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Read The Spider Sapphire Mystery (1967)

The Spider Sapphire Mystery (1967)

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Rating
3.88 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0448095459 (ISBN13: 9780448095455)
Language
English
Publisher
grosset & dunlap

The Spider Sapphire Mystery (1967) - Plot & Excerpts

Oh yes, I'm still reading Nancy Drew novels. As an adult with far too much literary criticism classes, reading them is a very different experience for me than it was as a kid. Then, reading these books was like watching action blockbusters - sure, in the back of my mind I knew they were silly and outlandish and there were better things I could be doing, but dammit I was having fun. Nowadays, the experience is a little different. Reading Nancy Drew now is like watching a Mystery Science Theater short - one of those 1950's informational ones on personal grooming or careers for ladies. Now the outlandish, outdated absurdity is brought forward into the harsh light of day, and I am suddenly aware of how stupid these books really are. But I still read them, because they're still fun. The casual sexism and racism is just a bonus. That's why I think Spider Sapphire Mystery is the ideal introductory book for initiating the innocent into the world of Nancy Drew. There's jewel thieves and rich people and lots of attempts to kill Nancy and her friends (Ned even gets kidnapped and then anything that may have remained of his masculinity is destroyed when Nancy rescues him). And the majority of the story takes place in Africa (Nancy and the gang get to go on a safari, yay!), so there's lots of great vintage racism. And at the same time, everything is just so goddamn wholesome it makes your teeth hurt: "Before long, the chattering, laughing Emerson group hurried aboard the chartered plane. When they were airborne, small groups began singing songs, some of them college numbers, others from musical comedy hits. Once in a while someone would call out a wisecrack and set everyone laughing." Doesn't that just sound swell? Safaris! Nice, grinning natives! Chartered planes! Musical comedy singalongs! WISECRACKING! Someone in this group needs to figure out that it's the 60's, and fast. Shrooms and rock music and premarital necking for everyone!

Nancy is a world traveler! To Africa! With fewer comments about Bess's weight! No, really, I don't think it was as bad in this book.Nancy stumbles into a mystery when she learns that a fabricated gem containing a spider may be swapped out for the real deal. It belongs to an Indian gentleman but he is somehow in Africa? She, of course, solves the mystery, finds the gem and even locates the missing brother of a famous singer who was thought to have been mauled to death by lions but really made it out alive but with amnesia.

What do You think about The Spider Sapphire Mystery (1967)?

Nancy Drew is trying to unlock the case about the missing spider sapphire and one made in a lab. Although one is in River Heights it is not the same one the real one has spinettes but it River Heights it doesn't. Nancy gets hooked in to this mystery because her friend Ned went missing right before Nancy, Bess, George, Burt, Dave, and Ned were going to go on a trip with the boy's collage.The gang got beat up, kidnappped twice, and Nancy got a plastic bag put over her head. The people with the spider sapphire really didn't want Nancy interfering with their hopes to sell the sapphire.In the end Nancy and Ned go into this dungeon in search for the sapphire. Nancy finds it in a box that was hidden in the earth a little. She took the sapphire and put it in a mask she had gotten. Thats when they tried to leave but couldn't then out walked the men who had broughten all the trouble for the gang. They wanted the sapphire and they thought Nancy had which she did but said she didn't.The searched Nancy and Ned the couldn't find the sapphire anywhere. Thats when they started telling Ned and Nancy the plan the was suppose to happen. Then the police walked in and arrested the men. They asked Nancy if she knew where the gem was and she said she had it. She said she would return it to the owner herself and the police said it was okay. Nancy saves the day once again.
—Emily

This book is actually an insanely boring hunt for a sapphire with a fossilized spider inside it.OMG GUNFIRE! Someone shoots out Nancy's tires. Actually, no, they shoot at her tires while she's parked, but don't manage to actually puncture them. So. Hm.Safari to East Africa! Wondering when she's going to go to Antarctica to look for Bernadette. If a person is black, they're referred to as "a black," like, "the cab driver was a black wearing a gold chain." There's also some bitchy girl who chills out and is beautiful after a baboon steals her blond wig.Ned is drugged and kidnapped by unknown assailants. Nancy briefly loses consciousness when someone ties a bag over her head. George gets kidnapped by a "baboon" that ends up being a black in disguise. Ned gets knocked unconscious in a fight. Nancy and Ned get their hands burned by acid.
—Melanie

This Nancy Drew novel was intriguing to me because it was a destination story -i.e. not solely based in River Heights or America. I loved the incorporation of East Africa into the plot line as well as the different culture and society and learning about it too, even though some of the information may be (most likely is) outdated. The lure of jewels was quite tempting as well and I am always amazed at how Nancy manages to wriggle herself into the strangest most convenient situations, like she and her friends Bess and George are allowed to accompany a university class of students and their professor on a trip to East Africa -how convenient for you Nancy that THAT happens to be where your mystery hunt will take you next!Always good fun and a delightful read to pass the time.
—Stephanie

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