Tuesday, August 9, 2022 The Intrepid Girl Sleuths

I just finished a puzzle depicting many book covers of the Nancy Drew mystery story series, prompting a continual sense of nostalgia as I worked on it. Back when my older sister was reading Nancy Drew books, I was reading Trixie Belden books, good old Trixie of the short, sandy curls, who called her mother “Moms,” (why with the ‘s’ on the end, I wondered) and whose younger brother Bobby always said he could keep a “secrud.” Trixie, and her friends Honey and Violet found mysteries all over the place and I became convinced that mysteries were waiting to be found in my world, too. It turns out they weren’t, but that’s probably good news.

I graduated to Nancy Drew in time and enjoyed reading stories of the girl sleuth with her friends, George (the tom-boy) and Bess. And of course, always lurking in the background was Ned Nickerson, Nancy’s handsome college friend. There was hint of romance there that was never really defined. I wonder if the modern Nancy Drew stories have made more of that relationship. By now, she’s probably living in sin with Ned. Nancy’s father, the lawyer Carson Drew, was amazingly tolerant of Nancy’s sleuthing activities. “Be careful,” he’d admonish as she went sailing off to tail suspicious characters. I used to think it would be comforting to have a Hannah Gruen in my corner, making apple pies and bustling around clucking disapprovingly when appropriate.

When my sister died, I inherited her collection of Nancy Drew stories, and I have a half-dozen or so of the Trixie Belden books. They’re not great literature, I’ll admit, but they provided this imaginative girl some very enjoyable moments in my reading chair.

Now for the question at hand. You must have known one was coming, right? What is the closest you’ve been to a real live mystery? Would it have made a good plot for Trixie Belden or Nancy Drew? Enquiring minds want to know! As for me, the only mysteries I’ve been near have been of my own imagination, seeing mysterious mountains where there were only plain Jane molehills. Again, probably good news.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning unless something nefarious happens to it and I have to channel Nancy Drew to find clues and track down the diabolical suspects.