#9 - The Sign of the Twisted Candles

                                                     

Book Detail:

The Sign of the Twisted Candles is the ninth volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. As the second volume written by Walter Karig

Book Read:  Ebook

Characters:

Nancy Drew                          Bess Marvin                   George Fayne
Ned Nickerson                      Hannan Gruen                  Mrs Raybolt
Asa Sidney                            Mr Jemitt                          Mrs Jemitt
Carol                                     Mr Peter Boontoon           Mr Hill
Jacob Sidney                         Anna                                 Louise
Helen Sidney                        John Boonton 

                          

Quotes :

1. Men should be content! Mr Sidney said. "If they let success make them greedy, they lose the happiness money can't buy."
2. There is greed where there should be affection, and envy where there should be love!.


Best Lines:
1. Bess looking wistfully at the maraschino cherry which obstinately remained in the bottom of her glass.
2. Asa Sidney gave a mirthless laugh."The only reason I have lived to be a hundred is because I have not died"
3. "Promise me", he said, cupping Nancy's chin in his hand,"that you won't disappear again."
  

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My Review :
There is mystery of why Asa has left so much money to a girl who used to take care of him in his inn and also as to why the family members has isolated Asa and no ones cares for him. There is a family feud which is the baseline for the story and as Nancy and his Father helps Asa with his new will , other families start to dislike them and friendship among Bess, George , Nancy also falls under stake. 
At end every thing gets resolved and they could recover the items which the Jermitt stole from Asa. Also the reason is found as to why Asa liked Carol so much and family feud comes to rest and every one are happy at end. 

I liked the story and its content. Facts are layed out rightly and eventhough you can suspect what might be the reason and who is stealing the things from Asa but because of the storyline , you enjoy it till the end.

Nice story where Nancy , Bess, George, Ned actively participate.


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Summary: (with spoilers)

Asa Sidney is a relative of Bess and George , With Nancy they plan to visit Asa in his inn called "Th Sign of the Twisted Candles". They meet Mr Jermit in the inn who is instructing Carol (his adopted child) to not to take food to Old man living in tower room.
Nancy and her friends plans to slip to Asa room and celebrate his 100th Birthday with food and drinks. 
Asa becomes very excited and happy and celebrates his B'day with them.  He explains his family tree and how no one cared to look after him and he is alone now. They meet Mr Peter Boonton and Jacob Sidney on their way back home and understand that they have come to meet Asa Sidney. Next day Nancy gets a call from Carol , Asa has decided to make a new will and he asked Carol to call Mr Drew to ask if he can come soon. 

As soon Nancy and her father reaches inn, Jermit family gets suspicious and starts creating trouble for them to not to meet Asa. 
While Nancy and Carol engages Mr and Mrs Jermit below , Mr Drew has meet Asa and in presence of Mr Hill , Asa has made a new will. When Peter and Jacob comes to meet Asa , they oppose of this new will . 
Carol tells Nancy about the Jermit's actions , she is also suspicious about them of stealing Asa property from inn. 
Nancy also witness Mr Jermit burying Asa metal box which contained papers and silver.

Next day , Asa is found dead and the will is read , where he has asked his property to be divided into 9 shares and divided his one share among the relatives and remaining 8 shares he has given to Carol. Everyone are shocked with this news and blames Mr drew and team to help Asa create a new will and because of this Bess and George also stops talking to Nancy.

Nancy and Hannah move to Inn and starts searching for all the treasures which Asa has asked Nancy and his friends to search .
She finds music box, diamond bracelet , swords , silver and also a letter which is addressed to Carol and asked to be read infront of all the family members.

Jermit's create trouble for Nancy in the Inn . Jermits continue stealing things from the Inn and Nancy tries to capture them and figure out their whereabouts. 

Meanwhile Carol gets kidnapped by Jermits and tortured to reveal the location of the papers. Nancy rescues here and with help of Mr hill and her father they capture Jermits and call the whole Family to read the letter which Asa has left for Carol. 

In that letter Asa has told them that Carol is his great grand niece and her parents died in accident which happened near the orphanage where carol was adopted by Jermits later. 
Asa knowing this has allowed Jermits to adopt the child only of they work for him in his Inn. 

This resolves all the feud in family and they welcome Carol to their family and everything ends well.

#7 The Clue in the Diary - Nancy Drew Mystery Books

                                                   

Rating:

Book Detail:

The Clue in the Diary is the seventh volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series, and was first published in 1932 under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. Its text was revised in 1962.

Book Read:  Ebook

Characters:

Nancy Drew                          Bess Marvin                   George Fayne
Ned Nickerson                       Mr Raybolt                   Mrs Raybolt
Honey Swenson                     Mr Swenson

                          

    

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My Review :

First book where Ned Nickerson meets Nancy, so this will be a special to read. Storyline is not so good, from first few chapters , you can guess what will be the story, its all about searching Mr Raybolt. They added a twist by introducing Swensons character but his story or mystery doesn't holds the story . 
The best part about this story is all about Ned and Nancy introduction and how the friendship grows. There is no mystery to hide in story and its pretty much straight forward where everyone can guess who is shadowing and making fake cries and excuses. 

If you want to check out how Nancy meets Ned , read this story or else you can skip this book. I don't know why they named it Clue in a diary , its hardly a clue , which Mr Swensons can't tell Nancy by himself and this clue doesn't gives Nancy any lead to solve the mystery.

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Summary: (with spoilers)

Nancy and her friends watch a house getting exploded on their way back to River Heights . Nancy goes near the house to check if someone is trapped inside the house , she doesn't find anyone but sees a person running away from the house to nearby road. She finds a diary near to the house. She finds that the diary is in swedish language, she keeps it with her to learn more about the owner. 
Meanwhile Nancy and her friends has developed a good friendship among Swenson. Mrs Swenson and their child Honey , Honey father has left them in search of work and promised them that he will send money in letters. Family is facing issues as they are not receiving money order from their father. Nancy, Bess , George helps them in this tough situation offering money and feast , clothes to Honey. 
Meanwhile Nancy starts looking for people who can translate the diary to her . She start looking for Honey father . In one situation she meets Mrs Raybolt who starts blaming that her husband was inside the house when it exploded and he died in the fire . 
Nancy has already heard about the problems and disloyalty about Mr Raybolt and she is suspicious about Mrs Raybolt claim. 

She decides to investigate around the area and finds that there is a construction going around and they found a person living in one of the shacks. Now Nancy is sure that Mr Raybolt is just trying to hide and claim insurance and will run away with his wife. 

She meets Mr Swenson in one of the factories near by and explains him the problem his family facing . He assures that he has send the money to them in letters. Nancy believes that someone is intentionally stealing the letters . She complains to the local postman head and with their help she catches the thief. 

She also learns from Mr Swenson that he actually went to Mr Raybolt house on that day and when he clicked the door bell , the house exploded , but he didn't do it and there is lots of confidential information which Mr Raybolt has kept with him. 
and asks Nancy to check in the diary , if she can find any information to get hold of the papers.

Nancy gets the diary translated and gets hold of the clue where swenson has mentioned that the papers are kept in Mr Raybolt house.
Knowing this Nancy with her friends plans to investigate Mr Raybolt house at night. Nancy feels that Mr Raybolt also will like to check for the papers today as police man is taken off duty.

After long wait near the house , Nancy finally finds Mr Raybolt coming towards the house and starts digging near the wall and getting the papers out  and tries to burn them. Nancy somehow manages to save the papers and by her sudden appearance , Mr Raybolt tries to run away but he is easily caught by Mr Drew and Ned who is coming in that direction.

At Police headquarters , After tough interrogation Mr Raybolt and Mrs Raybolt surrender themselves and explain their plan of putting their own house on fire and and escaping after getting their insurance later.

#6 -The Secret of Red Gate Farm

 

                                               

Rating:

Book Detail:

The Secret of Red Gate Farm is the sixth volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series, written under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene, It was first published in 1931.

Book Read:  Ebook

Characters:

Nancy Drew                          Bess Marvin                   George Fayne

Joanne                                   Mrs Salisbury                Mr Abbott

Karl Jr                                   Mrs Byrd                       Agent Horton

Maurice Hale                        Yvonne Wong               Mr Al Snead

Hank                                      Pete                               Mr Kent

Mrs Hale                              

    

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My Review :

I liked the story because till end chapters you will not know what may be the cause of all these mishaps and how are they related to a perfume smell. After few chapters it becomes obvious that because of a BS colony these things are happening but what the colony is doing is still a mystery till last 3 chapters. Story is well written.

They manage to put the puzzle pieces in the story to shape the mystery at very end , but that is not needed as the reader has guessed what had happened by then.

Moreover, there are many situations which are coinciding with the mystery, which are made to fall in place at that right time.

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Summary: (with spoilers)

Bess purchases a perfume from a shop where the shopkeeper is very reluctant in selling this perfume to Bess. But as Nancy & Bess insists upon buying the perfume , she finally sells that perfume at higher price. While waiting for train to go back to River Heights ,Bess accidentally sprays some perfume on Nancy and someone passing by, suddenly stops and ask Nancy "Any word from the Chief" which makes Nancy more suspicious about the perfume, During this time they find the girl sitting next to them suddenly collapsing and going into unconsciousness state. Nancy and others help the girl to recover who later introduce herself as Joanne. Joanne is living in Red Gate Farm and has came to town in search of job to support her grand mother. Nancy helps this girl to attend her interview in town , in some office building room number 305. She becomes suspicious when the person interviewing takes the phone call and takes a code and acknowledge that the job is already given to someone else.

Joanne tries to get some other job in meantime , but she has tough time in interviews due to her farm experience . Nancy gets a call from Joanne explaining her that she got a letter from her grandmother and she is willing to sell the farm to Mr Kent and now she has to rush to red farm to stop her grandmother selling the farm.

Nancy with Bess and George plans to go with Joanne to Red Gate farm and stay there as paying guest for a while so that they can persuade Joanne grandmother not to sell farm and meanwhile help the family to run the farm with some help.

During their journey to Red Gate farm , they saw the same person who had asked Nancy about the Chief in train, With him there are another two men and one lady travelling in a car who stops in front of them for filling fuel.

During Nancy's stay in Red gate farm , they find out there is a Black Snake colony in red farm estate , where some people have rented this part of the farm and doing some weird ceremonies at night , where they cover themselves from head to toe in white cloth and keep their hands up and do some ceremonies .

Meanwhile Nancy gets a telegram from her Dad , asking her to come home quickly and this telegram is handed by a women at night. But Nancy suspects the telegram and goes to a gas station to call her Dad and finds that the telegram was a hoax. Meanwhile there is some commotion going on in the eating place and the women in charge suspects that Nancy has given her the 20 bucks which is fake. On inspecting more , Detective finds that money which Nancy carrying with herself is also fake. Karl Jr comes by and rescues Nancy and friends and they go home thinking how come the fake notes came into Nancy purse.  

Nancy and her friends are curious to know about these people who are seen only some days and on those days at night they will roam in white cloak . They decide to investigate on these people and start making themselves  same clothes so that they can get mixed up with Black Snake Colony and discover their work.

During Nancy trips to town , she finds a women hurrying up the path and travelling on foot , She offers her help and based on her answers she finds out that she is the member of the colony and its very dangerous to go there spooking. 

One day they get the chance to wear the same cloaks and get mixed up with the Black Snake Colony members , they soon recognize the voices of other members as the ones who followed them and created troubles before. 
During the ceremony,they found out that members are doing this only to fool others who see them as a colony . They get mixed among the crowd and tries to enter in the cave , where they saw the currency printing machines making fake notes and more people involved in whole massquare . Somehow they manage to look all the places and hear all the conversations among the members to know the details , and when it comes to remove their masks and show their faces , Colony head Mr Maurice Hale captures these girls and tortures and send his team to throw them in water , At the same time Karl Jr comes with the Police and they capture whole unit and mystery is solved . 
Joanne grandmother is relieved that they captured these guys , but scared that this will bring bad reputation in neighbourhood and no one will come to Red Farm . But as Nancy and friends decide that they will make the cave as a visitor point and market the place as where the forgery , currency printing happened , their plan work and they make money from the entry fee for visit .