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.
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