Nancy Drew Mystery Stories # 142 - The Case of Capital Intrigue

"Nancy's in Washington, D.C., and she's uncovered a monumental mystery!" (cover blurb)

 

"Nancy investigates a shocker of a crime - at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue!" (back cover blurb)

 

Published in April 1998, this Nancy Drew digest is unique - in some ways, it follows the books that have come before; yet, in other ways, it digresses greatly from the typical Nancy Drew Mystery Stories formula.  According to Wikipedia (and yes, I do realize, you can't take everything there as the gospel truth), this particular book was ghostwritten by Elizabeth Nugent.  I am not familiar with this name, and I only find two authors by this name:  Liz Nugent, a bestselling author who also worked in film, theatre, and television and who currently lives in Dublin; and Elizabeth R. Nugent, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University, whose research and writing focuses on the politics of authoritarianism and religion in the Middle East.  Quite honestly, neither of these seem to fit the bill, with the latter being (I believe) too young to have been writing books back in 1998.  It is coincidental, however, that the latter Ms. Nugent teaches politics, and that's exactly what this mystery is all about!

 

The Case of Capital Intrigue takes Nancy Drew to Washington, D.C., where she is visiting her best friend, George Fayne, who has an internship as a photographer's assistant at the White House. Now, those who have read the past couple of books are probably asking yourself - didn't George and Nancy just have an internship at a television station in the last book?  And were they not volunteering (interning) for a non-profit organization that helps teenagers in the one before that?  What was going on at Simon & Schuster around this time, that all of Nancy's mysteries seemed to center around some form of internship to get the mystery off the ground?  And let's be completely honest here - how in the world would an eighteen year-old girl with absolutely no photography experience get selected to be an intern at the White House, of all places?  And how in the world would she be allowed to invite her best friend, who is also just eighteen years of age, to come visit her on the job?  Talk about some major suspension of disbelief!  Even in 1998, I do not believe the White House and jobs associated therewith were that easy to get.

 

Aside from that, Nancy gets involved with some political intrigue, as a precious gift that was being presented by the President of the fictional South American country of San Valente goes missing, right under Nancy's nose (quite literally, as she is looking at the gold hummingbird statue when someone konks her on the head, knocking her unconscious, so they can steal the statue (p. 24)).  If news of this theft gets out, then it could not only destroy the treaty being signed between the countries, but it could look very bad for the current administration (and, this being 1998, that would have been Bill Clinton's administration).  Thus, Nancy sets about trying to find the thief, while trying to navigate all of the game-playing that goes on in Washington - and, oh, yes, there is plenty of that.  It seems everyone is out to get everyone else's job, and that includes poor George.  I mean, seriously, who would really be so interested in getting an assistant photographer job that they would send threatening notes and even poison George's food?  Well, that someone is definitely there, and unfortunately, those incidents become red herrings in Nancy's search for the hummingbird thief.

 

Now, if George getting the internship and Nancy being allowed access to the White House weren't enough unbelievable events, then I won't even bring up the moment where Nancy sneaks into the office of a secret service agent, figures out what the password to his computer is, peek at some highly classified files, and then talk her way out of the whole thing when the agent's secretary returns before Nancy can get out of the office (pp. 58-65)!  I realize this is fiction, and the story is not intended for adults, but seriously?  I think even pre-teens would be intelligent and savvy enough to know there is no way an eighteen year-old girl would be able to get away with that.  And let's not discuss how the White House security not only believe her in the climactic moments of the story, when Nancy figures out who the thief is and goes about to set a trap for him in the White House, but they allow Nancy to plan out the details and direct them in what they need to do!  Even my ability to suspend my disbelief was pushed to the limits with that one.

 

All of that being said, the story was not really bad at all (when you overlook those unbelievable scenes).  The danger is extremely high, as not only do George and Nancy nearly get run off of the third story of a parking garage, but Nancy actually gets shot at not once, but twice, over the course of the story!  I was rather surprised, as I recall one of the Stratemeyers' big rules was that there was never any guns in play.  Of course, this was years after Simon & Schuster took over the properties, so those rules were likely thrown out the window some time prior; however, that level of threat, along with the political intrigue, made this feel more like a Nancy Drew Files mystery than a regular Nancy Drew Mystery Stories tale.  In fact, since the Nancy Drew Files came to an end in 1997, one has to wonder if this was perhaps a left-over story that got repurposed from the Files to the Mystery Stories series.  This might also explain why Nancy has an admirer in the story that she not only encourages, but she allows him to kiss her - twice!  What in the world would Ned think of that?

 

A few fun facts come out of this book - first, Chicago is firmly established as "the neareset big city to her hometown of River Heights" (p. 2).  I don't recall any of the digests so blatantly making such a statement, but if I recall correctly, a friend has told me the Files make reference to Chicago more often than not (which would support my believe this manuscript was originally intended as a Files story).  Second, George is said to be "five foot eight," while Nancy is "five foot seven," both eighteen years old (p. 31).  We knew the age, but I cannot recall if these heights were ever stated so definitely before.  Third, ipecac, which is used to poison George, is an actual mediation that is used to induce vomiting and could potentially cause dangerous complications, as described in the book (p. 77).

 

The cover art is one again by the super-talented Ernie Norcia, who manages to create a somewhat dramatic scene with Nancy and Eduardo (the son of the San Valente ambassador, who, by the way, gets kidnapped towards the end, with his life threatened if Eduardo does not makes sure the treaty never gets signed!).  I had always thought the man in the cover art was Ned, but nope - it's Eduardo, as he and Nancy make a run for it in the rain when a sniper tries to shoot them while they are visiting the Lincoln Memorial (p. 107).  And, surprisingly, Norcia very nearly got the clothes the two of them are wearing, based on how they are described n the story.

 

Setting aside the hard-to-believe elements of the story, the book was actually a pretty solid read, with good pacing and a well-plotted mystery.  I would mark this as one of the better of the Nancy Drew digests.

 

RATING:  8 regular turkey and Swiss cheese sandwiches out of 10 for upping the ante a bit for Nancy Drew, giving her a more mature and far more dangerous mystery to solve than she is used to (in this series, at least!) 

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories # 141 - The Wild Cat Crime

"Nancy faces a dangerous threat when danger is uncaged!'  (cover blurb)

 

"A hunt for missing cougar cubs leads Nancy into a sinister trap!" (back cover blurb)

 

It is interesting that Simon & Schuster would publish two Nancy Drew books back-to-back where Nancy and her best friends, Bess and George, are holding down jobs of sorts.  Since the series inception back in 1930, Nancy and/or her friends having an actual job, or even an internship, has been seen only on rare occasions; here were are, though, at the beginning of 1998, and Nancy and her friends can be found working - volunteering for an after-school program in the previous book (140 - The Door-to-Door Deception), and now interning at a local television station (Nancy and George) and at a zoo (Bess) for this book.  Although both volunteering and interning are jobs that normally come without any salary (it's not like Nancy needs money!), it is rather unique to find the girls doing something other than simply solving mysteries in their leisure time.

 

The Wild Cat Crime, published in February 1998, lets readers know from the very first page of the story that Nancy and George are interning at Channel 9 news (p. 1).  I believe this is the first reference we have ever seen of an actual television station, and it is further identified as "WRVH-TV" on the next page (p. 2).  The mystery, however, has little to do with their work at the television station; instead, the mystery comes from Bess's own summer internship at the River Heights Zoo - an endangered cougar successfully gave birth to four baby cubs, and shortly after one cub is thought to be missing (but is thankfully found having somehow gotten beyond the door into the habitat area), all four cubs disappear!  When Bess's boss, Sally, finds out Nancy is a detective, she asks her to look into the matter and find the cubs quickly, as they were still newborns who needed to be fed on a strict schedule or they could be irreparably harmed!  Needless, to say, Nancy is on the case.

 

What gives this story a bit of a twist - or should I say WHO gives this story a bit of a twist - is the investigative news reporter for whom Nancy and George work, one Christy Kelley.  Christy is not the easiest woman to work for, and Nancy and George have spent most of their internship doing menial jobs, barely saying one word to the girls since they started.  When Nancy shares the news of the cubs' birth with Christy, thinking it might make a good story, Christy takes it out of Nancy's hands, deciding it is best to do it with just her camera and sound men.  George believes Christy is jealous of Nancy, as she was hired because of her fame as a detective.  "Christy seems pretty ambitious," George tells her.  "She might be worried you do a better job investigating stories" (p. 4).  Thus, from the get-go, the reader knows that Christy Kelley is going to be a foil during the investigation.  One might say she is the "Brenda Carlton" character in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series (Brenda, for those who do not know, was a recurring character in the Nancy Drew Files series, which ended in 1997, and she was a reporter who was constantly causing problems for Nancy during her investigations).

 

The ghostwriter for this book definitely throw Nancy into one dangerous situation after another.  She and George face off against a deadly Cobra snake;  Nancy and Bess are on a monorail that derails right next to a hyena pen; Nancy is held by knife point by a store owner who mistakes her for the kidnapper; and Nancy is pushed into a cougar habitat with a deadly male cougar ready to attack!  Whoever stole the four cougar cubs is definitely not playing games!  There are suspects galore: Christy (who is said, more than one, bears a striking resemblance to Nancy) seems a little too determined to find those missing cubs before Nancy; Hawk, the cameraman, goes a little overboard in his defense against locking up animals in cages; Joey, the sound man, is evasive and acts very suspicious every time Nancy questions him about the day of the kidnapping; Eduardo Vallejo, the cat trainer who knows more about the cougars than anyone; Randy Thompson, the assistant vet, whose position gives him easy access to the cougars at any time (and he would know how to sedate the mother to nab the cubs!); and even Sally Nelson, the main zoo vet and the woman for whom Bess works.  While Sally seems to be the most unlikely suspect, we all know that in a good mystery, anyone can be the culprit!

 

While the story is very fast paced, due to the limited page count (149 pages with the not-so-small font), the mystery actually develops nicely, and the clues are somewhat subtle, so as not to be glaringly obvious to the reader.  It make for a pretty good read.  One of the things that did annoy me was the number of times George and Bess referred to Nancy as either "Drew" or "Nan."  I realize by the time this book was published in the late '90s, using nicknames, such as a last name or a shortened version of a first name, was a long-established thing, the Nancy Drew series has always, for the most part, given Nancy Drew a level of respect by having everyone refer to her by her proper name.  Calling her by a nickname may modernize the story somewhat, but I think it also takes away from the strength that her name gives the character.  I mean, even the director of the zoo, when he meets her, asks, ""Are you, by any chance, the Nancy Drew - the detective?" (p. 46).  This is a prime example of where the name really matters!

 

(On a side note, the author does manage to throw in a Sherlock Holmes reference, when Nancy first notices the monorail track, which lead "to a quaint, old-fashioned-looking train platform and station.  It looks like a station where Sherlock Homes might catch a train, Nancy thought" [p. 8].  Nice to see one great detective make mention of another!)

 

The gorgeous cover art is provided by Ernie Norcia, who, as fans of the digests know, provided the art for a large majority of these half-white covers.  The scene captures the climatic moment near the end of the mystery, when Nancy is pushed into the cougar habitat and must find a way to escape before a deadly male cougar makes a meal out of her!  Not so sure the outfit Nancy is wearing matches the clothing she had on in the story, but that black dress does work perfectly with the dark, night scene pained by Norcia, and her expression captures her realization of just how much danger she is in!

 

I would go so far to say that this is one of the better digests, as it provides a well-plotted mystery with characters who are not just cookie-cutter stereotypes.  I'd recommend this one.

 

RATING:  9 missing B-rolls of film out of 10 for a really wild mystery set in one of the most unlikely of places (let's face it - how many crimes really happen in a zoo?) - and Nancy had to match wits with a criminal who seemed to always be one step ahead of her!