Nancy Drew: Stay Tuned for Danger

    Nancy and Bess are visiting Nancy's aunt Eloise in New York City when Eloise asks Nancy to take on a case for her downstairs neighbor, soap opera actress Mattie Jenson. Mattie is concerned over threatening letters her costar Rick Arlen has been receiving however Rick himself acts nonchalant about them. Nancy reluctantly takes on the case, in part to keep an eye on Bess who has instantly fallen for Rick's charms and heavy flirting.

    Nancy and Bess hang around on the filming set and witness a klieg light almost fall on top of rick after which the set is locked down. The girls take jobs as extras so they can continue to have access to the studio.

    The list of suspects is long as Rick has shamelessly used and abused anyone he could to climb his way to fame but the standout suspects are Lillian, the assistant director who Rick loved and left after meeting her Hollywood connections, Mr. Pappas, the producer who is furious over Rick trying to break his contract to star in a movie, and Dwayne Casper, an actor turned talent agent who use to represent Rick before Rick left for a bigger agency. Nancy tries to learn more about these suspects while also trying unsuccessfully to keep Bess' feet on the ground.

    Despite the klieg light incident and almost being run over by a car Rick doesn't take his situation seriously until a vanity mirror explodes in his face. Fortunately he was wiping off his stage makeup with a towel at the exact instant of explosion which protected his eyes and left only his hands injured. It's at the hospital that Nancy and Bess overhear his realization that his life is in danger as well as hear him confess his love for Mattie, someone he had previously dumped.

    Rick returns to work the next day but after a close call with acid tainted makeup he has enough and leaves. At this point Nancy has begun receiving threatening messages herself including a disguised phone call and a ticking alarm clock.

    When Lillian calls her and insists on meeting at the studio set in the morning Nancy is suspicious but eager to hear what she has to say. She reveals that she discovered disguises hidden in a studio closet and afterwards began receiving threatening messages. Just as she's about to reveal the culprit Dwayne Casper appears holding a gun and reveals he is the attempted murderer, his motive being Rick leaving his agency, and "stealing" Mattie's love.

    Thinking fast Nancy turns on a fog machine giving her and Lillian a place to hide but Dwayne quickly turns on an industrial fan to counter it. With her hiding place quickly dispersing Nancy lunges at Dwayne knocking the gun from his hand, discharging it. Police quickly rush in, having been sent there by Eloise who felt uneasy about Nancy's secret meeting.

    With Dwayne now put away Rick is safe, ready to marry Mattie, and released from his contract by Pappas.

- I was happy to read this books as I played the computer game of it as a child and recently watched a stream of a youtuber play it. Because of this I already knew the who, why, when, where, and how but it was still fun seeing the original version.

- I don't think it did well at making the suspects suspicious. I think the most suspicious person was actually Kay, the makeup artist who is present for two incidents and has access to the set. However for some reason Nancy never suspects her.

- Dwayne and Lillian are written too over the top. Basically everything they say is about hating Rick.

- I also think Dwayne Casper is a terrible name. The game changes it to Dwayne Powers which sounds much better.

Nancy Drew: The Picture of Guilt

    "Nancy's spending Thanksgiving in Paris, the city of light, love...and mystery. Her neighbor is Ellen Mathieson, a professor whose study of painter Josephine Solo has suddenly taken a dark and disturbing turn. Ellen's research assistant is dead-- killed in an accident exactly like the one that took Solo's life six months before! 

Josephine Solo left a legacy of secrecy and scandal...even the possibility of a double life. But Nancy begins to suspect that some of the professor's students also have something to hide. Paris is full of powerful temptations-- forbidden romance, secret passions, financial greed-- any one of which could lead to a motive for murder."

    Awhile ago I acquired a fair amount of Nancy Drew Files from a thrift store that was going out of business. After reading them all there was only a few that I liked enough to want to keep and over time that amount was narrowed down to just two books; Secrets Can Kill and The Picture of Guilt. I just re-read Secrets Can Kill and decided to get rid of it as I doubt I'll want to read it again anytime soon. So this book is my last chance to keep a Nancy Drew Files in my collection. Let's see how that goes.

- Because Nancy is in France obviously a lot of people speak French, including Nancy who has spoken French since the original books. The dialogue is written in English since these books are English books for English readers but for some strange reason some words are in French. Here's an example; Nancy and George are almost run over by a motorcycle

"These motards," a middle aged man said angrily in French. "Never do they notice if someone is in the way! Are you alright, mademoiselle? Shall I call for the police?"

    If all the French dialogue is being "translated" to English than why leave a word like "motards" in French. "Motards" means motorcyclist but at first I though it was outdated slang/an insult, a combination of the words motorcycle and...well, you know.

- Nancy asks Ellen if she can use her phone book to which Ellen says phone books are outdated in France and instead everyone uses a computerized version called a Minitel. This sounded quite advanced for 1994, which is when this book was written, so I felt this might have been some fictitious thing but lo and behold it was a real! And it wasn't just a phone book, it was the internet before there was an internet. I had absolutely no idea about this, I found it really fascinating.

- For some reason I really enjoy the secret apartment. It's small, old, and furnished with just a few things, overlooks Paris, and even the raincoat in the corner make it seem so cozy.

- In the end-of-book-showdown with the culprits, villain 1 comes at Nancy with a crowbar. After she knocks him on to the ground villain 2 comes running at her. Nancy picks up the crowbar to defend herself but then, remembering villain 2 had already been knocked unconscious a little while ago, Nancy worries hitting him with a crowbar could cause permanent damage and sets the crowbar down...right next to the conscious villain 1 who is able to use it again as a weapon against her. Villain 2 has already MURDERED an innocent person and threaten/attempted to kill Nancy but she's worried about hurting him too much. Seriously, Nancy?

    I'm not sure what to make of this book. When it comes to the Nancy Drew Files there are no great books in my opinion. I would never consider any of them 5 star books, the most any of them are is 3 stars. So this book isn't great but it also isn't the worst of them. I think Paris is a fun setting and used well. I enjoy the studio party and finding the secret apartment but some stuff, such as the picnic, I found a bit boring. Oh, and I also hate that about half the book is spent trying to solve a murder that wasn't a murder. 

    Oh, and as for the cover art, who is that guy? Is it David? It cant be Keith because he wears all black. But David and Nancy never have any romance between them. Maybe the illustrator just decided to take George's tomboy-ness to the next level.

Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill

    Nancy goes undercover as a high school student to find out who has been breaking into lockers, stealing from the video lab, and ruffling through the school records. When Nancy's main suspect turns up dead on the schools stairs she has a new mystery to solve and a murderer to catch.

- "Hands on her hips, Nancy Drew stood in the middle of her bedroom and surveyed the situation. New clothes layed everywhere--strewn across the bed, draped over the backs of chairs, and spilling out of shopping bags. Laughing at the mess, Nancy reached for a just-bought pair of designer jeans. "How do you like the new look in private detectives?" she said, slipping the jeans on." Did this series start out with Nancy standing around in her underwear? Also she's trying to look like a normal high schooler but buys designer clothes for her school wardrobe.

- Right away we're told Nancy has a boyfriend, Ned, who she loves sooooooo much...but that sometimes she's gonna date other people cause how else would we expect this series to be successful in the super sexy 80's without a bunch of buff hunks posing on the covers?

- Nancy, Bess, and George have a pillow fight getting pillow feathers all over Nancy's new designer clothes. Feathers are such a pain to clean up and clean off clothes, it made cringe.

- Why is Nancy using her real name when she's supposed to be undercover? It states she's already a well established amateur detective. You think she'd use an alias especially after getting the threatening tape before even starting the case.

- I wish Jake was around longer. He's an interesting character; just a teenager but already running a blackmail ring thanks to his above average audiovisual skills. He's also confident and cocky and really gets on Nancy's nerves which I find amusing.

- After nancy's car catches on fire, rich daddy Carson buys Nancy a new Mustang GT convertible. I think Daryl speaks for all of us when he rolls his eyes and says "You've got to be kidding me". Nancy says she'll be using her allowance to pay her dad back for it. Nancy you're 18, why you still getting an allowance. Get a job with all your free time or accept payment from a case.

- Jake uses blackmail to get his victims to do stuff for him. He has Walt give him rides, Hal do his homework, and Connie...well it doesn't say what Connie did for him but she does tell Nancy "I had to do everything he asked"... Jake might have been even more scummy than we thought.

- The part where U.S.S.R. villains have a high speed chase with Nancy through the streets of Bedford was so ridiculous I ended up laughing. Especially at the part where Nancy is shocked to find out a red traffic light isn't going to stop international super villains who were just pointing guns at her.

- Nancy remarks that Jake "probably has something on half the school" yet she only focuses on Walt, Hal, Connie, and Daryl. She doesn't try to find out if Jake was blackmailing anyone else which, spoiler, he was and that's who murdered him.

    Overall this book is pretty ridiculous. I do give it a bit of a pass though because it's the first book in the series and the first books have the burden of introducing you to everything. People who had never read Nancy Drew books before had to be introduced to Nancy, Bess, George, Ned, and even Hannah. And then all readers, regardless of having read ND in the past or not, had to be introduced to the new ultra modern Nancy who's some what of a man-eater and has a nemesis.