Review: Nancy Drew and the Clue of the Broken Locket

Another day, another mystery.  Nancy's father doesn't have time to deal with another of his client's issues, so of course he sends his teen-age daughter out in the woods to take care of things.

"It's super dangerous, so take a couple of your friends with you -- you know to increase the carnage if things go bad," he says between the lines.  "And also feel free to invite the boyfriends along later.  They are sexless cardboard cutouts, so you'll be fine."

Maybe it was in a bad mood when I read this, but this particular tome seems a tad out of date -- perhaps even for the times in which it was written.

Although it follows the basic Nancy Drew formula:  Do something dangerous because your father has too many cases (it's awesome that he trusts her, don't get me wrong -- but he already had a wife die and every book he just shoves a pipe in my mouth and sends his daughter off to war any chance he gets); Nancy invites her friends "The bold one" and the "chubby one" (yes, even in progressive female-led books we're making fun of the overweight character);  Nancy bites off more than she can chew (or rather there's NEVER just one mystery, there's usually 3 or 4 ALL RELATED TO THE SAME ANTAGONISTS!);  as an aside -- but not usually to help to any great degree (which is usually my favorite part of the book), the boyfriends are called (usually for some kind of sock hop), and not one of them tries to make a move on the girls (?)..."Well get our own cabin, and see you in the morning!"  --apparently sex wasn't invented until the 70's;  the cops of course don't believe her at first, so Nancy and her friends get in trouble;  Nancy finds a hidden alcove so that she can overhear the bad guys [probably due to time constraints -- because the plot ran long] talking about how and why they did the bad thing they did;  and then the mystery is solved and Nancy's already musing about her next adventure (usually along with a little advertisement for the next book.)

Neat.  Tidy.  Telling instead of showing.  Unrealistic communication.  Although charming, and I'll still read the next one of these because I love them.

BMB