Nancy Drew Mystery Stories # 144 - The E-Mail Mystery

 "Nancy uncovers intrigue on the internet ... and the password is danger!" (cover blurb)

 

 "Nancy goes on-line and keys into a criminal conspiracy" (back cover blurb)

 

This book is definitely a product of its time!  While it moves Nancy further into the technological age, what with the e-mail and internet usage, it is certainly date specific, with its talk of floppy disks and dial-up modems! First published in August 1998, which was defined by slow, audible 56k dial-up modems, where you had to pay monthly fees for access to the internet through sites such as AOL and where you communicated in group chat rooms or message boards.  The internet was nothing like it is today; so, naturally, a book published in that time and read by today's readers would seem greatly antiquated (even though it was less than 30 years old at this point!).  That being said, it was a fun read, mostly because in addition to the e-mail/internet focus, but also the fact that it is set in Carson Drew's law office and the mystery itself pertains to some of his legal cases!

 

The E-Mail Mystery finds Nancy accepting a short summer position at her father's firm to help transfer some closed files off of the office computer system and onto portable disks.  "Summer vacation at last!" she exclaims at the opening of the story (p. 1), and she is excited at the prospect of going sailing with George up in Bridgehaven (p. 2), a fictional city that is apparently not far from River Heights.  Before she goes, however, she gets caught up in a mystery at her father's office - it seems several recent clients have all demanded Mr. Drew accept exceptionally low settlement offers on their cases just shortly after he starts to represent them.  The only apparent connection between the cases is that all of them have the same law firm representing the insurance companies: Williams and Brown.  While Mr. Drew thinks it is a coincidence, Nancy smells a mystery!  Thus, her summer internship begins, and she heads to her father's law firm to find out what is really going on!

I have to applaud the ghostwriter for this book, Denise Hildago, as she brings back Carson Drew's legal secretary and assistant, Miss Hanson, who long-time Nancy Drew fans will recognize from her appearances in The Bungalow Mystery, The Clue of the Tapping Heels, The Spider Sapphire Mystery, The Mysterious Mannequin, Clue in the Ancient Disguise, and The Mysterious Image.  It is nice to see some continuity with those pre-Simon & Schuster-owned days.  In addition, Nancy does something she says she has not done since she was in the third-grade: brings "out an old blue notebook" and writes down a list of clues and suspects (pp. 112-14).  This, obviously, is a reference to the Nancy Drew Notebooks series, which ran from 1994 - 2005, having been first published just four years prior to this one seeing print.  Thus, the author was definitely tying in some continuity from the various series.  Even the e-mail and cyber cafe plot-points hearken back to the final Nancy Drew Files mystery, Crime at the Ch@t Cafe, published just one year before this one.  The plot of this book, however, differs greatly from that of the final Files book.

 

The mystery gets underway when Nancy discovers that someone at her father's firm has sent e-mails to the Williams and Brown law firm on the very same day that each client engaged her father's services.  She is unable to discover what exactly was sent to the other firm, but the fact that each case settled so quickly thereafter, and each of those clients now refuse to talk with her father sets off any number of alarms in Nancy's mind.  The question is - who did it?  Was it Blaine Warner, Mr. Drew's new associate at the firm?  She graduated top of her class, wrote for the law review, and won a number of mock trials.  Is the fact that she went to school with the son of one of the partners at Williams and Brown a telling clue?  Or was it Henry Yi, Mr. Drew's new paralegal?  He's a hot shot computer whiz, who is also quite nosy, always sticking his nose into everyone else's business - plus, he knows the passwords of everyone in the office!  Or was it Byron Thomas, the summer intern?  He is a quiet, nervous young man who is nicknamed "the poet" because of his name and love of poetry.  Is his nervous nature a product of his shyness, or is he hiding something?  When Nancy, with Bess's help, learns the identity of the e-mail sender was Miss Hanson - does that mean Mr. Drew's secretary, after so many years of loyalty, would betray her employer?

 

While we are on the subject of Bess, let's talk about that sudden knowledge of computers and the internet that Bess has! It appears in this book Bess "has joined an Internet chat group about historical and contemporary romance novels" and that being "on-line was so interesting to her that she earned all about computers, communication systems, Internet links, Web browsers - all that stuff" (p. 10).  With George out of the picture in this story, Bess manages to develop some skills, other than eating, that can help Nancy solve the mystery!  It is funny that Bess gets the computer skills here, but when S&S rebooted the series in 2004 with the Nancy Drew, Girl Detective series, it was George that suddenly had the computer skills, while Bess became more of a mechanic.  Not sure which version I prefer - in either case, it does expand the character somewhat, and give her more depth than just someone who is always on a diet!  Plus, the skill really comes in handy in this particular mystery, as even Nancy admits she knows very little about e-mails and internet (which opens the door for the author to have Bess explain quite a bit about online communication throughout the story).

 

A rather unusual reference in the book is the name of a restaurant that John Brown Jr. suggests to his father as a place for lunch:  Steak and Ale (p. 25).  This is actually a real restaurant, that was founded in 1966 and eventually went out of business due to bankruptcy in the early 2000s (although a quick search online shows that a new Steak and Ale opened in 2024 in Minnesota!).  It's not very often that a Nancy Drew mystery uses real locations, such as restaurants, within the stories.  The restaurant plays a rather important part, as well, as Nancy happens to see some of her suspects at the restaurant, wondering just which one is actually working with the Williams and Brown law firm.  Another name brand reference comes in the form of a joke made by Henry, when he startles Nancy while she is the copy room.  She responds with "Oh, Henry," to which the young paralegal quickly retorts, "No, that's a candy bar" (p. 59).  Oh Henry! was a candy bar containing peanuts, caramel, and fudge that was sold in the U.S. up until 2019 (with a slightly different version still manufactured and sold in Canada).  Again, it is surprising to see the author use specific brand names.

 

The final "brand name" use was when Nancy learns that Byron, the summer intern, has been going online to use Lexis-Nexis to perform legal research (p. 74).  Working as a paralegal myself, I am very familiar with the platform, and I was not aware that it was available online as far back as 1998!  I remember using Westlaw first, and later learning about the online offerings of Lexis-Nexis.  A quick search online reveals that Lexis-Nexis began making legal documents accessible online as early as the mid-1970s!  Thus, I learned something new about my own profession by reading this Nancy Drew novel!  And I will say this was probably what I enjoyed most about reading this book, was the legal aspects of the story.  The author did get most of the facts correct about legal research, the civil process, and client confidentiality.

 

And, okay, I lied.  There is one more "brand name" reference, although whether it was intentional or a joking nod, I'm not sure.  When Bess is helping Nancy find out who was e-mailing the opposing law firm, she sets up a new screen-name for them to use while communicating online.  They debate about whether to use "B and N, for Bess and Nancy" or "N and B, for Nancy and Bess" - and they ultimately settle on "B&N" (p. 82).  I found this humorous, as any book lover will immediately recognize that as the shorthand name of Barnes & Noble booksellers, which actually began using "B&N" in May of 1997, when they launched their online website, BN.com.  I would be curious to know if the author did that intentionally as a nod to the store that sold Nancy Drew books, or was it simply pure coincidence?

 

The cover art, depicting a scene straight off of page 105 when Nancy is being followed as she leaves a cyber cafe, holding a rose and some important papers, is once again provided by Ernie Norcia.  I find Norcia's art to be very detailed, and his renditions of Nancy to be truly beautiful (although I wish he gave her hair a more reddish tint).  The model for this cover appears to be the same model used for a number of the Files covers, making me wonder if perhaps the model was somehow contracted by Simon & Schuster, or whatever company they used to obtain their cover art, since her likeness appears in both the Mystery Stories and Files series.

 

This is another one of those digests that rates high on the scale in my book - great story, some crafty plotting, and the legal-aspect was definitely an added plus!

 

RATING:  9 pancakes covered in motor oil out of 10 for bringing Nancy back into a less dangerous world of legal-intrigue mysteries with a bit of humor thrown in to keep it light!