The Secret Of The Wooden Lady (1950) - Plot & Excerpts
I am aware that the author, Carolyn Keene, is just a pseudonym for a number of writers who wrote book in the Nancy Drew series. If you read the books from the beginning till the later books (the original one to sixty-four ones), you could discern the level of intricacy of the mysteries that Nancy and the gang encounter as well as how the characters were written.Now, there are basic characteristics that the writers falls on when it comes to Nancy, George and Bess. Nancy is a smart/detective/Mary Poppins, George is tomboyish/game for anything and Bess is fearful/overly cautionary. Over the succeeding books from The Secret of the Old Clock, the girls' characteristics had slight gradients but still retain some core features: Nancy notices behavior and would be suspicious of a random development, George would sometimes err on the side of caution and Bess would surprise you and even instigate going into danger.But here? Here in this book? A big N O for these girls. Why wasn't Nancy suspicious when "Mr. Ogden" suddenly appeared and demanded everyone off the boat? Why didn't she ask questions? She did ask but... *shakes head*And Bess irritated me. "Oh, Nancy, we must stop this and leave because of a lizard." Some would say that Bess acts as a foil for George and reigns Nancy in whenever she becomes too intense. But really, if she's that concerned about getting involved in something dangerous, why is she always lugging around after Nancy when she knows about the kind of work Nancy does. She's loyal, I'll give her that since she doesn't abandon her friends. Her outbursts just annoyed the hell out of me.
Nancy Drew would be pretty old now. Like in her 50s or 60s, I'm not so good at maths. I wonder if they ever did any books about her adult life. I wonder if she ever did become a detective?Read this years ago and I liked it more now. It started off slow. I was picking up the paper and actually talking to people instead of reading. But once Nancy got on the boat, the mystery kicked off and it was all go. It's not a perfect book, George is a complete rip off of George from the Famous Five. Nancy always finds a clue as the criminals are always dropping things and her dad doesn't seem that bothered that his daughter is putting herself in danger. I mean she only got knocked out, locked away etc. Normal kids stuff.......thats cool, just fly back home and leave her there with a crazy criminal. Think the social should get involved. Does hold the test of time pretty well, think children and nostalgic adults will enjoy their time with Nancy Drew!
What do You think about The Secret Of The Wooden Lady (1950)?
Nancy's at it again with another mystery. In this one, she's trying to help a sea captain figure out the mystery of The Bonnie Scot. The captain has been renting, and would like to buy, this ship. But he can't purchase it until the provenance is cleared. Also, someone's been sneaking around on the ship and searching for something, but the captain isn't sure what. Nancy get help from Bess and George as well as Burt, Ned, and Dave in this mystery that takes her to the East Coast and has her interacting with some shady dock characters and recovering a lost ruby.
—Jessi
I recently reread this book after moving my book collection out of my mother's house. I read it probably many times as a child although I was really a fan of The Boxcar Children. And rereading this... it seems to make sense why.This felt much more dated than The Boxcar Children. The attitudes toward women felt more sexist. These were older women than the characters in The Boxcar Children, but the women felt more delicate, even though they were the... heroes. They seemed to be very poor role models.And the characters seemed to be oddly thick about making obvious connections. This did happen to some degree in The Boxcar Children, but that was more an adventure and this is more a mystery... with little mystery. And I question the competence of the villains in this novel too. This is no Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle.
—Matthew
Nancy Drew is at it again. This time she is trying to help her dad's friend become the owner of the Bonny Scot the ship he has been renting. But in the begiining there were mysterious calls telling Nancy to stay way from ship.Nancy as usual didn't listen and went to the ship anyway. They couldn't find history on the Bonny Scot so they were having trouble selling the ship. Then Nancy found out there were stowaways on the ship. Then a fire started Nancy still was looking for the real name of the Bonny Scot and in the end she found it. She did some looking around and found sayings like long live the dream of melissa. They found the boat was the dream of melissa and the captian got to keep the ship as his home. As for the stowaways they got arrested and are spending their time in jail.
—Emily
