Reviews - THE SECRET OF THE OLD CLOCK. Nancy Drew Mystery Stories No. 1.

1.44k reviews for:

THE SECRET OF THE OLD CLOCK. Nancy Drew Mystery Stories No. 1.

Carolyn Keene, Carolyn Keene

3.75 AVERAGE

malhawkeye's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 48%

Dropped to finish at a later date

robustogusto's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

cocoonofbooks's review against another edition

3.0

I never read these as a kid, though everyone assumed I did because I was such a big fan of mysteries. I'm not going to knock these too much since 1) they're written for kids and 2) they're from the 1930s. But I was definitely underwhelmed with this first book. It's a little bit generous to call it a mystery, since Nancy Drew doesn't really solve anything. Instead, she does the legwork of going to talk to people and then following up on the conveniently specific things they tell her, until she has everything she needs for the big reveal. This in itself doesn't make it a bad book, just not what I was expecting.

The characters are pretty one-dimensional and stereotypical — we have the poor but kind friends and relatives of the deceased who want to use their intended inheritance for noble things, like education, health care, and world travel. Then we have the "villains," the family of unattractive rich people who are rude to everyone. (Why the deceased ever made a will leaving everything to them, even if it was an older one, is never really explained.) And then we have our heroine, Nancy Drew, who is beautiful, nicely dressed, and handy with a wrench.

It's not bad as a simplistic adventure story, but without the nostalgia I can't say I loved it.

mangobooks's review against another edition

4.0

This series was a large part of my childhood. Nancy is fabulous. There's really nothing else I can say. I suppose this is more of a review for all of the Nancy Drew books and not The Secret of the Old Clock. Sorry about that. This book is fabulous just as the rest are.