It took a bit of trying, but I finally got the latest Nancy Drew Diaries. I'm not sure if it's simply the lack of sales, or the lack of promotion and/or marketing, or simply a declining market in actual books (versus digital books), but it seems Barnes & Noble does not keep up with any of the continuing series that is not what they deem a "big name" (such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Harry Potter or any other hit of the week/month/year that is making a big splash for the moment). As a kid, book stores had shelves and shelves of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books - now, Barnes & Noble barely carries one or two Hardy Boys books, and the Nancy Drew books take up less than half of one shelf (if that much). A Capitol Crime, the twenty-second Nancy Drew Diaries book had a street date of May 25, 2021; yet, my Barnes & Noble didn't get it in until May 27th, and even then, they only got one copy. A friend in Massachusetts said his B&N also only got one copy. For a series that is nearing its 95th anniversary in just four more years - and has her own television show on the CW right now - and had a semi-successful movie come out a year or so ago - one would think the publisher would really be trying to cross-market all of this. Instead, we barely see her books on the shelves any more. Such a shame...
While the last series, Nancy Drew: Girl Detective, did not sit well with fans, this latest incarnation has been a step in the right direction. The plots have finally moved away from sabotage of the week stories and have taken Nancy back to her roots - haunted houses, kidnappings, stolen items, etc. For a while, the titles were reminiscent of the original series, utilizing "Secret" or "Mystery" or "Clue" in the titles. Even the length of the stories has expanded, allowing for a bit more characterization and build up for the mysteries. And while the Nancy on the covers may appear a bit younger than long-time fans are used to, at least we are getting cover art again, rather than clip art or live model images. That is not to say, however, the series is perfect.
Now, there is an incident at the beginning, when Nancy and her friends first arrive in D.C. that tips readers off to the reason Mr. Drew was kidnapped, but it's not until Nancy comes face-to-face with her father than the reader learns the mystery is not really about the kidnapping at all! Instead, Nancy, Bess and George must work overtime to solve a year-old mystery involving a theft of diamonds rings at a jewelry store in Maryland! The person who pled guilty to the crime may not be guilty at all, and Nancy must prove his innocence in order to help her father.
The plot is actually well thought out, and there are plenty of red herrings and misleading clues that take Nancy (and the reader!) in the wrong direction. However, along the way, Nancy and her friends do some things that might be a stretch, even for Nancy Drew. Numerous times, Nancy and her friends pretend to be other people so they can sneak into hotel rooms, obtain phone numbers and addresses, interview suspects. But the incident that tops everything is when Bess and George distract the front desk officer at the police station so that Nancy can sneak into the records room - and not only does she lie to an officer out front, she also compounds the lie to the detective that stops her on her way to the records room, and more so when she lies to the records clerk to get past her and into the files! Those lies catch up to her pretty quickly, and she is forced to escape through a window in the records room and run away from the police (who, oddly enough, do nothing further when she evades their grasp after breaking into the police records room!) - and all of this because Nancy, Bess, and George realize the Maryland police may not be as willing to share information with her the way the River Heights police do! Breaking and entering to obtain clues is one thing, but breaking into a police station and lying to police officers to get access to their records takes Nancy's criminal activities to a whole new level!
Aside from that, the first chapter of the book features a number of proper name items that I'm surprised to see in a Nancy Drew book, since it could easily date the book at some point in the future. George references Instagram, while Nancy is called out for playing Words With Friends with Ned. Nancy also references Car and Driver magazine with regard to a case she was helping the River Heights police to solve, and Bess picks the film To All the Boys I've Loved Before for the girls to watch on their sleepover at Nancy's house. In the past, authors have always been somewhat vague about magazine or movie names; but it seems recently, Simon & Schuster has allowed authors to be a bit more direct with named items in the books.
Oh, and let's not forget the mention on page 144 of George's "full name," Georgia.
Overall, the story was a good read, and I rather enjoyed it. With the exception of book 20, The Vanishing Statue, the series has been presenting some pretty good mysteries, and I hope they keep heading in this direction. Oddly enough, instead of promo-ing the next title on the back of this book, there is only a promo of A Nancy Drew Christmas, the oversized special which came out in 2019. At first, I was worried that perhaps we had reached the end of this series, but thankfully, that is not the case. The next two titles, The Blue Lady of Coffin Hall (#23) and Captain Stone's Revenge (#24), are set to come out in 2022, So Nancy Drew appears to be sticking around. For another year, at least...
RATING: 8 cups of chocolate/peanut butter swirl fro yo out of 10 for letting Nancy take readers on a semi-tour of the nation's capitol while solving a well-plotted mystery!
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