#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 .

#5- The Secret at Shadow Ranch

                         

The Secret at Shadow Ranch

I wanted to put both the covers in this review : I liked both of them.

But the one the right side , where Nancy wears red jacket , has another story altogether.

I will talk more in detail in below about these two stories.

Rating:

Book Detail:
This is the fifth book in the Nancy Drew Mystery Series , This book was published in 1931 under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene and revised edition published in 1965.

Book Read:  Ebook

About Book:
Now there are two books which was published under the same title , I have taken this reference from Wikipedia .

The first book which got published in 1931 has this story:
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This story serves as an introduction to Nancy's friends, Elizabeth "Bess" Marvin and George Fayne as cousins. Along with them Alice Regor, travel with Nancy to Arizona, where the cousins' aunt attempts to keep up a ranch she received as payment of a debt. Nancy reunites Alice with her long-lost artist father, who is suffering from amnesia. She also uncovers the mystery behind why an old mountain woman is guardian of a beautiful young girl, all the while enjoying mountain life, including horseback riding, a flash flood, being lost in the mountains overnight, and a dangerous mountain lion.
>>>>>>>>>>>>

So the first edition , doesn't have any story about the Phantom horse or the treasure. But because of this story the second revised one becomes more exciting to read.

Below the review is written for the second revised edition.

Characters:

Nancy Drew                          Bess Marvin                   George Fayne
Edward Rawely (Mr Ed)       Elizabeth Rawley (Aunt Bet)
Shorty Steele                         Dirk Valentine                Mary Deer
Frances Humber                    Alice Regor                    Bud Moore
Mr Regor (Alice Father)       Dave Greogory               Tex Britten 
Apache Chief (Dog)             Walt Sanders                   Al Diamond  Mrs Thurmond (Cook)            Sid Brice (Bursey) 
             

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My Review :

As you might have seen , How long the Summary itself is .
In this story there was lots of things happening every minute, so much stuff to grasp on. But everything falls in place.
Nancy with her cousins start searching for a treasure in Shadow Ranch as she believes that the other party also is interested in treasure so thats why they are creating this Phantom nuisance to scare away Rawely's. In the same time she also investigates Alice father disappearance. At last they find treasure lying in Dirk Valentine hiding place and also finds Alice Father there. But to come till here , she goes through lots of trouble and escapes in mountain trail and other places. And the story of Frances and Dirk V plays the main part in solving the clues and mystery in this story.

Though solving Phantom mystery doesn't have anything to do with Alice Father disappearance ,as both can be treated as separate problems. But as Alice story was written in the first publication , i guess they didn't want to get part with this story, so they included in revised edition also.
I liked the revised edition story , it has so much to give and told to get hold the reader till the end.
I liked how the story goes beyond the Phantom chase and to Pheonix , Tumbleweed towns and they get some clues from there.
The storyline was perfect till the end , they didn't rushed with any clues and everything fall in place and made believable. Description about the place (Shadow Ranch) was also good and imaginative.

But I still wonder , how could Frances kept herself not telling anyone in family about the letter where she has hidden and why she didn't looked for the treasure , some explanation was given but was not satisfactory.
Also in the story they mentioned about Ned , But this is the 5th book in series and Ned has not come in Nancy life till now , Also in Chapter 1 , Nancy mentions she is knitting a sweater for her father and later in the end she mentions that Ned has to wait a bit longer for the sweater to get finish. I know they mixed this stuff , but its fine , nothing related to mystery . so its fine.

Overall it's Good read.

I will soon start with categorising Nancy Drew stories into different moods .
This story was sure to read when you are in look for rough adventure.

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Summary: (with spoilers)

Nancy is received by her cousins Bess and George at Phoenix air terminal , from here they plan to go to Shadow Ranch to solve a mystery of a Phantom Horse.

Bess and George were already staying at Shadow Ranch for few weeks , so they tell Nancy about the mystery and danger what lies ahead. Uncle Ed and Aunt Bet acquired Shadow Ranch in payment of a debt. So they moved here and began working the property but for the past month there have been so many accidents that they have decided the ranch is being sabotaged. Whenever a Phantom horse appears it follows with some rouble in ranch like Windmills were pulled down.

The story behind Phantom horse is that this horse is the ghost horse of Dirk Valentine who used to love Frances Humber , daughter of local sheriff. But one night when Dirk came to meet Frances he was shot dead by the sheriff and while dying he put a curse vowing that his horse would haunt Shadow Ranch and whenever it appeared , destruction would follow.

So everyone in ranch believes that due to this curse weird things are happening in the ranch

While Bess was telling this story to Nancy , Nancy finds that a person next to him is closely listening to their conversation and then when he leaves , Nancy founds a note in her knitting bag saying "Keep away from Shadow Ranch". They try to catch him but misses him in terminal.

On their way to Shadow Ranch while passing a desert, their car radiator gets heated and somehow they find that there is no water in one jug , so they stay there waiting for some one to pass by. At last search party from Mr Rawely finds them and Dave helps them out of this situation.

When Nancy reach Shadow Ranch , She gets introduced to all the work men there , Ted , Bud , Walt , Dave and Shorty and also Chief (Dog) who is kept for to safe guard chickens. Also she meets Alice , who is staying with Rawely as she is in search for her father who has gone missing from last 6 months after there was a robbery in a local bank.

During Nancy stay in Shadow Ranch , she saw the Phantom Horse many times and with it trouble also follows like wire are cut ,  generator is sabotaged , horses set loose and many more.

Meanwhile during one of her visit to town she saves Mary Deer shop from burglary for which Mary decides to give Nancy a watch which is actually given to Frances from Dirk V. When Nancy enquires more of the story , Mary says that Dirk had send a letter to Frances saying his treasure is hidden for her and as he can't live long so he is giving the treasure to her. But till now no one found the treasure and no one bothered to look at it.

Nancy becomes sure that someone wants Rawley's to leave the ranch so that they can search for the treasure. She explains this to Rawley and they make plans to capture the culprits.

Inside the Dirk watch Nancy finds the secret opening which reveals a torn letter which says treasure in "Green bottle in .. " They start searching for a green bottle in all the places in ranch and during one of the Phantom event she finds that there is a secret door to cellar from spring shed. Later when she explore the place with Bess and George , she finds Dave digging the cellar and when confronted he tells them that he is the successor of Frances family and now he wants some money to send his sister and brother to school so he thought of taking a summer job in ranch and look for treasure. He also shows the other part of the letter which Nancy finds in her watch. The letter contain the word "cellar"

Believing him Nancy and others search and digs the cellar but they don't find any green bottle. When Dave tells them the story what happened on the day Dirk V died , Nancy guesses that Frances might have found the green bottle and in hurry she might have kept it in the lamp which she was lighting at that time when her father came and told her that Dirk is being shot. They find the lamp in the shed with other old items and finds the green bottle hidden in it. They find the letter which says that Dirk has left the treasure in old ranch and the treasure is converted into gold and is hidden at the place which is known to Frances.

Search for treasure starts but nothing is found , Nancy and search party starts exploring the mountains and finds a cabin where they suspect that Alice father might have held or kidnapped. During this time Phantom events occurs and the ranch and animals gets badly hurt. Nancy suspicion falls on Shorty as he was found to be in places where the trouble is seen.

Nancy solves the Phantom horse event , by showing the housekeeper/cook how it is done , she tells her that the Phosphorescent paint is applied on the cloak which horse wears and in night this paint shines in silver shade which makes the horse look like a ghost.

Next day , they start to go to mountains/cliff to make more investigation, Mostly to find Dirk V hiding place and the place where treasure might have been secretly kept. In the cliff , they find Mr Regor tied up and weak, they help him out of his situation, he explains how the team , Shorty, Al Diamond , Bursey had planned the robbery and get way with it and has captured him in the same incident and as cooling period they are staying here and planned to search for treasure by getting rid of Rawely's from the ranch by Phantom act. Nancy search the cliff and finds the horse and the cloak which is used for phantom act  and behind a rock she finds secret tunnel/room and finds the metal box in a pot where the treasure is hidden. In the box there are some cash and gold coins in shape of hearts.

During this time Diamond , Shorty and Bursey finds girls and tie them and seek the treasure from them but Dave and Police comes in time and rescues girls and Mr Regor. Police also finds the robbery money in ghost-town hotel .
Mystery solved.

Review Ratings Guidelines

I will be rating Nancy Drew Books based on the below guidelines.
I have used some parameters to distinguish each book and its story and rate the book accordingly.
These ratings are given by me and based on my judgement.

Ratings will be given between 1 to 5 stars , 1 being the least and 5 being the best read.

More in detail:

1 Star : 

If a book is given this rating , then it means :
Storyline: was very boring
Mystery : is very bad and easy to guess.
Characters: All characters don't play a vital role and left loosely around with no significance.
Imaginative: Story has lots of mistakes and facts gets wrong and mixed up , So it gets difficult to imagine.
Place: Story revolves around one place and the place itself not described enough which might have made the story interesting.
Purchase : Don't spend money in buying the book, Don't even purchase the e-book edition.
How to read: Read the book in your library or read it if some one shares the book with you

2 Stars:

If a book is given this rating , then it means :Storyline: is finely structured and to support it , writer has used lots of details and information and repeated same things many times.
Mystery : is easy to guess.
Characters: All characters in the story plays a role but there are unnecessary characters introduced which can be skipped
Imaginative: Story will go around only at one place and still the details are not enough to imagine the area/building/surroundings.
Purchase : Don't spend money in buying the book, Don't even purchase the e-book edition.
How to read: Read the book in your library or read it if some one shares the book with you

3 Stars:

If a book is given this rating , then it means :

Storyline: is perfect with enough details and nice twists and turns to hold the reader going on till the end.
Mystery :It goes strong till 50% of the book and not so easy to solve the puzzles. .
Characters: All characters in the story plays a good role . Though one or two roles were introduced just for sake of more complicity.
Imaginative: Story may introduce one or two places and the need and description is justified . Easy to imagine the place as enough details are layed out.
Purchase : Purchase the e-book edition as its cheaper and easy to store. Purchase the hard copy if it is available in good discount.
How to read: Read your book from starting and don't jump chapters, go slow and absorb the scene in mind and try to figure out the mystery which lays ahead and try to guess the culprit.

4 Stars:

If a book is given this rating , then it means :

Storyline: is perfect and very well written, it engages the user till the end.
Mystery :It goes strong till 80% of the book and not so easy to solve the puzzles. .
Characters: All characters in the story plays a good role . Though one or two roles were introduced just for sake of more complicity.
Imaginative: Story may introduce one or two places and the need and description is justified . Easy to imagine the place as enough details are layed out.
Purchase : This book is good to have in your collection , so purchase the e-book edition or Hard copy.
How to read: Read your book from starting and don't jump chapters, go slow and absorb the scene in mind and try to figure out the mystery which lays ahead and try to guess the culprit.

5 Stars:

If a book is given this rating , then it means :
Storyline: is awesome and makes you think more about story after you finished reading the book
Mystery :It goes strong till 90% of the book and difficult to solve the mystery and there are so many twists and turns which are completely unexpected.
Characters: All characters in the story plays a vital role . Each role is important and well managed.
Imaginative: Story may introduce one or two places and the need and description is justified . Places are so well described that you fall in love with the imagination and the place.
Purchase : This book is must to have in your collection , so purchase the e-book edition or Hard copy.
How to read: Read your book from starting and don't jump chapters, go slow and absorb the s
cene in mind and try to figure out the mystery which lays ahead and try to guess the culprit.

#2: The Hidden Staircase

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories: #2: The Hidden Staircase 

Rating:

Book Detail:

This is the second book in the Nancy Drew Mystery Series , This book was published in 1930.
and published by Grosset & Dunlap.

Book Read:  Ebook


Characters:

• Nancy Drew
• Helen Corning (Nancy Friend)
• Aunt Rosemary (Helen Aunt)
• Hannah Gruen (Nancy's housekeeper)
• Nathan Comber 
• Willie Wharton
• Mr Drew (Nancy Father)
• Miss Flora(Helen's Great Grandmother)
• Captain Rossland
• Miss Skade (Nurse)
• Anthony Barradale
• Captain McGinnis
• Samuel Greenman

Summary: (with spoilers)

Helen ask Nancy to help her Aunt Rosemary who is living in Twin Elms mansion because the mansion is haunted by ghost and ask her to solve the mystery.
Her Aunt is also troubled because the news has spread that the mansion is haunted by ghost and there is a constant pressure from Mr Nathan Comber to sell the house to him in low price.
Aunt Rosemary mother (Miss Flora) doesn't want to sell this house to anyone. But the ghost has troubled and scared her now so she wants to seek help from Nancy to detect the mystery behind it.

Meanwhile , Mr Drew is working on a case where he has to find Wille Wharton to certify that he has indeed signed the contract papers for the land where the bridge construction is taking place.
In search of Wille Wharton, Mr Drew travels to Chicago and in same time Nancy visits Aunt Rosemary place to solve the mystery.

Ghost secretively visit them in their kitchen, attic, bedroom, living ,drawing rooms (parlour) and create troubles by making noises either by switching on the radio or playing instrument, or by moving the chandelier or by stealing the food or scaring them by showing weird faces.
Nancy suspects that there is a secret passage somewhere from where the ghost is coming and vanishing. She continues her search but fails in her attempt to find the passage.

Meanwhile Mr Drew vanishes during his journey from Chicago to Twins Elms. On investigating Nancy finds that Mr Drew has actually got kidnapped and she doubts that Nathan Comber is involved in this because he has once warned them before that something bad will happen if Mr Drew doesn't stop the bridge work.
Nancy finds that that there is twin mansion build next to Aunt Rosemary place and Nathan Comber has bought the same place and now by blackmailing Miss Flora he has succeeded buying her place as well. She logs a complain to Police to capture Nathan Comber as his actions and whereabouts are suspicious.

When Nancy & Helen goes to investigate the other Twin Mansion , they find the secret passage opening in through wardrobe in one of the bedrooms. On exploring this passage , they find Wille Wharton hiding there and when confronted he explains how he played the ghost role and why he did this, It seems that Nathan has promised him to get a better deal in bridge construction case, if he hides here for some time and do this ghosting business to scare away Miss Flora to sell her house to him.

Nancy & police starts exploring the different ends of passage , one of passage leads to dungeons , where they find Mr Drew is held and he is in weak health, they quickly rescue Mr Drew through another passage which opens to drawing room(parlor), where he recovers and Nancy tells him the whole story as what had happened and who is behind this trouble.

Meanwhile police captures Nathan Comber and he confess of doing the kidnapping and other illegal stuff.
Mystery gets solved.


My Review:
This book is good to read, It has the mystery going on till 60% of the book, and even though you will feel that Mr Drew case and Nancy case may be related but you wont be able to put the pieces together as you will want more information and findings to do so.
So in a way you will still be reading it to reach the end.
Explanation of the mansion and individual rooms was good and imaginative.

Now there are few scenes which were not necessary, like the scene where ceiling falls, this was unnecessary because it was very well conveyed that ghost trouble was increasing day by day.
Also the change of Willie Wharton behaviour and surrendering himself to Nancy was kind of quick and easy.
I feel that at last chapter story goes on quick and every thing falls quickly in place so that mystery gets resolved soon..

Overall story is good , all characters play a vital role and response from each character at certain situations are well managed and written .

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