The Secret of the Old Clock

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Carolyn Keene

Children’s

Jul 28, 2018

The first three women to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States, Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Sotomayor, have something in common besides mastery of the law: their childhood love for the Nancy Drew mysteries. No doubt this youthful infatuation had something to do with finding a crime-solving role model, but one suspects there is more to it than that. Yes, the books are formulaic, so there’s no need to rehearse the details of Nancy Drew’s debut: Suffice it to say there’s a missing will, and various parties with different motives are invested in the revelation—or concealment—of the inheritance it holds. Nancy asserts herself, gets in and out of danger, and triumphs in the end, with some broader benefit to the community as well as her ego. She’s tough, with a bit of guile to boot, and readers root for her with the same kind of fervor and identification a fan affords a favorite athlete, or, for that matter, a budding historian might lavish on the young Napoleon or Marie Antoinette.

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Mary Balsano Colombini Morgan

Oct 30, 2018

Loved Nancy Drew.

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Tim Kreuz

Apr 4, 2019

I read a lot of the Nancy Drew mysteries with my daughter. The actual author is Mildred Wirt and if you can find her Penny Parker mysteries, you will find Penny has a lot more spunk and personality than Nancy. While I enjoyed both, I definitely enjoyed those more.

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