Sleuthing Saturdays
A few months ago I decided I want to buy every single Nancy Drew book published…and read them all. In order. Guys, this is a more lofty goal than you might realize. There are over 530 Nancy Drew books published right now, and that’s not including all the whackadoodle crossover books and what not. I made a spreadsheet detailing my efforts (which you can see here). You can also see my initial post about this literary adventure here.
As you can see, I have quite a few (although I have not finished counting up all the ones I have currently because counting is hard), so I thought I’d go ahead and start reading them in order!
First up…
The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene
Title & Author:
The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene
Series and Number:
Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #1
Original Publication Date:
April 28, 1930In this first of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, Nancy, unaided, seeks to find a missing will. Her search not only tests her keen mind but also leads her into a thrilling adventure. – Goodreads
Alright, I’ve read Nancy Drew books before – not too many of the old yellow hardbacks, but quite a few of the newer ones. So reading The Secret of the Old Clock was a really weird yet awesome experience for me. I had trouble reminding myself that it was written in the 1930s and I kept cracking up at some of the lines. Nancy Drew is perfect. There is not a single flaw to her in The Secret of the Old Clock.
The mystery itself was interesting. I wouldn’t say Nancy Drew was so much a detective as she was a magnet for coincidences. She never really…figured anything out herself in The Secret of the Old Clock. everything just happened to her and that happened to lead her to the next thing and so forth.
The ending of The Secret of the Old Clock was highly satisfying, though. It was nice to be able to put down a book feeling like everything was resolved and the bad guy got what was coming to him.
Stay tuned…next week I’ll be reading and reviewing The Hidden Staircase. Where was it hidden? What did it lead to? Find out on the next edition of Sleuthing Saturdays!
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That is a lofty goal! Good luck on finding all of the Nancy Drew books.
Secret of the Old Clock, I do believe that that is one of the only Nancy Drew books I’ve read (and enjoyed when I did).
It has been ages since I read it, but since reading your review I kind of want to revisit it and see what happened in the book. =)
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Wow I didn’t realize there were so many in the series! I’ve only read the first 6 of the series and I remember The Hidden Staircase being my favorite when I was younger. If I remember correctly it was a creepy read.
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I didn’t realize there were so many Nancy Drew books! This is quite an endeavor and I love it! I’ll be checking in every Saturday with Nancy and cheering her on :-)
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I have quite a collection of Nancy Drew books myself. I love them! Have you checked out the book “Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her?” It’s a very interesting account of the history of the Nancy Drew books. I highly enjoyed it.
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I totally own a copy of this and have read it way way way back in the day.
Good old Nancy Drew. Get it girlllll.
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I remember reading this when I was a kid and wanting to be Nancy Drew! I loved the fact that she was a detective, and her adventures were crazy, but so cool. You’re making me want to read them again!
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I was thrift store book browsing a few weeks ago and they had a ton of ND books. I instantly thought of your goal.
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I love this. I also love that I can see this book on my bookshelf from where I’m sitting right now. I still have all my old Nancy Drew books, probably 40-50 of them.
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Due to life and whatnot, I’m behind in reading blogs so I missed this last weekend, but OH BOY! does this make me happy! You are making me super excited for Saturdays now. ;) I love Nancy Drew and I love your crazypants idea to own them all.
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I’ve never read a Nancy Drew book before. But, I knew they were pretty popular, so I wanted to change that. I found myself at the library one day and I saw maybe thirty Nancy Drew books (the older ones), and I thought “hey, I could do this”. So, I snagged The Secret of the Old Clock.
Eh, I never actually got around to reading the Secret of the Old Clock. But one day I will! But, now you have me second guessing taking on the entire series! I didn’t realize there were several hundred books in the Nancy Drew series. That’s nuts!
Good luck on your Nancy Drew adventure. I look forward to hearing more about the books.
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