Nancy Drew Diaries, No. 21 - Danger at the Iron Dragon

Without a doubt, this entry into the Nancy Drew Diaries series could very well be the best one yet. While the Diaries series has definitely been a few steps above the previous incarnation of Nancy Drew (Nancy Drew, Girl Detective), the stories have been a bit hit-or-miss. There have been some really great plots, but the execution has not necessarily been the best.  But it seems Simon & Schuster is moving away from the "sabotage" trope that permeated the series for so long, and its authors have been giving us some varied types of mysteries that definitely make reading the books that much more interesting.  Plus, the length of the books have continued to be considerably more pages than when this series started, allowing the authors much more space with which to develop both the characters and the mysteries.

Danger at the Iron Dragon find Nancy, Bess, and George caught up in the between two Jiu-Jitsu academies in River Heights. When Nancy is rescued from a mugger by a young lady who just finished up at her Jiu-Jitsu class, she invites Nancy to join her the next night and learn self-defense.  Nancy is a bit reluctant, but at her father's encouraging, she takes Bess and George with her to the Iron Dragon academy, where her savior, Carly Griffith, is one of the star pupils. But it may be that her former teacher and friends at the previous academy don't like the idea of her entering competitions on behalf of a new academy.  Someone spray paints the word "TRAITOR" on the wall behind the receptionist desk and leaves a dead rat on the desk.  One of the students convinces Carly to tell Nancy the whole story about how she left the prior academy after learning it was not on the up-and-up.  Nancy agrees to investigate, not realizing that nothing in this mystery is what it seems!

And, quite frankly, that's what I love about this story.  At first, it appears someone is out to scare Carly into back out of the upcoming competition.  The likely suspect is the teacher from her previous academy, or perhaps her former friend from that academy, against whom she is going to have to compete in the upcoming tournament.  But the more Nancy digs into the mystery, the more things don't make sense.  Like the fact that the former teacher and friend have solid alibis for when the incident happens.  And when someone wearing a jacket with the logo from that other academy sets fire to the Iron Dragon, Nancy can't make sense of who it could be.  And then she discovers that another student's locker at the Iron Dragon is broken into - the locker right next to Carly's.  How did they make that mistake? What were they looking for?  With some help from an unexpected source at The River Heights Bugle (and no, it's not Ned), Nancy uncovers some clues which point her in an entirely different direction - one that connects directly with the old case her father is currently working on!

The book has more of a feel of one of the classic stories than any of the Diaries books thus far. Nancy's relationship with her father ... the fact that her mystery ultimately ties in to one that her father is working on ... the technical explanation of Jiu-Jitsu moves and history of the defensive form ... Nancy getting conked on the head (and the admission that she has been knocked out numerous times in the past!) ... the recognition that Nancy is a well-known amateur detective in River Heights that has solved countless mysteries ... it's so easy to get lost in this story, reading page after page, waiting for Nancy to see some of the things you, as the reader, have already figured out. How will Nancy get there? When will she realize who the culprit is?  And the excitement of watching her put those final clues together to solve the case!

The author does take a bit of liberty with Bess and George, and pretty much "flips" their characters.  In this story, Bess becomes completely enthralled with Jiu-Jitsu, taking more and more classes, while George decides it's not for her at all.  For fans who are used to the athletic George and the more timid Bess, this might be a bit jarring - for me, however, it was a nice change of pace to see Bess step up and show some strength, while George shows a bit of weakness.  (At least we didn't get the complete overhaul of characterization for George that the author of the previous book threw our way!)  However, both characters stay true to Nancy Drew, helping her to ferret out clues in their own ways.

And I do like the introduction of "Z" - Zhuang Ha, a young man about Nancy's age (which is still never defined in the books) with light brown skin, black hair, and a goatee, and who happens to be a junior reporter for The River Heights Bugle.  At first, you don't know what to make of him, as he pegs Nancy as Nancy Drew right away, even though she is trying to work undercover - will he reveal her true identity?  Will he betray her later in the story?  SPOILER ALERT - he doesn't betray her, and ultimately, he helps her uncover the last clue she needs by going through boxes of old newspapers - some real, old-fashioned detective work!  I honestly wouldn't mind if they keep this character around and make him a regular part of the cast, right along with Bess, George, Carson, Hannah, and Ned.

This book is definitely a further step in the right direction for Simon & Schuster, and I hope they keep the books of this caliber - if so, then perhaps we will start seeing an increase in sales and an increase in the popularity of our favorite sleuth!  (Although, on a sad note, a friend told me that this book was not offered in audio CD format as all previous books in this series have been, and that future books listed on Amazon and elsewhere do not show any audio book editions - which hopefully does not reflect the status of sales overall, and merely reflects the audio sales.)

 

One last thing - I do wonder if this story was written based on the recent success of the Cobra Kai series on Netflix (spun-off from the old Karate Kid films).   Although the mystery turns out to be completely unrelated to the two sparring academies, I did get a sense of the whole Cobra Kai competing dojos while reading this book, and have to wonder if the author was a fan of the TV show.  Just a curious question...

RATING:  9 broken padlocks out of 10 for taking Nancy Drew back to her roots with a great, old-fashioned mystery solved with lots of legwork and hands-on investigation!