Everyone's favorite teen detective has actually visited the State of Florida quite a few times over the course of her sleuthing career. From the revised text of the Moss-Covered Mansion, to the Black Keys and Crocodile Island, as well as the Broken Anchor, the Orchid Thief, and others. Thus, Nancy Drew is no stranger to the Sunshine State. Now, this is one of the later books in the original Nancy Drew Mystery Stories (which ran for 175 books), and I had not yet read this before - so this was actually a brand new story for me, despite the book having been published more than twenty years ago! And quite frankly, I found it to be a very well-written story with a good mystery that had a surprising twist not normally found in the Nancy Drew mysteries.
The mystery involves Susan's roommate, Jade Romero, disappeared while back country camping alone up along the Whitewater Bay. It was a dangerous trip to make alone, and when she never came back, a search was made by the park rangers, as well as the local police - but Jade was never found. It is assumed that she died, but Susan is not sure. She is sure that Jade would not have run away, and she can't shake the feeling that something bad happened; so she asked Nancy to come down to investigate (because, as we all know, Nancy can always uncover clues and find criminals that the police can't!). The funny thing is - George just so happens to bear a strong resemblance to Jade, for when Mrs. Fitzgerald, the dorm mother in the dorm where Susan lives, first sees George, she screams in shock (p. 9)! Any astute reader will immediately figure out that George's uncanny resemblance will be used by Nancy later on to help ferret out the culprit(s).
The story features some typical Nancy Drew mystery elements - someone eavesdropping on the girls' conversation with Susan; a threatening note warning Nancy to drop her investigation into Jade's disappearance; Bess falling overboard after a speedboat causes waves around the girls' sunset cruise; a car nearly running their rental off the road; Nancy and Bess capsize into a river and are chased by an alligator; and even George disappearing while they are searching a small island for the missing Jade. The danger is upped a notch when all three girls are held at gunpoint, tied up, and left to starve on the island; but, of course, Nancy finds a way to escape her bonds, free the others and go stop the culprit(s) from getting away. All in a day's work for our titian-haired detective. The one thing that did seem odd is that the synopsis on the back cover actually gives away major plot point that is not revealed in the story until the twist at the end. Not sure why the publishers decided to go with that, but it does spoil part of the ending.
A pleasant surprise in this book is the use of actual real places in the story. Obviously, the Everglades is a real place, but so are Flamingo (a small area right at the bottom of the Everglades) and Florida Bay (which is a body of water located between the southern tip of Florida's mainland and the Florida Keys); Whitewater Bay, which is a real body of water just north of Flamingo that does, indeed, empty out into the Gulf of Mexico as described in the mystery; the Wilderness Waterway is a long water trail that connects Flaming with Everglades City and Cape Sable is the southernmost point of the US mainland in Florida). It gives the story some firm grounding when it uses real locations and provides accurate descriptions and directions on how to get to them (because let me tell you - the drive from Miami to Everglades National Park is a long, tedious one along a lonely stretch of highway!).
The cover art for this book is by Frank Sofo, who sadly passed away in January 2024. The scene depicts the girls canoeing along the Wilderness Waterway as they make their way to Whitewater Bay. There is an alligator in the foreground, as a hint of what happens on page 115, when Nancy and Bess' canoe capsizes them into the water. What is interesting is that the original cover art also featured a black leopard in front of Nancy, which Sofo told me when I spoke with him the publishers asked him to remove, as no leopard actually appears in the story. Additionally, the publisher asked him to raise Nancy's top under her arm, as they felt too much skin was showing. Otherwise, Sofo does a beautiful job rendering the mangrove trees, as well as the Spanish moss that covers so many of the trees here in Florida. It's an absolute beautiful cover, probably my favorite of all the ones he did for the series. Of course, I do live in Florida, so I may be a bit biased.
Considering how much flack I hear about and read online concerning these final digests in the series, I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery. The author (can't find any clue as to the ghostwriter) did an excellent job setting up the mystery, providing some great chapter cliffhangers, and giving the cast some very good characterization, which is why the ultimate reveal at the end regarding some of the characters comes as a surprise. I would say this one is definitely worth the read.
RATING: 10 baskets of fried conch fritters out of 10 for a great mystery that gives readers an actual taste of the Florida Everglades - Nancy Drew-style!
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