Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #19 - The Quest of the Missing Map

And so we continue our journey through the Nancy Drew books written by Mildred Wirt (Benson), reaching the nineteenth book in the series.  After the jumble that was the last mystery, I was hoping this one might be a bit of improvement - especially since this is the first original text book with dust jacket that I ever bought at a used bookstore (prior to that, I only had the yellow-spine picture cover editions).  It was this book that started my journey to hunt down all the dust-jacketed editions.  And because of this book's place as my first dust jacketed Nancy Drew, I have spent years collecting every version of this book that I can find - this dust-jacketed version, the two yellow-spine versions, the various British editions, and numerous foreign editions for France, Norway, Malaysia, Finland, Sweden, as well as others.  I also have a model ship a friend gave me that is nearly identical to the one on Russell Tandy's original cover art.  So, I maintained some level of hope that when I re-read this story, it would hold up to my original enjoyment of the story.

The Quest of the Missing Map (original text) was first published in 1942, written by Mildred Wirt as outlined by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams.  That same year, Wirt also had published The Clue of the Rusty Key in the Dana Girls series, as well as The Clock Strikes Thirteen and The Wishing Well in her own Penny Parker series.  In addition, she also wrote the serialized story, "The Mystery at the Lookout," for the Calling All Girls magazine.  The title to this particular book was originally listed at the end of the previous book as "The Quest of the Telltale Map," but at some point, the title changed from "Telltale" to "Missing."  In any event, this particular book holds a special place for me, which I'll go into later in this post.

There's quite a bit going on in this mystery, which centers around a man who has spent most of his life searching for his twin brother, as they were separated as young boys.  At the time their father separated them, he ripped in half a map he claimed would lead them to a treasure, but they would have to work together to find it and share it.  Tomlin Smith, the twin in the story, only had half the map, so he was never able to find the treasure on his own.  Nancy becomes involved in the search for his twin and the map because his daughter, Ellen, who is studying music at a nearby school (Blackstone Music College), visits with Hannah Gruen - and it is revealed that Hannah used to work for the Smiths before she came to work for the Drews (p. 2).  This is interesting information, since in more than 90 plus years of history, we have never really learned much at all about Hannah's background before she came to work for the Drews.  Small tidbits such as this are dropped here and there, but they add up to very little indeed.  (Of course, compare that to what we know about Nancy's mother, and it seems like a lot!)

So, one of the things I did like about this story are the Gothic elements that appear here and there.  Such as the house in which Mrs. Chatham lives - Rocky Edge (p. 3).  The name alone evokes images of a high cliff overlooking the crashing waves of the ocean below.  Then there's the description of the house - an "old-fashioned place, half-hidden from the road by masses of high, overgrown shrubs" with a "curving drive [that] led to a pillared porch" (pp. 4-5).  It is easy to picture an old mansion falling into disrepair, dark and gloomy.  And, of course, there's the obligatory ghosts that are said to haunt the old "Ship Cottage" behind the main house (p. 7).  And let's not forget the reflection that Nancy sees in the mirror, which "sent icy chills racing down her spine" (p. 8).  Hidden wall panels, secret passages, threatening and disembodied voices, all of which provide a very Gothic setting - there's even a piano that makes no sound when played, yet moments later, it plays just fine (pp. 8-9).  Honestly, it's a shame the whole mystery did not take place in Rocky Edge, as it truly was a perfect setting for a great mystery.

But, no, instead the mystery quickly turns to the twins - Tomlin Smith and his missing brother - and the missing half of the treasure map.  Mr. Smith (whose name is actually Mr. Tomlin, as Smith is the name of his adoptive parents) tells Nancy that his mother died when he and his brother were fourteen (p. 19), and that his father was a sea-faring man, the captain of a freighter named the Sea Hawk (p. 19).  Unfortunately, the ship went down, but before it did, the boys' father gave them each half of the map and put them in separate life boats and sent them on their way (pp. 20-21).  What is interesting is that there was an armed motorboat named the U.S.S. Sea Hawk which served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1919, and after World War I, the ship was stationed at Key West - until September 10, 1919, when a hurricane tore the ship away from the docks and it was never seen again.  While this story was written a little more than 20 years later, one does wonder if perhaps the name of the ship (and the fact that it was lost at sea) played a part in this element of the story.

Now, one would think that it would be quite difficult for Nancy to track down the missing twin, since it has obviously been many years since the boys were separated (since Mr. Smith is now not only grown, but has a twenty-year old daughter!) - but, there are SO MANY coincidences and convenient connections in this book, they border on the very unbelievable.  First, Nancy meets a boy named Bill Tomlin at an Emerson University dance just a day or so after talking with Mr. Smith (p. 50), and he tells Nancy that his grandfather's brother was a sea captain who had twin sons (p. 51).  Well, as "luck" would have it, Bill's father is the cousin of John Tomlin, who was a sea captain who was known for collecting shells, but who died on a voyage to Japan (p. 63), leaving behind a wife that no one has been able to locate.  He does recall that John had an excellent singing voice (p. 64).  Hmmm, a musical talent - any guesses here?  Anyway, back at Rocky Edge, Nancy discovers that Mrs. Chatham's first husband has a large collection of shells (p. 81) - so, needless to say, Nancy asks his name and (no surprise here), his name is John Tomblin (p. 82).  Well, through a series of too many coincidences to name here, Nancy finally uncovers the location of the other half of the map, but now they can't get a boat to take them to Little Palm Island   It seems every ocean-going ship has been pressed into special service (p. 157) - which could potentially be a veiled reference to the war going on at the time.  But wait! At that very same time, Mrs. Chatham's young daughter disappears (she has a habit of doing that in this book), and they find her walking down the street with a middle-aged man (p. 159) - uhm, wouldn't any normal person be concerned that a young girl like that would just take off with a middle-aged man?  Anyway, he turns out to be a sailor (p. 159) and he happens to know of a yacht available for rent (p. 160).  I mean, there are only so many coincidences that one can take before the story becomes too fictional to believe.

Aside from that, however, there is one thing about this book I found to be rather interesting.  Normally, the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories are all told from Nancy's point-of-view, and rarely do we read any portion that is not through her eyes (on rare occasion, we read a scene through Carson's or Bess's or George's eyes, but those are very far and few between).  In Missing Map, though, we get NINE instances where the point-of-view of the story is through the eyes of someone else - eight of those are through the eyes of the villains, and one is through the eyes of young Trixie (Mrs. Chatham's daughter).  I found it odd that Wirt would switch POV like that, and to basically let us see what the villains are thinking and saying outside of Nancy's earshot.

Oh, and I would be remiss if I did not mention the "Little Red Riding Hood" scene.  You know, the one were the wolf dresses up like Red's grandmother, hides under the covers and tries to trick the young Red?  Well, in this story, the villainous pair of Fred and Irene (who are only two of the numerous villains in this book - believe me, there are a LOT of people after this missing map!) have been working overtime to get that map away from Nancy, and at one point, they trick Nancy into coming into a house in the bad part of River Heights, where Irene pretends to be a young boy's grandmother, sick in bed, and when Nancy's back is turned, she jumps up out of bed, and her husband jumps out of the closet (literally, not figuratively!), and they kidnap the young sleuth (pp. 170-71).  As I was reading the scene, all I could think of was, "my, Grandmother, what big ears you have!"

 

And we aren't going to mention the elephant that blocks the road.... (and, no, I'm NOT kidding!).

As with every Nancy Drew book, she manages to outwit all of the crooks, and she, along with quite a large crew - Ned, Bill Tomlin, Mr. Smith and his wife and daughter, Bess, George, the two boys who have grown fond of them (who remain unnamed in this book, but we can assume this is perhaps Burt Eddleton and Dave Evans), as well as the Captain of the yacht, along with Mrs. Chatham and her daughter Trixie - well, it's quite the crew that manages to eventually find the buried treasure on Little Palm Island (as seen in the frontis piece), and Nancy is even rewarded with "a beautiful jeweled bracelet, by far the finest piece in the collection" (p. 211).

On a side note - those who saw John Maclay's play, Nancy Drew: Her Biggest Case Ever, when it was being produced, there are a number of elements from this book that are in the play (it is heavily based on The Bungalow Mystery, but includes parts of this book as well).  Needless to say, as I was reading the book, whenever I got to scenes that were in the play, I immediately started picturing those scenes!

Overall, I would say this book is one of the better Nancy Drew books from that era (especially when compared to the previous one, the original text Moss-Covered Mansion!).  

Now, to answer that question - why does this book have special meaning for me?  Well, that's because this book was the first Nancy Drew book I ever bought in dust jacket.  I grew up with the matte yellow spine editions and, later, the Wanderer paperbacks.  I never really collected any of the dust jacketed editions until MANY years later.  At a local used bookstore, I came across this book in dust jacket for a very affordable price, so I figured, what the heck - I bought it!  Well, after that, I had to hunt down all of the other dust jacketed books, then all the various editions (white spine, wrap spine, etc.).  But, because this was my first, it remained special.  And somewhere along the line, I started finding some of the foreign editions of Missing Map, and let's just say my completist nature had me looking for every possible version I could find!  I'm not sure if I have them all yet, but I definitely have quite a few - and I have them displayed, along with the ship model and some Barbies that I selected to represent more modern takes of Nancy, Bess, and George as they are following the clues in that map!  You might say I am always on the quest for the Missing Map.

RATING:  8 tiny desks imported from the Orient out of 10 for a crazy quest of improbable and impossible proportions that wraps up quite nicely in the end!