"As a result of an encounter with a sinister stranger on a lonely country road, Nancy Drew and her friend Bess Marvin discover that a rare and valuable Chinese vase has been stolen from the pottery shop of Dick Milton, a cousin of Bess. — Dick had borrowed the vase from his Chinese friend, elderly Mr. Soong. He is determined to repay Mr. Soong for the loss and tells Nancy that if he can find "the leaning chimney," he feels he will be on the track of a discovery which will solve his financial problems.
Nancy finds the leaning chimney, but it only leads her into more puzzles. Can there be any connection between the vase theft -- one of a number of similar crimes -- and the strange disappearance of the pottery expert Eng Moy and his daughter Lei?
Join Nancy and her friends in their exciting adventures as they unravel all the twisted strands of this intriguing mystery. "
This is my first time ever reading this book! It's one of only three Nancy Drew books I haven't read before and I'm very excited to read it.
- The book summary mentions that there is a character named Mr. Soong. There is also a Mr. Soong (Grandfather Soong) in Mystery of the Fire Dragon. I guess Harriet Stratemeyer didn't know any other Chinese names, eh?
- It's nice to see Masonville mentioned again.
- The way Nancy asked to be told about how pottery is made was very awkward.
- I thought Mrs. Wendell was going to be difficult with Nancy. I was pleasantly surprised when she turned out to be an old family friend of Hannah's.
- I found it hilarious that Nancy hacks down the secret panel door instead of trying to figure out how to open it. Maybe it's because I just finished reading The Hidden Staircase wherein Nancy takes forever to find a secret panel but I just loved that she got straight to business with it. I also liked that the villain had put in the secret passage instead of it just happening to be there.
- Nancy gives Helen a kitten for her birthday and Helen says "you remembered I've been meaning to get one". I thought "meaning to get one" was such a weird way to describe getting a pet. Also I love that Bess' present to Helen is a figurine she made in her pottery class.
- Nancy take on 4 cases in this book; the theft of Mr. Soong's vase, finding the location of the China clay pit, finding the Engs, and Helen's parents missing vase. Nancy's lucky these all intertwined.
- The Hotel Royalton that Carr is staying at is an actual hotel however it appears The Oregon, the restaurant Nancy chases Carr through, either does not exist or no longer exists.
- When Nancy and Ned investigate the location of the China clay pit they hear "a cry for help that sounds like bong". I don't understand what that means. How can a cry for help sound like bong?
Nevermind, it gets explained later. Mr. Soong says the Chinese word for "help" is pronounced like bong so basically someone was yelling "Help" but in Chinese.
- This book has every recurring character in it; Bess, George, Helen, Ned, Aunt Eloise, and Togo. Its just missing Burt and Dave.
- Ned doesn't seem to do much in this book except complain and tease.
- I suspected that Ching was working with the villains but I didn't expect him to be Carr's brother. Also how strange is it that David and Ching are brothers yet one, who looks more Caucasian then Chinese, is given a name like David while the one who looks more Chinese than Caucasian is named Ching. Kind of weird.
Overall it was good. I don't think I can give an accurate opinion of this book since it was my first time reading it, since everything was new to me it's hard to judge. I do think it was unique and something about it was different than most other ND books.
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