Grandfathered In - The Last Silver Peak Mystery

A female detective. A clue hidden in an old clock. An author's name that is really a pseudonym. A mystery involving swindlers and a lost deed. Can you guess the series book to which I am referring?  If you guessed "Nancy Drew," well, I hate to burst your bubble, but no!  Surprise, surprise - this particular book is actually the last book in the Mysteries of Silver Peak series, a series published by Guideposts (which is a Christian publication that I hadn't heard about in years - didn't even know it was still around!).  What is interesting, though, is that with all the similarities, the book, in fact, does feature the Nancy Drew books (and particularly, The Secret of the Old Clock), pretty heavily.  The protagonist, Sadie Speers, even recognizes the similarities between the mystery she is trying to unravel and the first mystery in the Nancy Drew series!

Like the Nancy Drew mystery stories, the Mysteries of Silver Peak are attributed to an author who does not really exist.  Carole Jefferson, like Carolyn Keene, is merely a pseudonym, and just like the Nancy Drew books, the Mysteries of Silver Peak are written by various ghostwriters.  This particular book, Grandfathered In, was written by Anne Marie Rodgers, who claims, in the front of the book, that "[t]his story pays homage to the Nancy Drew Mystery series, a collection that was near to my heart when I was a young girl ... Thanks to Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins, and other fictional characters in the books [my grandmother] bought for a nickel in box lots, I was readily entertained ..." Despite this love for Nancy Drew, the author unfortunately does not seem well versed in the history and background of Nancy Drew - but more on that later.

The story centers around a mining company that claims to own the mineral rights to the land owned by Sadie, and the company intends to start exercising its right to excavate the land with our without Sadie's cooperation! Sadie is suspicious, and she soon learns that the same company has been reaching out to fellow property owners, bullying them into selling their mineral rights, or even their entire property!  One such property owner happens to own a ranch that is suddenly going to be foreclosed upon by the bank, and its owner - a friend of Sadie's - fears he may have to sell the mineral rights to the company in order to save his ranch. Sadie sets about to do more than just investigate, and with the help of her granddaughter and her lawyer/confidant/boyfriend (perhaps), she ultimately discovers that the antique grandfather clock that has been in her family for generations holds the key to solving the mystery before her!

It is nice to read an adult mystery that is not centered around a murder for a change. In fact, reading this book was very much like reading a Nancy Drew mystery, except with a very grown up Nancy Drew. It was fun to follow along with Sadie as she follows up on clues, searches for information, and I thoroughly enjoyed the romp through public records and her discussions with the local government workers about title transfers, title histories, and recorded documents (all things I work with on a daily basis at my job).  The author clearly knew her stuff when it comes to public records and chain of title; but, as indicated above, her knowledge of Nancy Drew facts was clearly lacking (which is sad, since the information is easily discovered with a quick online search).

First, when Sadie and her granddaughter discover a box of Nancy Drew books to be sold at a local auction house, she notes that "it looked like there were at least fifty Nancy Drew books in the box. Even better, nearly all of them still had their dust jackets. As she'd observed when she first saw the box lot, a number of them had the white spine on the dust jacket, which indicated first editions." [pp. 5-6]  This is not necessarily the case, as books beyond the first editions had white spine dust jackets, so that white spine did not automatically indicate a first edition.  Next, while informing her granddaughter about the creation of Nancy Drew, she correctly states that the character was created by Edward Stratemeyer, "who was an American publisher and author of children's fiction." [p. 6] But then she incorrectly says that "Stratemeyer soon turned over the management of the series to his daughter Harriet." [p. 6]  This is definitely a misrepresentation, as Edward did not "turn over" the series to his daughter; rather, he died, and his daughters (Harriet and Edna) had no choice but to take over the business when they could not sell it!  The final nail in the coffin, though, is when Sadie tells her daughter the name of the first ghostwriter for the series:  "An author named Margaret Wirt Benson wrote most of the first two dozen..." [p. 6]  Seriously?  When did Mildred Wirt Benson change her name to Margaret?  Such glaring errors as these, the information for which is easily available on the internet, shows either a lack of research or a simple lack of concern for facts.  In either event, these immediately took me out of the story and interrupted the flow of the book.  As much as Nancy Drew and The Secret of the Old Clock play a part in this mystery, one would think the author would have put forth a bit more effort to have the facts correct.

Nancy Drew errors aside, though, the book was a good read, and the mystery very well plotted - good pacing, a few great Nancy Drew-type foibles (Sadie getting trapped behind a settee on a neighbor's front porch is a real riot!), and a very satisfying resolution.  Plus, amidst all of the mystery, there are a couple of interesting subplots involving Sadie's own relationship with Edwin and the mysterious identity of the Chatterbox author, that add to the enjoyment of the story.  It was worth the purchase and read, and it will certainly make another nice addition to my collection of Nancy Drew-related collectibles.

RATING:  8 slices of homemade rhubarb pie out of 10 for a fun, old-fashioned mystery that does a somewhat good job of paying homage to the most famous teen sleuth of all!