To be sure, this is not a Scooby Doo mystery. You won’t find a cheesy-looking, anthropomorphized dog playing an unwilling detective in The Bungalow Mystery, but a fiercely eager, pretty, girl detective who uses her brains to get her crooks. Her name: Nancy Drew. Location: I’m Not Exactly Sure.

Recently I read and reviewed the book, Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew And The Women Who Created Her. It seems that Nancy’s fictitious hometown of River Heights was located in the Middle West, which is where her creator, Mildred Wirt (later Mildred Wirt Benson) hailed from--in Iowa. It’s true. In the book where it copied ‘the detailed information and data about Nancy Drew herself,’ it says this to my surprise: Nancy Drew, a true daughter of the Middle West, takes pride in the fertility of her State, and sees beauty in a crop of waving green corn as well as in the rolling hills and the expanse of prairie land. Pp 236

Yet in The Bungalow Mystery, originally the third of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories and published in 1930, has a few lakes and a lot of woods not far from her town and I can’t remember Nancy ever admiring a field of corn, can you? I haven’t read any of Mildred’s old books that were updated and revised in the late 1950s, my copy of The Bungalow Mystery itself a ‘new story for today’s readers…based on the original of the same title’ and published in 1960 by another writer (Eastern U.S.).

So Nancy Drew’s location is fuzzy. Let’s just say she lives in an imaginary world, yes? Location’s not important in these books.

What is most important then? The story?

Plot: Nancy and a girlfriend (not George or Bess) are caught on a lake by a ferocious storm and are rescued amazingly by a girl their age. It turns out that her mother has just died, leaving her a wealthy orphan, and she’s about to meet her new guardians. Something is suspicious about the couple, though, and soon their rescuer needs rescuing herself. She hides out at Nancy’s while the sleuth investigates the mystery and her lawyer father’s bank mystery too, which helps her to solve her friend’s guardian problems, but not without getting herself in and out of trouble.

Analysis: The story is fairly pedestrian and predictable, which makes it more fun for younger readers who don’t wish much violence and expect happy endings. The bad characters are very bad while the good characters are very good so we know who gets our sympathy and who to root for. Lots of action and atmospheric thrills.

Verdict: The story isn’t the most important reason for the phenomenal success of Nancy Drew Mystery Stories still loved today by millions.

I propose that Nancy is the reason. It is her unflappable courage, daring actions, quick and intuitive wit, compassion for those in need, enviable independence and how everybody respects her, even the bad guys in the end! She even draws great-looking guys to her like nails to a magnet, but she hardly has time for them. What a girl! We want to be just like her. I certainly did as a pre-teen and, heck, I still do and I’m sure others feel the same way, right?

Another reviewer has accused the 180-page The Bungalow Mystery of having corny dialogue. That doesn't mean Nancy's talking about the corn, but sounds stupid.

“One good gust of wind would blow the place over,” Nancy said to herself. (pp 95)

She thinks quite a bit to herself, but other than that and the dialogue she said aloud that reviewer noted it doesn’t seem too corny to me. I think the problem is that teens normally use slang and curse, but "Carolyn Keene's" teens don't. Also, the story was slashed from twenty-five chapters to twenty like the rest of the older books and some things like the dialogue will suffer because of it. I haven’t read the original version yet, but it probably reads better and you might prefer it.

I enjoyed the book, anyhow. I love Nancy Drew. Reading member wordwalker’s wonderful review of The Mystery of Nancy Drew: Girl Sleuth on the Couch last night made me ponder the psychological, mythical reasons that attract me to Nancy. She’s a Heroine. A Goddess. A Detective. Yes, that explains it. (For more information on the intriguing book, see the link below.)

Mystery solved!

My review of Girl Sleuth: http://www.epinions.com/content_223769628292

wordwalker's review of The Mystery of Nancy Drew: http://www.epinions.com/book-review-207C-CBD07D9-39256B65-prod3

Recommended: Yes