fred
flare’s Keith and Lulu would
like to send a "shout-out!" to their readers as they
begin
their 2003 series of reviews, especially Sharon Okey Dokey who writes "Bring
back the Nancy Drew kids. They rocked!" Thanks, Sharon! Sorry for
the delay!
Keith: Oh gosh, it’s been too long since we last discussed Nancy’s
adventures…
Lulu: Yeah, I’m surprised she’s
still speaking to us, particularly after we fell head-
over-heels for her
boyfriend in the last review!
K: I know. But, to tell you the truth,
my obsession with Ned Nickerson was short lived.
L: What do you mean?
K: Well, I guess I just realized he’s not my type. He’s super
nice and all – a real
gentleman – but in this episode you get
a better picture of his world and it’s SO not
for me. Part of the action
takes place in the town of Emerson, where Ned goes to
college, so we spend
a lot of time at his frat house and, sadly, the football field.
L: Totally. There’s an entire eight pages of football: Ned makes a
touchdown. Ned
gets hurt. Ned collapses. Ned’s on the bench. Ned’s
back on the field. Ned scores.
Ned wins the game!
K: Very American Dreams. Have you seen
that show on NBC? Sometimes the little
girl, Patty, reads Nancy. She’s
a total snoop!
L: Well, let’s tell our readers what’s happened to our fave snoop
in Nancy’s
Mysterious Letter.
K: Okay. It all starts on a cold, windy
November day when Nancy and her friends
George and Bess are returning from
Red Gate Farm with freshly-picked fruits
and
veggies. Readers will recall that Nancy spent a lot of time at Red
Gate in Episode 6
where she captured a counterfeiting gang. Today she’s
happy and carefree until –
Hey, Mr. Postman! – she spots Ira
Nixon, her mail carrier.
L: Ira is OLD, just six weeks shy of
retirement, and you can see his bag of Sears
catalogs is really weighing
on him as he fights the elements. He
tells Nancy he has a
letter for her from England and Nancy says she’ll
have hot cocoa and cookies waiting
for him when he arrives at her house.
K: Snack alert!
L: Yeah, and this time it’s trouble. Everyone’s in the living
room enjoying Hannah’s
homemade goodies but when Ira goes into the
front hall to fetch Nancy’s letter from
his bag he discovers all
the mail has been stolen!
K: Our girl Nancy runs out the door
to chase after the perp, but he’s
nowhere to be
found. She questions a young neighbor, tricycle-riding Tommy
Johnson, who describes
a man in a yellow overcoat and hat who dashed off
in a beat-up car.
L: Once again proving that Nancy’s
villains have bad fashion and bad cars.
K: Oh, I love how Nancy comes back into
the house, describes the thief’s
look and Ira
cries in dismay, "No, no! It couldn’t be! Oh, what
will I do?" and then faints!
L: Turns out the villain is Ira’s
evil half brother, Edgar.
K: He is bad news! He and his cronies really try and mix it up with our girl,
too. As if!
L: Yes, Nancy gets into quite a bit
of danger in this episode. She survives car chases
and rocks being thrown
at her. She gets locked in a dark theatre
and is even drugged
but – Hello! She’s Nancy Drew! – becomes
more determined than ever to bring these
jerks to justice!
K: Yeah!
L: I suppose we’re getting ahead
of ourselves a little. I just love to see Nancy succeed! Let’s tell
our readers a little about what makes her letter from England so mysterious.
K: Yes, I guess that is kinda important. We learn, after a duplicate copy
of the letter
is retrieved, that a British law firm has contacted Nancy to
alert her that there is an
inheritance awaiting a Ms. Nancy Smith Drew residing
in the United States.
L: Obviously there is some sort of
mix-up but Nancy’s on the case and
soon deduces
that Edgar Nixon may be posing as a suitor with intentions
to marry the real heiress
before she learns about her fortune and then
he can
steal all her money!
K: So our Nancy’s got to find the other Nancy "as fast as we can," she
says on page
77, "and stop the wedding!"
L: Which she does brillantly. Is it me or did you think that Nancy Smith
Drew was a
little ungrateful at the end?
K: Totally! She whines, "There’ll be no wedding bells for me…Oh
dear, I don’t know
what to do!"
L: Yeah. This ending was weird. Usually the people Nancy helps become her
new best
friends but this one is a strange bird. She quotes Shakespeare and
then boards a
plane to London. Those kooky Brits!!!
K: Nancy’s just left there with nothing. She suddenly realizes that
the exciting mystery
has ended. On page 173 it reads, "The young detective
always felt a vacuum in her
life when this happened."
L: Keep your chin up, Nancy! In a short
time we’ll all be together
again working
on a new case, The
Sign of the Twisted Candles. And we won’t
wait so long next time, we promise!
02/2003
