The Clue In The Jewel Box

 

 

Hey guys, it's time for another round of Do The Drew. The 20th book in the series is The Clue In The Jewel Box which was written in 1943 and yet is another story written by Mildred Wirt Benson so let's get right into it.

Characters: Nancy and Carson Drew, Bess Marvin George Fayne, Helen Corning, Hannah Gruen (cameos by Ned Nickerson, Burt Eddleton, Dave Evans)

Premise: Nancy tries to ascertain the identity of a lost prince while trying to solve a crime wave plaguing River Heights.

Okay, so this particular book has a lot going on and consists of at least three cases, so I'm going to tackle each case separately and I apologize if this gets long as I'm attempting to ensure that everything is clear and concise.  In each case, Nancy is aided by Ned Nickerson, George Fayne, Dave Evans, Bess Marvin, and Burt Eddleton.

Case 1: The Missing Prince: Nancy is actually shopping for a present for Carson's birthday when she's shown a jewelry box that is reputed to have belonged to a queen who fled her country when a civil war broke out and intrigued, Nancy buys the item, which leads her to the home of a woman named Miss Alexandra, who turns out to be the queen in question.  She in turn enlists Nancy to help her find her grandson, Michael who was given the name Francis Baum to keep him safe, and Nancy seemingly does so, but regrets it when the young man turns out to have no manners or princely bearings, including not reigning in his unruly German Shepherd.  And how she gets the idea that he can't be a prince because of the manners, I'm not sure.  My guess is that they were trying to convey that he would've been raised a certain way, but if he was only three when he had to go into hiding and he was raised by a servant, why would they raise him to have royal manners? Though, one would expect the dude to have at least some manners, but hey, what do I know?

Case 1.5: Clue In The Jewel Box: During the course of the above case, a jewel box with a singing nightingale implies that there is a clue tucked away in one of Miss Alexandra's jewel boxes and the woman gives Nancy permission to search for it, something that's made more difficult as Prince Michael has been selling a lot of Miss Alexandra's jewels and possessions.  Along with this, Michael's attitude grates on people's nerves so bad that Ned, Dave and the rest of their friends (including Buck Roderick who I think was supposed to be Buck Rodman who was first seen in Nancy's Mysterious Letter), leave him stranded on an island, which, guys, no!  Not cool, no matter how annoying.  

Case 2: Street Thieves: River Heights has been hit with a rash of thefts which even though Chief McGinnis is investigating the incidents, Nancy gets involved in when she runs into a man named David Dorrance whom she suspects of being a pickpocket, but he insists that he has a lookalike named Jake Cordova and Nancy suggests having a prearranged signal (waving a white handkerchief) to identify himself so that another mix-up doesn't happen.

Case 3: Land rights: At the beginning of the story, Carson mentions that he's working on a case in which a favorite charity of his---the River Heights Boys Club is in danger because heirs of the person who funded it want the land for something else and things are complicated when the money Carson had gets stolen, which I thought was interesting because Carson doesn't usually have stuff happen to him in the later books.

Along with all of this going on, Nancy is persuaded by a friend, Helen Corning---who has returned from a trip she took with her father to Europe---to appear in a fashion show to model clothes for a friend of hers named Katherine Kovna who turns out to be from the same country as Michael and Miss Alexandra.

The search for jewel box with the clue and the race to disprove Prince Michael's identity turn out to be connected as one jewel box reveals that the real Prince Michael has a specific mark on the sole of one of his feet, which the present Michael doesn't, revealing to be a man named Brandette while the real prince is revealed to be a man named R.H. Ellington and another of Miss Alexandra's figurines reveals the treasure: the formula that makes enamel unbreakable, which yeah, I can see how that'd be a big thing.

As for the pickpocketing ring, David Dorrance gives himself away as one of two pickpockets and Nancy realizes this when their signal is used too often, leading to his arrest.

Unfortunately, readers don't get to find out how Carson's case was resolved, leaving things unfinished in my opinion.  

 This is updated in by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams in 1972 and like a lot of the stories from #19 and beyond, was basically the same thing though it condensed a lot of the scenes by using a more narration style instead of an introspective style which causes the fashion show plotline and took out Carson's case about the heirs.  Along with this, Buck Roderick was replaced by a random character and Helen Corning was referred to Helen Corning-Archer, giving her husband Jim a small part in the book and it was Jim who accompanied Helen in Europe rather than her father.

Be kind, curious, courageous, and compassionate. Do the Drew.