Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #22 - The Clue in the Crumbling Wall (Original Text)

And so we come to the 22nd Nancy Drew mystery, one that definitely features plenty of gothic goodness to satisfy any mystery reader.  Written by Mildred Wirt (Benson) and first published in 1945, the story features some very dangerous criminals, but it also features a romantic element that, mixed with the crumbling castle, hidden secrets, and mistaken identities, provides an almost-adult like story that could have easily been published in the '60s or '70 as a gothic novel.  Based on other works by Wirt that I've read, it's clear that some of the clunkiness of this mystery comes from the outline provided by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, who was said to have provided so detailed of an outline that the authors often had difficulty trying to fit everything Adams wanted into the story.  Despite this, we still get a pretty good tale that allows Nancy an opportunity to really shine.

The Clue in the Crumbling Wall opens with a bit of humor, as Wirt introduces readers to the ever-chipper seaman known as "Mehearty."  A man described as a "jolly, weather-beaten old fellow" (p. 4), Mehearty is a former sailor who was injured on board a ship some years ago and now digs up and sells clams to the locals in River Heights.  The story of how he got his nickname, though, is something many Nancy Drew fans will love, since it gives us a bit of insight into Nancy Drew as a child.  According to the story, Mehearty received his nickname from Nancy Drew when she was just a little girl (p. 4).  Wirt describes it in this way:

He often addressed other people as "me hearties," and sang nautical songs including these words.  Little Nancy had gotten the whole thing mixed up and called him "Mehearty man."  Her nickname had stuck to him.  (p. 4)

Rarely, if ever, do we get glimpses into Nancy's childhood, but in this instance, Wirt provides us with a fun fact about Nancy's past (even if it is for a one-off character that only appears in this one book).  She does not specify Nancy's age when she gave the old sailor his nickname, but based on the description, it was probably a pre-school age Nancy, as children of that age are more likely to misunderstand and confuse things like that.

And since we are on the topic of age, this book is silent as to Nancy's age.  There is no reference at all to Nancy being sixteen-years old, as she has been identified as in prior books.  I have to wonder if this was intentional based on the reference that "[o]ver the span of a few years she had solved many baffling mysteries" (p. 3).  While in real time, Nancy had been solving mysteries for fifteen years at this point (1930 - 1945); however, in the fictional time of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, Nancy was eternally sixteen (until she became eternally eighteen ... well, at least until she suddenly reverted back to seventeen in the last few paperback digests ...).  So, it would not work to say she had been solving mysteries "over the span of a few years" and at the same time indicate Nancy is the same age as when she solved her first case.

Which raises the question - was The Secret of the Old Clock truly her first case?  The reason I ask is that in this story, the police woman who comes to talk with Nancy and Hannah Gruen about their stolen rose bushes asks Nancy, "Isn't it true that you've been interested in mysteries ever since you were a little girl?" (p. 11)..  This is an interesting comment to make, since the first book seemed to indicate that was Nancy's first mystery; yet, now here, we get the impression Nancy has been hunting down mysteries since she was a little girl (which Simon & Schuster must have picked up on when they introduced the Nancy Drew Notebooks series back in the day).

But I digress.  Let's take a look at the actual mystery, which is introduced through the police woman, Lieutenant Masters.  Okay, one quick rabbit trail before we get to the mystery - the way Wirt describes Lt. Masters throughout this story is rather odd.  When we first meet the female officer, Wirt describes her as "a charming woman, not in the least masculine" (p. 10).  Why would Wirt think anyone would  assume Lt. Masters is masculine?  Just because she's a police officer?  Later when Lt. Masters comes to the Drew home to share a dinner with them (yeah, don't even get me started on that scene!), Wirt writes that the "attractive officer arrived, not wearing a uniform, but looking very feminine and pretty in a blue lace dress" (p. 38).  What is it with this emphasis that Lt. Masters is "not masculine" and "very feminine"?  Was Wirt afraid if she used a female police officer in the story, readers would assume she was not very feminine?  For me, at least, these descriptions seemed unnecessary and were actually a bit distracting.

In any event, Lt. Masters first comes to the Drew home to look into the stolen rose bushes, but while she is there, she invites Nancy to go with her to speak with the mother of the young girl (Joan) who stole the bushes.  Now, mind you, how an eight year old girl was able to steal four rose bushes, which Nancy tells Hannah she buried "very deep" (p. 2), and carry them from the Drew home all the way to her own some miles away with no one noticing is beyond me.  But, hey, this is River Heights after all, and I suppose the neighbors there are just like anywhere else - no one wants to get involved!  In any event, Nancy goes with Lt. Masters, and she meets Joan's mother, Mrs. Fenimore, and finally we get to the mystery.  It seems Mrs. Fenimore's sister, Florianna a/k/a Flossie Johnson (a grown up Bobbsey Twin, perhaps?) disappeared  some years ago.  She was an expert dancer who was engaged to a wealthy manufacturer, Walter Heath; but she needed a rest, so she went away and was never seen nor heard from again!  Heath died, and in his will, he left his entire estate to Florianna on the condition that she lay claim to it within five years - which five years is about to expire in just three weeks! Now, her frail sister (who is ailing with something that is undefined) and her sister's young daughter are in need of help, and if Florianna were to be found to claim the estate, their financial woes would be over.  Can Nancy help?  Of course, she is Nancy Drew, after all.

And so Nancy, along with Bess and George, sets about to find out what happened to Florianna.  The search takes her to the long-abandoned Heath Castle, which appears to be falling apart in places - but, upon closer inspection, Nancy learns that someone is actually tearing it down, piece by piece!  Someone is searching for a treasure they believe hidden somewhere in the castle, and so Nancy takes it upon herself to find that treasure first, since it would rightfully belong to Florianna and her family.  For astute readers, it is fairly obvious from the get-go who the villain is, but it's fun following Nancy and her friends as they pursue their search for both the treasure and Florianna.  It's interesting that it's Bess and George she always takes with her to search Heath Castle, but it's her father that goes with her on each of her visits out of town to find Florianna.  It's almost as if each of these two mysteries requires different "assistants."

As indicated above, the story has a distinct gothic feel to it, and Wirt does a fairly decent job of building some of that gothic suspense.  The castle and its grounds are described in such a way that the readers feels like the castle itself is a sorrowful character in the story.  Upon their first visit to the property, they come across a "vine-tangled, fern-matter bower" where "two handsome stone vases lay on their sides, cracked from water freezing inside" (p. 30), as well as a "water-stained loggia of stone" with "four handsomely carved pillars" that support the balcony (p. 30).  There's even a "Haunted Walk" (p. 31) that the girls follow, in which Nancy feels a "pair of penetrating human eyes" following them (p. 32).  Further along, they come across a "fallen-down, decayed summerhouse" (p. 33).  When they later return to the property, having not actually seen the castle itself on their first visit, they pass "a weather-stained statuette in a wall niche" (p. 73) and take a path through "slender twisted stone columns" which have "over them ... a roof of untrimmed vines, supporting by thick stalks..." (p. 74).  It is here George is frightened when she sees an old man pointing at them, which turns out to be a statue (p. 75).  When Nancy does finally reach the castle itself, she sees it is "constructed of massive gray stone covered in large part by ivy" with a "roof line [that] was broken by several turrets, a large one at each end, with smaller ones in between" (p. 82).  Upon entering, Nancy finds the "inside wooden shutters were closed, giving the few sheet-draped chairs a ghostly appearance" (p. 83), and she has a momentary fright when she sees an unexpected reflection of herself in a long mirror in the room (p. 83).  It is at this point that Nancy hears "a plaintive cry from upstairs" (p. 83), and she rushes up into one of the towers to offer help, only to find herself locked in the tower (pp. 84-86).  These beautiful descriptions give the reader a sense of forlorn abandonment, as if the castle was reflecting Walter Heath's own feeling of abandonment when Florianna left and never returned.

The story does require a large amount of "suspension of disbelief," particularly when it comes to how the police treat Nancy.  Lt. Masters is definitely the most accommodating when it comes to Nancy - she is the one who asks Nancy to come with her to visit Joan's mother - and from there, Lt. Masters basically gives Nancy the keys to the kingdom, so to speak.  She tags along with Nancy to review Walter Heath's will; she doesn't require Nancy to tell her what she and girls discovered while trespassing (!!!) on the Heath property;  she has Nancy inform Mrs. Fenimore that Hannah's relatives will watch Joan for a time; she jumps when Nancy asks her to to Heath Castle with her to search for Florianna; she bring several policeman, at Nancy's request, to surround the castle so no one can escape, and when they might have to actually break into the Heath Castle, Lr. Masters tells Nancy not to worry - "You have the Law at your side" (p. 195).  This is all a bit much for the police to cater to a sixteen-year old girl, particularly one who has plainly trespassed not once, not twice, but multiple times on a property that does not belong to her!  It goes even beyond that, because Heath's attorney actually has a warrant put out for Nancy's arrest (pp. 191-92)!  Yet, instead of holding her at the jail, she is allowed to go free after she not only admits to trespassing, but says she "felt she had a legitimate reason to do so" (p. 192)!  Seriously?  I think this stretches the reader's ability to suspend their disbelief a bit too far.

 

Aside from that, however, there is an interesting bit about Nancy's family in this book that I don't believe is ever mentioned again.  One of the ways Nancy obtains clues about Heath Castle is from a "portfolio of colored pictures and descriptions of famous old houses and gardens in England" (p. 128) that Nancy tells her friends she received as a Christmas gift several years before.  What is so interesting about this is the fact the gift came from "a cousin of Nancy's" (p. 129).  A cousin would be a child of either Mr. Drew's or Mrs. Drew's siblings.  The only sibling we know of Mr. Drew is Eloise Drew, who is a single woman living in New York.  There is never mention of any other siblings.  So this would presume that the cousin is from Mrs. Drew's side of the family - which means Nancy has an aunt or uncle (or more than one!) on her mother's side, with at least one cousin from that line.  It's a shame we never got a full family tree for the Drews, as readers would no doubt love to know more about Nancy's mother and her side of the family.

Overall, the books was a very satisfying read, and I truly enjoyed the gothic elements to it.  This book is a fine example of why I prefer Nancy Drew mysteries to the Hardy Boys - Nancy Drew is much more heavy on the mystery side of things, while the Hardy Boys seem to be more focused on the adventure side.

RATING:  9 lily ponds filled with clam shells out of 10 for a truly gothic-style mystery with an old castle, a lost love, and a hidden treasure!