Potentially the worst of the series. Featuring a robot and portraits plastered with poison, #48 drifts incongruously into sci-fi and away from the classic Drew formula of wholesome plausible eeriness. What's with a house surrounded by a burning moat? Was Thomas Banister also the medieval king of River Heights? Any how do you cross it on branches and palm fronds? Can't imagine that would work well for portly Bess. And what's with calling an electrician to re-head the decapitated robot? Do electricians get a lot of that kind of work? And why does the head come off so easily? And if you have a tape that tells the robot to go around knocking people out, does it know not to attack you? Or do you just turn it on and hope to outrun whomever your intended victim is? And why does Nancy buy the story of the final whereabouts of Thomas Banister which seem transparently fishy when she was so skeptical of Mead and his charity for the Native American children when that turned out to be a well-executed scam? And why did Banister leave all the money in the house if he was going on the lamb? And does anyone else feel like the cosmopolitan Carson Drew would be awkward and out-of-place on a horse in the Western U.S. desert? And how do we know that there weren't really only 2 Banister siblings and the other brother and Thomas are really just the same person with the sister in on the scam. Frankly, a jaded reading of the book suggests Bess wasn't the only one who got taken in this one. In short, skip to #49.
The Crooked Banister is a children's story by Carolyn Keene (pseudonym) and the 48th book in the Nancy Drew series. Nancy and her friends spend an exciting week exploring a mysterious zigzag house with its fantastically crooked staircase, its bizarre serpent picture, and an unpredictable robot that nearly causes the young detective to lose her life. But despite the threat of danger from the robot, Nancy is determined to solve the mystery of the weird house and to locate the missing owner, who is wanted by the police.I’ve always been a voracious reader. So, as a child, one of my favorite things about summer was the frequent trips to our local library, which was less than a mile from our house. Like most young girls of a certain age (ahem), my love for mysteries started with Nancy Drew—there simply was no mystery too baffling that she couldn’t solve. And as I would read her most current adventure, I would imagine myself following in her footsteps … taking charge and plunging ahead, getting into mischief, chasing down culprits and solving the mystery. Even though I haven’t re-read any of these books since I was a child, I still think that Nancy is a great character—her courage, confidence and fierce independence, makes her an iconic source of inspiration for young girls everywhere. A must-read children's book, The Crooked Banister is another wonderful Nancy Drew mystery.
What do You think about The Crooked Banister (1971)?
The book "The Crooked Banister" was definitely an intriguing mystery and a good read! Carolyn Keene has written many mysteries, and so far, out of all of them I have read, this is my favorite. This book is about a case that Nancy solves with her friends Beth and George in an odd house. Her journey involves a crooked banister, a robbery, some poison, snakes, portraits, and flaming bridges. I think that Carolyn Keene did a great job making this a very mysterious story, and is one of my favorite mysteries.
—Margaret
I recently decided to reread a book from one of my favorite series from when I was a kid, and the rating is based on how much I enjoyed it when I was about 9 years old. The Native Americans on the reservations spoke like they were from another country, and this along with the other stereotypes lessened the quality of this reading. I do think this was originally written around the 1950s, when people were not as educated on cultural differences. Between the ages of eight and twelve, I read most of the book from the Nancy Drew collection, and am still a mystery lover to this day. The series did a pretty good job of drawing in young readers, and that's a definite plus.
—Tina Hayes
Criticising Nancy Drew is like criticising your own grandmother, seriously ;) I thought the Zigzag house was kinda cool, but it was confusing at times with the complex contraptions (that bookcase thing blew my mind - what the heck was going on there?). The ending was a tiny bit rushed and the mystery was solved by someone childishly sliding down a banister. Like, what? And Nancy gets credit for that? (Also, I thought when they were talking about Indian reservations, they meant INDIAN INDIAN reservations, not American Indians, and it totally confused me. LOL.)
—GSGS
