Note: Kristin reads and reviews both Christian and secular fiction on A Simply Enchanted Life. Out of respect for my readers, I am including a content review. This content review will help you decide whether this book is suitable for you.
Christian or Secular: Secular
ASEL Rating: no profanity, violence, bedroom scenes, or other content that could otherwise be considered disturbing.
Suggested Age: 8+
The Bungalow Mystery by Carolyn Keene
Published by Penguin on May 1st, 1987 by Grosset & Dunlap (first published 1930)
Genres: Fiction, General, Girls & Women, Mysteries & Detective Stories, Young Adult
Pages: 180
While driving a motorboat around the Twin Lakes, Nancy and her friend Helen get caught in a dangerous storm. Luckily, they are rescued by another teenage girl in a rowboat. They soon learn that their rescuer is Laura Pendleton, whose mother has recently having passed away. Laura has come to meet up with her new guardians, but something isn’t quite right about them. Nancy investigates the situation, and soon she stumbles upon a shocking surprise in the cellar of a bungalow!
This series won’t win any awards for heart-pounding suspense. I compare how different books are to these and it surprises me how simplistic and Scooby-Doo cartoonish they are. Nancy Drew is a teenage girl with no college degree that I can tell and yet, she’s solving mysteries and working for her father who is a lawyer.
Yet, I can’t help but love that simplicity. Nostalgia makes me give this book a 5-star. However, I would say it’s not the same as a 5-star book written in 2018. We’ve really come a long way in character depth and believability in fiction.
One thing that does slightly grate on my nerves so far about this series is how Nancy’s mystery always coincides with whatever case her father is working on. That’s just weird to me. But, it doesn’t ruin the story for me. I don’t really read this story for a super believable suspense so much as a simplistic stroll down memory lane.
Once again this book is void of Nancy’s friends, George and Bess as well as her boyfriend, Ned. Hopefully, they turn up in the series soon. It just doesn’t seem the same without them!
Join me next week for the next book in the series, The Mystery at Lilac Inn!
The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene Published by Penguin on 1961 by Grosset & Dunlap (first published 1930)
Genres: Fiction, General, Girls & Women, Mysteries & Detective Stories, Young Adult
Pages: 180
Nancy and her friend Helen visit their friend Emily Willouby at the Lilac Inn, which Emily now owns, to help her plan her wedding. Emily plans on selling inherited diamonds in order to help fix up the Lilac Inn. However, Nancy soon learns that someone has been impersonating her and making expensive purchases under her name. Soon after, Emily’s diamonds are stolen! Can Nancy find the thieves and recover the missing diamonds?
About Carolyn Keene
Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon are the pseudonyms under which many ghostwriters penned the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series, respectively. Both series were created by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate book packaging firm, in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Stratemeyer’s daughter, Harriet, and syndicate writer Mildred Wirt Benson were the two people primarily responsible for bringing the iconic character of Nancy Drew to life in the minds and hearts of millions of readers around the world.
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