Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Golden Pavilion

    "One of Mr. Drew's new clients, Mr. Sakamaki, requests Nancy's help solving a mystery. Mr. Sakamaki recently inherited his grandfather's estate in Hawaii, but two strangers arrive, claiming to also be the grandchildren of his deceased grandfather. Can Nancy uncover the truth?" [x]

- This book opens differently from the others. Usually Nancy is discussing a new case with someone but this one opens with Nancy in a helicopter bringing Togo home from a dog show "in a city some distance away". Not quite sure why Nancy is taking a helicopter home but ok.

- Why would Mr. Sakamakis grandfather will his home to "any living grandchildren" if Mr. Sakamaki was the only grandchild? If I was him or Mr. Drew I would see this as possible evidence that there really is other children.

- Ned, Burt, and Dave just happen to be going to Honolulu at the same time as Nancy. I always thought poor Nancy can't go anywhere without Ned having to show up but lately it seems poor Ned can't go anywhere without Nancy showing up.

- Ned and the boys stay at the Halekulani Hotel which is still in operation. As is Volcano House where the whole gang stays for a night.

- The dark lei with the poison tacks gets handled a lot and surprisingly no one gets poked with a tack.

- I think Its really adorable how Nancy buys a lei for her father when at the airport. The description of her standing there with Ned eagerly waiting for her dad to get off the plane was just very cute.

- I'm no lawyer but I'm pretty sure the Roy and Janet couldn't legally move into Kaluakua when the estate has not been settled yet and their claim to it is still being investigated. The caretaker should have just called the police and got them removed.

- George saying she needed to go grab her purse from her bedroom before Roy claims it as part of the estate made me laugh, I love George's humor sometimes.

- While trapped under the pavilion Ned tries opening the door by lunging at it. Why did he not simply lay on his back and kick it since they only had about 3 feet of height to move in.

- It's pretty horrifying how much the ancient cape made from extinct bird feathers is thrown around.

    A little side note, I looked up Hawaiian capes made from o-o bird feathers and they're really lovely and don't look how you would think they'd look. Definitely not how its drawn in the frontispieces illustration.

    This book was ok. The amount of travelling around Hawaii was boring and the whole scavenger hunt seemed a bit ridiculous. The fact that there was a whole legitimate gang behind the mystery wasn't appealing to me. Not to mention the gang name Double Scorps is stupid. I didn't remember much from this book except for the feather cape being in the top of the pavilion so that kinda took away any suspense.

    To be honest this book actually made me long for the Vicki Barr book Clue of the Broken Blossoms which features Vicki in Hawaii. I did not enjoy that book but it had a lot more of a Hawaiian feel to it which is obviously important when that's the selling point of the book.

    Oh, also got to mention how great the cover art for this book is. The pavilion isn't draw especially well but the ghostly figure is great and the fact that one of the boys (Ned?) is there instead of George is pretty cool.

Nancy Drew: The Haunted Showboat

    "When Nancy, Bess and George travel to New Orleans, Louisiana to the Mardi Gras they are enveloped in a mystery involving a haunted showboat. Nancy unravels the mystery involving an imposter and a search for pirate's gold." [x]

- The bomb in Nancy's car is such a serious incident yet the girls seem to shake it off as nothing but an inconvenience.

- I'm surprised Mr. Drew would buy Nancy such a flashy car that's easy to spot. Being a detective you'd think a subtle car that blends in would be the smart choice.

- The second the girls find out Uncle Rufus is a voodoo doctor they start to think he must be holding secret voodoo meetings on the old showboat and is responsible for scaring away visitors. This is such a leap.

- I'm surprised Nancy doesn't consider Charles a suspect. As a spurred lover of Donna Mae he has plenty of reason for wanting to sabotage the showboat thus ruining her engagement announcement.

- Both restaurants mentioned in this book, Antoines and Broussards, are still in existence and have pretty good reviews. Makes me think how fun it'd be going to all the real life restaurants Nancy's been to.

- Donna Mae is really obnoxious with the way she threatens to get the Emerson boys there with jealousy and tries to waylay the girls from making it to dinner at Charles by conveniently running out of gasoline while out in a launch. The way Nancy just jumps overboard into the Mississippi river and swims to shore was hilarious. I love that Nancy was not going to put up with her shenanigans.

- Interesting that Charles had been shot at twice but Nancy doesn't gets shot at. Also Charles says he's been shot at twice by a mysterious sniper and the girls don't seem to care much. Why is no one freaking out?

- Nancy and Ned discover the pirate gold so quickly that there is no way it wouldn't have been discovered before.

- It annoyed me that we didn't find out Alex's real name.

    Overall this book was alright. There wasn't as much time spent on the showboat as you would think there would be. For example in the book Patty Duke and the Chinese Junk, Patty and the gang are trying to stop an old ship from being vandalized in the night so they sleep aboard the ship. Nancy should have spent a night on the Showboat. 

    One of the things that does make me like this book is, interestingly enough, Alex. He's a unique criminal; he lied and wanted to steal the pirate gold but did truly plan on marrying Donna Mae and being in upper class society. Is it too much of a stretch to think that his crimes were committed simply to give him the foundation to build a better life? I dunno, but I like the guy.

Also the illustration below always makes me think of this photo of Lillian and Dorothy Gish.

Nancy Drew: The Mystery of the Fire Dragon

    "Nancy Drew is called to New York City by her Aunt Eloise to solve a missing-person case. The granddaughter of her elderly Chinese neighbor, Mr. Soong, has been kidnapped. The search is on, first by disguising Nancy's friend George Fayne as the missing Chi Che, and then pursuing a lead at Chi Che's place of employment, a book store, where Nancy encounters its suspicious owner, Mr Stromberg. A series of clues leads the girls to Hong Kong, where Nancy's boyfriend, Ned Nickerson, joins the action" [x]

    I've only read this once before and I did not like it however I don't remember anything about it.

    I've been terrible at writing reviews for the last few books I've read and this one is starting quite late into the book.

- I decided to do a quick research on Kowloon, which is where Nancy and the gang stays, and it was quite interesting. The hotel Nancy stays at, The Peninsula, is still up and operating and has an interesting history in itself. The Kai Tak airport is no longer in existence but it was the reason for the 3 story buildings Nancy comments on; the skyline was kept low for the planes.

- Nancy is so stupid for having gotten on the plane with the girl claiming to be Chi Che. It was clearly a trap as there was no reason Chi Che couldn't have gotten off the plane to talk to Nancy.

- While walking down the street of Kam Tin Nancy remarks that there's nothing to suggest Chi Che is being held prisoner there.     what did Nancy expect? A giant sign saying "Chi Che Soong is definitely not being held prisoner inside this building, nuhuh, no way, never even heard of her so don't investigate in here, ok?".

- I like that Ned has learned Cantonese and translates for Nancy. It's like Mr. Drew says at the beginning of the book, Ned's knowledge of Cantonese will help him career-wise (I don't know why I care, it's not like Ned's a real person who needs a career lol).

- I enjoyed Ned being around without Burt and Dave. I don't mind all three boys being there if the mystery is close to Emerson such as in The Phantom of Pine Hill but I can't stand when all three boys travel to/with the girls. I also liked that Ned had made Chinese friends whom go on dates with Bess and George.

    Overall I really enjoyed this book. My opinion of it has completely changed since my first reading. 

Nancy Drew: The Clue in the Old Stagecoach

    "Nancy searches for an antique stagecoach that, according to legend, contains something of great value to the people of Francisville." [x]

    This book holds memories for me because it was one of the Nancy Drew books in my elementary school library. I never read it then but I looked at the covers of all the books a lot so this one has been ingrained into my mind.

    I didn't read this one until I was an adult and owned a copy, I recall loving it the first time. However not so much the second time...in fact I'm not even sure I finished it the second time. My GoodReads rating was 4 stars so lets see if that holds true.

- I've always enjoyed the bet Nancy and Bess make against George. If George loses she has to knit the girls each a sweater.

    Ok wow, so I ended up taking no notes. There just wasn't much in this book to comment on. It was a good story, I thought the locations were very cozy from the camp to Ms. Snook's home to the Zucker farm and even Art Warner's office.

    The location of the old stagecoach is quite unique I think, although something about it reminds me of the ending to Clue in the Diary.

    I was a bit surprised by who the culprit was even though it was obvious but the character just seemed like more of an annoying nuisance wrapped up in some other underhanded scheme.

    Overall it was good. I'll leave my 4 star rating in tact however I don't think if want to re-read it for a long time. 

Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Pine Hill

    "When Nancy Drew and her two close friends arrive for the Emerson University June Week celebration and learn there has been a mix-up in their motel reservations, the confusion leads to a baffling mystery.

    Uncle John Rorick, a descendant of the early settlers of the town of Emerson, invites the three girls to be his guests at his historic mansion on Pine Hill. Shortly after their arrival, he tells them about the phantom who haunts the mansion’s library. Uncle John also relates the weird family saga of a lost French wedding gown and valuable gifts which went to the bottom of a nearby cove in the sinking of the Lucy Belle a hundred years before. Could there possibly be some connection between the phantom and the old ship disaster? Nancy wonders.

    In between enjoying the university’s June Week boat races, river pageant, and fraternity dances, Nancy and her friends work diligently to solve the mystery of Pine Hill and to find the long-lost wedding treasures.

    The exciting climax will be as much of a thrill for the reader as it was for the teen-age detective herself."

    As I've said before, my opinions on many Nancy Drew books have changed for the worse. Since I had given this book a 5 star GoodReads review upon my first reading I was very interested to see if my opinion changed.

- I feel like Ned is overly rude to Fred. It seems that Fred is more clumsy than careless and Ned's belittling seems quite unnecessary.

- Bess and George's prank on Ned was kind of cute but also a little strange. Nancy was attempting to catch the Phantom aka intruder, what if the intruder has showed up? The girls' prank would have made quite a mess of the situation.

- I don't understand the giant thumbprints. What is the point of this? Are thumbprints suppose to be scary?

- The president of Ned's fraternity is named Chuck Wilson. The name Chuck Wilson was also used in Mystery at the Ski Jump, it was the name of Carson's client. I thought it was interesting the name was reused.

- Nancy decides to search the house for hideaways and secret passages. Since the only room entered has been the library on the ground floor Nancy obviously decides to start searching in...the attic? This isn't the only book that's done this and it always drives me crazy. Why would Nancy waste so much time searching the attic and second floor first when that's no where near where the mysterious phantom has been.

Trudy Phillips, New Girl

    Trudy Phillips father has been relocated for work and Trudy will be starting at a new school. Although she's worried about fitting in she quickly makes friends with a whole group of kids, with her closest friends being Spooky, Stephen, and Mike.

    Over the next few months Trudy works as prompter for the school play, is elected class secretary, does a bunch of babysitting to purchase a puppy, throws a scavenger hunt party, and most importantly helps the principle discover who has been stealing money from the school and students.

    All the while Trudy tries to build a friendship with Gloria, the wealthy and glamorous queen bee of Tylertown High School who, for some reason, turns a cold shoulder to Trudy.

    There is only 2 books in the Trudy Phillips series. The second, Headline Year, was one of the first Whitman books I had. While piecing together a Donna Parker collection I ended up with about 6 other books that were included in "lots". I ended up really liking the book and wanted to read the first book as the second talked about the first book but didn't explain much, however it was hard to find and I didn't get it until much later when I found it in a book store. I only read it once so let's see if it's as good as I remember.

- Mike seems cool. To be honest I'm not completely sure what "DP" means. I believe it means Displaced Person because this book falls into the time frame of the Displaced Persons Acts following WW2 but it's a little strange that he's referred to as "Mike the DP".

- In Trudy's English class she has to partake in a debate on the voting age being lowered from 21 to 18. I didn't know the voting age had once been 21. Also funnily enough one of the arguments made for changing it made me think changing it back would be a good idea.

- I like that Mike is shown as just a normal student and that him and Trudy bond over being the new kids in school. Other Whitman books with foreign born people usually have them be mysterious exchange students or really eccentric, wealthy adults.

- Trudy saves her allowance so she can go to Sunday School. Why would she have to pay for Sunday School?

- I really don't understand how Trudy could want Gloria to move in with her after Gloria just tried framing her for theft. What was Gloria's end goal, to have Trudy expelled? That's very serious and could have altered Trudy's whole future.

- The illustrations in this book are lovely and I personally think Trudy is the most beautiful of the Whitman girls. Most of them seem to be drawn quite frumpy (Polly French, Donna Parker, Ginny Gordon, etc.) but Trudy is actually strikingly pretty and competes with Gloria who is the school beauty. The illustrations were done by Dorothy Grider and I think she did a wonderful job.

    I really didn't have many notes for this book. It's just a nice, enjoyable, little book. The mystery is a light high school mystery and doesn't involve any adult criminals which makes it feel a lot more laid back and less stressful than say a Ginny Gordon book or something.

Ginny Gordon and the Broadcast Mystery

    Ginny and her friends are still in business with their lending library and have a big book sale coming up. The profits of the sale will go to the school library so all the town citizens are donating books. One of these books is a rare and valuable copy of Rhyme? And Reason? which Mrs. Arnold accidentally donates and needs back immediately. But uh oh, the book has disappeared and every Hustler swears they didn't sell it. Did someone steal it? And if so, who?

    As all this is happening Ginny is offered the position of emcee for the new radio program "Author Meets Teen-Age Critics". A show where a teenage panel will interview an author about a book. Not only is Ginny the emcee but she's also in charge of selecting the panel, picking the book, and contacting the author. Can she do all this while also searching for the missing book, work at the lending library, keep up school, and basketball practice or did Ginny "bite off more than she can chew"?

    Writing that summary without going into a rant of everything wrong with this book was quite hard. This book got me more heated than anything I've ever read before. At one point I was tempted to ripped the book apart, no joke, I was that frustrated with it.

    Here are the notes I took while reading:

- In the last book Ginny gives Joe the idea to turn his big, old, empty family house into apartments as there's an affordable housing shortage in Harrisville. Joe has ran with Ginny's idea and the apartments will be ready in a week...so it only took Joe about 2 weeks to convert a whole house into apartments. Joe, who the heck are your contractors?

- Once Ginny tells Mrs. Arnold about the missing book Mrs. Arnold insists it's a mystery and wants Ginny to solve it. Ginny has to refuse because her parents told her one more mystery and she's getting shipped off to boarding school. But for some reason Ginny doesn't tell Mrs. Arnold this, she just says no and Mrs. Arnold has a hissy fit and withdraws her patronage from the lending library.

- Really its Mrs. Arnold's fault the book has gone missing. She shouldn't have "accidentally" donated it. This is the same plot for the first and second books and seriously, could Julie Campbell not think up any other plot?

- Mrs. Arnold claims the book is worth $500 and both the Hustlers and Carson feel they morally owe Mrs. Arnold the money which is beyond ridiculous. Again, it was Mrs. Arnold's fault the book was donated. Also how do they know it's worth $500? Just cause Mrs. Arnold says so? She's very eccentric and could be fibbing to make the situation more exciting, as she's known to do. Also she said that was the price last time she had it appraised but book prices go up as well as down.

- Alicia Golden clearly wrote My Heart is in the City. Campbell's not even trying to make that a good mystery.

- No one wants to be on Ginny's panel for the radio show because they won't be on a show run by a girl, even the other girls. Oh please.

- I don't get why everyone is against Ginny doing the radio show. Ginny can simply study/do homework at the stall. Since they're portable not a lot of people come in so she'd have the time. And Ginny said basketball practice is mostly during gym class. So she has plenty of time to do the show. Are the people who disagree with her being the emcee simply jealous that Ginny was picked and not them?

- Why is Ginny, a 14 year old, responsible for contacting the author and not Mr. Adrian or someone at the radio station? It seems really inappropriate. The excuse Mr. Adrian gives is that he wants the show to be ran by teenagers but in that case at least pay Ginny. She had to spend her allowance on long distant phone calls to the authors agent so she's not only not making money, she's losing it to do Mr. Adrian's job for him.

- Honestly the way Lucy turns on Ginny really makes her seem jealous. The radio show is actual work that Ginny could put on a resume and the experience could give her a leg up in a future career, something that Ginny herself realizes. But Lucy, and everyone else, just turns on her instantly and is so bitter towards her about the show. They act as though she's a two-faced, spoiled, brat for wanting to work outside the lending library where, by the way, she does the most work and everyone else just delivers books and then goes and does whatever they feel like. Ginny is in the stall from opening until closing, does the files, organizes and inventories the books, handles the money and the memberships, and deals with customers. She does more than anyone else, she's like the Cinderella of the lending library; they make her do the hard and unwanted jobs but when she wants one night at the ball she's suddenly selfish and spoiled. They even make her go retrieve a book from Mrs. Arnold when they know Mrs. Arnold is mad at her and told her to "never show her face at her house again".

- The worst part is that Ginny starts to believe all the terrible things people are saying to her and blames herself/is constantly apologizing. Ugh Ginny stop, you didn't do anything wrong.

- The Hustlers even blame Ginny for the theft of Rhyme? And Reason? when it was as much their fault as hers, which is not at all. It was Mrs. Arnold's fault and she needs to take responsibility for it.

- John acts so immature at the meeting, refusing to acknowledge anything Ginny says and pretending like she's not there. Why is everyone taking his side? Of right, jealousy.

- Ginny's parents want her to quit the radio show because she is a little behind in one class and they believe the radio show is interrupting her school work... but the show hasn't even started yet, it's her having to do everything at the lending library with no help from the others, which is making her fall behind in class. Yet they don't want her to quit the lending library.

- This is all an excuse for Ginny's father to tell her she must have John hired as her co-emcee because John supposedly wont fall behind in school like Ginny, a girl, would. My goodness, imagine your own parents trying to take away your opportunities and achievements and give them to your friend who they like more. Is John secretly Mr. Gordon's son or something, jeez. Also the Gordon's maid is getting married and so wont be working for them anymore. Instead of hiring a new maid they just make Ginny take over and they worry the radio show wont leave anytime for Ginny to clean the house. Why the heck can't Mrs. Gordon just do the housework? She doesn't have a job so what is she doing with all that free time? Make a damn bed yourself lady.

- John is immediately nice to Ginny once he gets hired as co-emcee which proves he was jealous all along.

- Johns dad says all bibliophiles are thieves which is quite strange.

- Ginny was gonna have to take on less duties at the Stall once the radio show starts airing so would have less time-consuming responsibilities and could have emceed alone. This was all just a ploy to get John on the show but it's a weak one considering John could have simply been a panel member.

- Everything gets fixed for Ginny simply when her friends help her get a panel and write a letter, Chuck joins the Hustlers, etc. John really didn't have to be an emcee, her friends just needed to be kinder.

- The hints to let you know that Alicia's mystery man is Tim O'Leery are painful. Yes, we get it, moth as in Timothy.

- Ginny gets criticized for waiting so long to get an author for the radio show even though she was only brought on about 2 weeks before airing.  Also this should not be her responsibility! Mr. Adrian is terribly   unprofessional.

- Chuck claims to have had a portable lending library and been emcee of a radio show at his old town. Sure, Jan.

- It's annoying that the Hustlers weren't picked for the panel from the start cause we all know it's gonna be them. Also the book cover gives it away.

- After the first show Ginny hands over her, and Johns, emcee job to Chuck. First off it's not Ginny's place to give the job away, second she doesn't talk to John before giving his job away, and third it's irresponsible of her to quit after one show.

(It's now months later and I realize I was so heated over this book I never even finished the review.)