nancy and Carson Drew, and Ned Nickerson, with guest appearances by Hannah Gruen, Bess Marvin, George Fayne, and Ned's parents, James and Edith.

Premise: Nancy tries to figure out who stole the mailman's pouch and attempts to find a similarly named heiress.

During the Thanksgiving holiday---which Bess and George make mention of and honestly explains why they're not in the bulk of the story----while visiting with Nancy, the mailman, Ira Dixon----who is close to retirement----has his mail pouch stolen and feeling guilty, Nancy dives into action, going down to the post office where the head postal official, Mr. Cutter accuses first Ira then Nancy of tampering with the mail, which dude, take a chill pill before you give yourself a heart attack, geez. Of course, once the guy is told that her father is Carson Drew the lawyer, he's all contrite, but sheesh, man!  Don't go flying off the handle and making baseless accusations. People end up getting their mail back and Nancy's own letter states that a woman named Nancy Smith Drew has come into an inheritance.

Along with this, a woman----Maude Sheets----accuses Nancy of stealing ten dollars from her and to get the woman to go away, Nancy just pays it, which, honestly, I can't blame her because I honestly wanted to throat punch her.  But to do so, she has to go to Maude's house which is where she meets the woman's husband, Sailor Joe who tells her about how a local family, the Hutchinsons who had an English governess named Nancy Drew, and once the information's given, Nancy leaves, and then gets a clue to the mail thief from a local boy named Tommy who tells her about seeing a man with a distinctive yellow coat lurking about the neighborhood.  As it turns out, the man is Ira's half-brother---interchangeably called his stepbrother, which, no!  Two different types of relationships---Edgar, who turns out to be engaged to an English woman---who turns out to be the other Nancy Drew---while running a scam, conning women out of their money and because things are getting too hot, he's making plans on getting out of town.  

Nancy follows the trail of Edgar to Emerson College, where she not only meets up with her old friend Helen Corning, but she meets one of Ned's dormmates, Buck Roderick and Ned's parents, James and Edith, and it's James who helps with a large portion of the mystery, even going as far to say that he'd push Thanksgiving dinner to a later time in order to solve the mystery, which....sir! No mystery is worth missing a holiday with your family!  It's during this time that Nancy gets knocked down by some kids, resulting in an injured knee, though she's soon right as rain shortly after.  While at Emerson, Nancy witnesses Ned playing football and finally catches up with Nancy Smith Drew.

Because mail fraud is a federal crime, the Secret Service gets involved, which, I don't think that's the right governmental branch for investigating this, but what do I know?  Regardless, Nancy talks to Nancy Smith Drew and gives her all sorts of evidence of Edgar's misdeeds, which I mean, even with all that, I don't know if I would've been convinced as easily as the English Nancy Drew, but I suppose it worked for the story, as Nancy Smith Drew broke the engagement, Edgar high-tailed it out of town never to be seen again, and Ira gets his retirement.

In 1968, the story was revised by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams and is pretty much the same only Ned's parents, Helen Corning, and Buck Rodman are removed, while Burt Eddleston and Dave Evans are added and Bess and George get in on the action with Nancy.  For some reason, Ira and Edgar's last name is changed from Dixon to Nixon and Maude and Sailor Joe's last name is changed from Sheets to Skeets, which, both are strange if you ask me.

Other changes include Edgar's money scam of conning lonely women being expanded, football terminology is updated with the game not being as detailed as it was in its predecessor, the two Nancy's don't meet until the very end, and Edgar is actually arrested.  While I again, adore Nancy's dynamics with Bess and George, I found James Nickerson to be a fun character and really missed him in the contemporary version.  Likewise, I found the football scenes to be more fun in the older version, though Ned being injured in the remake was pretty heart pounding.

Thanks for joining me tonight.  Read on and do the Drew.