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emhammerstrom's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
bargainsleuth's review against another edition
4.0
For this and other book reviews, visit www.bargain-sleuth.com
From the publisher: An antique dealer’s revelation about a former queen’s priceless heirloom starts Nancy on a trail of exciting adventures.
Madame Alexandra, now living incognito in River Heights, asks Nancy to find her missing grandson. With only one clue to go on — a faded photograph of the prince at the age of four — the young detective begins her search, which rapidly involves her in a series of dangerous and harrowing adventures. When Nancy needs help, she calls on Bess, George, Burt, Dave, and her special friend, Ned. How Nancy’s discovery of the heirloom’s secret unmasks a slick imposter and reunites the long-separated family climaxes this suspense-filled mystery story. “
The Original Text (OT) of The Clue in the Jewel Box was written at the height of World War II in 1943. The publishers decided to do away with Nancy’s car and in this volume, she walks, bikes or takes the ferry to various places. Apparently her dad sacrificed her car for the war effort.
From the publisher: An antique dealer’s revelation about a former queen’s priceless heirloom starts Nancy on a trail of exciting adventures.
Madame Alexandra, now living incognito in River Heights, asks Nancy to find her missing grandson. With only one clue to go on — a faded photograph of the prince at the age of four — the young detective begins her search, which rapidly involves her in a series of dangerous and harrowing adventures. When Nancy needs help, she calls on Bess, George, Burt, Dave, and her special friend, Ned. How Nancy’s discovery of the heirloom’s secret unmasks a slick imposter and reunites the long-separated family climaxes this suspense-filled mystery story. “
The Original Text (OT) of The Clue in the Jewel Box was written at the height of World War II in 1943. The publishers decided to do away with Nancy’s car and in this volume, she walks, bikes or takes the ferry to various places. Apparently her dad sacrificed her car for the war effort.
bargainsleuth's review against another edition
3.0
For this and other book reviews, visit www.bargain-sleuth.com
From the publisher: An antique dealer’s revelation about a former queen’s priceless heirloom starts Nancy on a trail of exciting adventures.
Madame Alexandra, now living incognito in River Heights, asks Nancy to find her missing grandson. With only one clue to go on — a faded photograph of the prince at the age of four — the young detective begins her search, which rapidly involves her in a series of dangerous and harrowing adventures. When Nancy needs help, she calls on Bess, George, Burt, Dave, and her special friend, Ned. How Nancy’s discovery of the heirloom’s secret unmasks a slick imposter and reunites the long-separated family climaxes this suspense-filled mystery story. “
The Original Text (OT) of The Clue in the Jewel Box was written at the height of World War II in 1943. The publishers decided to do away with Nancy’s car and in this volume, she walks, bikes or takes the ferry to various places. Apparently her dad sacrificed her car for the war effort.
From the publisher: An antique dealer’s revelation about a former queen’s priceless heirloom starts Nancy on a trail of exciting adventures.
Madame Alexandra, now living incognito in River Heights, asks Nancy to find her missing grandson. With only one clue to go on — a faded photograph of the prince at the age of four — the young detective begins her search, which rapidly involves her in a series of dangerous and harrowing adventures. When Nancy needs help, she calls on Bess, George, Burt, Dave, and her special friend, Ned. How Nancy’s discovery of the heirloom’s secret unmasks a slick imposter and reunites the long-separated family climaxes this suspense-filled mystery story. “
The Original Text (OT) of The Clue in the Jewel Box was written at the height of World War II in 1943. The publishers decided to do away with Nancy’s car and in this volume, she walks, bikes or takes the ferry to various places. Apparently her dad sacrificed her car for the war effort.
blondierocket's review against another edition
This was a fun adventure as Nancy not only tries to solve the mystery of a missing grandson for a nice old woman who turns out to be secret royalty who escaped during troubling times in her home country.
While searching for this missing man, Nancy finds her suspicious of many characters and the secret to the true identity lies in a jewel box with hidden compartments.
While searching for this missing man, Nancy finds her suspicious of many characters and the secret to the true identity lies in a jewel box with hidden compartments.
laura_cs's review against another edition
5.0
Displaced and missing royalty (from a vaguely Russia-like European country?), pickpockets, dopplegangers, identity fraud, and fashion shows--oh my!
Also, new favorite exchange:
"How are you at kidnapping?" (asked by Nancy)
"Expert." Ned grinned.
Dear lord, this boy is so willing to do anything Nancy asks...
Also, new favorite exchange:
"How are you at kidnapping?" (asked by Nancy)
"Expert." Ned grinned.
Dear lord, this boy is so willing to do anything Nancy asks...
meganreads5's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
sssummer's review against another edition
4.0
3.5
This is such a dated style of writing! Truly a vintage read. I can't think of any modern book that's written so formally or with such meta self-references (ex: "Nancy was tired from just having solved another case, in Nancy Drew and The Missing Clock"). Speaking of which, I have to admit the underdeveloped characterization is what I felt was maybe the biggest "downside" of this writing style. They are robots leading robot lives. (Sometimes Nancy would have a badass moment out of nowhere, those were fun.) This is also probably because it is a kid's book though, which I just remembered lol.
I wish I knew more about mysteries to know if this mystery formula is dated or if it was a "good" mystery. So as a noob mystery reader I can only really be entirely subjective. I think the mystery was nice, but just a tad convoluted and dragged out for me to really be that invested. I wasn't even really sure what the mystery was setting up to be for a while or where it was going to go. It wasn't like I couldn't see or guess what the "answer" was going to be, but more like I was confused about what the "question" even is.
This is such a dated style of writing! Truly a vintage read. I can't think of any modern book that's written so formally or with such meta self-references (ex: "Nancy was tired from just having solved another case, in Nancy Drew and The Missing Clock"). Speaking of which, I have to admit the underdeveloped characterization is what I felt was maybe the biggest "downside" of this writing style. They are robots leading robot lives. (Sometimes Nancy would have a badass moment out of nowhere, those were fun.) This is also probably because it is a kid's book though, which I just remembered lol.
I wish I knew more about mysteries to know if this mystery formula is dated or if it was a "good" mystery. So as a noob mystery reader I can only really be entirely subjective. I think the mystery was nice, but just a tad convoluted and dragged out for me to really be that invested. I wasn't even really sure what the mystery was setting up to be for a while or where it was going to go. It wasn't like I couldn't see or guess what the "answer" was going to be, but more like I was confused about what the "question" even is.
postitsandpens's review against another edition
3.0
This installment is perhaps the most nonsensical that I've read yet. Nancy has yet another talent - modeling - and also finds herself caught up in the search for a missing prince from an overthrown royal family of an unnamed (but obvious) country. Combine this with pickpockets, a fashion show, and Ned acting like a total ass, and you have a rather disjointed story. Helen Corning randomly shows back up as well (with a dressmaker from that same unnamed country, of all things), causing Bess and George to take a backseat. It was still enjoyable, but not as much as the ones that came before.
aced_aro_rose's review against another edition
3.0
I had 20 of random nancy drew novels bought for me at an auction recently when I expressed interest in seeing what all the fuss was about with Nancy Drew. I never read these books growing up.
The Clue in the Jewel Box is the earliest book in my collection so I started with this one.
It’s a simple read [naturally, the book is for children after all] with barely any real descriptions of places and people with having glossing over of events to ‘time skip’ to parts the author wanted to focus on.
The story itself is very basic and I found myself predicting most of the plot points and characters from their introduction. I can excuse its flaws since it was written in 1943 [though my copy is a 70’s reprint]. [I also just looked up the writers of the novels and found it to be interesting, most of the books I have were written by a bunch of different people so it’ll be interesting to see if they writing changes]. However, main characters [nancy drew’s ‘group’] are usually written as ‘attractive’ and ‘handsome’ whereas other characters are ‘ugly’, ‘stout’, ‘fat’, ‘slow’ etc. It’s lazy writing and ridiculous to put these ideas into kids heads [categorizing people as such - slim and attractive = good person, fat and ugly = untrustworthy and stupid].
Those gripes and eye rolling things aside, it wasn’t a terrible book and I enjoyed most of it. Though it lacks severe detail, dialogue, and character development. Then there’s Nancy basically being an idiot with the thieves and the handkerchief nonsense. They write Nancy up to be some sort of ‘it’ girl who’s always gossiped about, it’s weird. Having attention lavished on a female character... perhaps it’s just me coming into these books at #20 but it comes off as a socialite showing up at a children’s hospital in a full ball gown and makeup feigning innocent and meekness to the paparazzi shutters claiming, ‘I’m just here to see the poor children, not take photographs!’. It’s ridiculous and breaks any chance of my immersion.
As I said before, it’s a silly book, written simply with a basic plot that can be enjoyable if you suspend your belief and let yourself enjoy it.
The Clue in the Jewel Box is the earliest book in my collection so I started with this one.
It’s a simple read [naturally, the book is for children after all] with barely any real descriptions of places and people with having glossing over of events to ‘time skip’ to parts the author wanted to focus on.
The story itself is very basic and I found myself predicting most of the plot points and characters from their introduction. I can excuse its flaws since it was written in 1943 [though my copy is a 70’s reprint]. [I also just looked up the writers of the novels and found it to be interesting, most of the books I have were written by a bunch of different people so it’ll be interesting to see if they writing changes]. However, main characters [nancy drew’s ‘group’] are usually written as ‘attractive’ and ‘handsome’ whereas other characters are ‘ugly’, ‘stout’, ‘fat’, ‘slow’ etc. It’s lazy writing and ridiculous to put these ideas into kids heads [categorizing people as such - slim and attractive = good person, fat and ugly = untrustworthy and stupid].
Those gripes and eye rolling things aside, it wasn’t a terrible book and I enjoyed most of it. Though it lacks severe detail, dialogue, and character development. Then there’s Nancy basically being an idiot with the thieves and the handkerchief nonsense. They write Nancy up to be some sort of ‘it’ girl who’s always gossiped about, it’s weird. Having attention lavished on a female character... perhaps it’s just me coming into these books at #20 but it comes off as a socialite showing up at a children’s hospital in a full ball gown and makeup feigning innocent and meekness to the paparazzi shutters claiming, ‘I’m just here to see the poor children, not take photographs!’. It’s ridiculous and breaks any chance of my immersion.
As I said before, it’s a silly book, written simply with a basic plot that can be enjoyable if you suspend your belief and let yourself enjoy it.