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A review by bargainsleuth
The Message in the Hollow Oak by Carolyn Keene
4.0
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I remember the Revised Text (RT) of Message in the Hollow Oak very well, but had never read the Original Text (OT) until now. As happened from time to time, the OT is a completely different story from the RT.
Nancy wins the deed to a piece of property in Canada in a radio contest. It just so happens that Carson Drew is working on a case for a Canadian lumberman who also happens to have a house in River Heights that he rarely uses. The man says he knows of an elderly woman coming to town, who would be headed in the general direction of Nancy's new property and would probably gladly chaperone her. (Remember, in the OT, Nancy is only 16). Once again, Bess and George are invited for another exciting adventure.
Before they even leave town, the bad guys show up, Tom Stripe and Raymond Niles. First they try to steal her deed, then trying to buying it from her. It turns out that this tract of land may contain gold, so of course Nancy must check it out.
The young ladies and their chaperone, Mrs. Donnelly, take a train to get to Canada. How quaint. That's certainly something you don't read about every day, unless it is Murder on the Orient Express, but it fits perfectly for 1935 when this text was written.
On the train, Nancy meets an authoress named Annette Chap who is very successful in whatever she writes, whether it's articles or radio shows or screenplays. Before Nancy can find out more about this mysterious middle-aged woman, the train jumps the tracks and all are thrown about. Annette is injured severely and it's touch and go for a while. Mrs. Donnelly is also injured and requires a hospital stay.
For some strange reason, at the hotel while waiting for Mrs. Donnelly recover, Bess starts to sleepwalk and heads outside on something like a fire escape. She's got something clutched in her hand. Nancy, who learned how to lasso in Secret at Shadow Ranch, happens to find a rope and lassos it around Bess, who wakes up, dropping the paper she was holding. Even though it is the middle of the night, there's a man down in the garden who picks up the paper, which turns out to be Nancy's deed to the property.
Nancy places an ad in the paper to recover the deed and finds out a man named Ranny has it. She visits the farm and retrieves it. She also visits Annie Chap in the hospital and Annie tells her about the secret of an old oak, where she used to slip notes for clandestine meetings with her boyfriend, Norman Ranny. Could it be that the Rannys are related? Of course they are, because this is a Nancy Drew book! It turns out Chap put a note in the oak to meet Ranny in a nearby town so they could elope. She waited two days and Ranny never showed up. Ashamed to go home, Chap headed to the big cities where she earned her living as an authoress (really, the use of the word happens repeatedly so I feel I must, too.) Ranny went away to the war (World War I for you young folks), and they never saw each other again. Nancy hurries back to the Ranny's farm and asks to borrow a picture of their son. The parents have no clue why, but oblige.
Once Nancy, Bess and George get to Canada, they are dogged by Stripe and Niles. They hire a guide to take them through the wilderness to Nancy's land and oh, on the way, just happens to be the Chap property where Annie's grandpa lived. They encounter a prospector who also knows the area well. He's got a bushy beard and hair, but Nancy feels there is something familiar about him. It's Norman Ranny, hiding out in the woods. He returned from the war and didn't want to deal with people, so he made his home out in the Canadian wilderness. Stripe and Niles are headed in the same direction.
Really, I lost count of how many times the young ladies were out in the wild and kept running into people. For an area of dense forest and a river cutting through it, I wouldn't expect it to be that well traveled. They lose their guide, only to find him some miles away, wanting revenge on Tom Stripe, with whom he has a history. Then they run in to Stripe and Niles again. And again.
Back to civilization the girls go, and Nancy sends a telegram to her father. He decides to come see for himself, as well as continue the investigation into the Canadian lumberman's case. A third villain appears with a prospecting crew on Nancy's land. Norman Ranny brings Nancy to the hollow oak, where they find a message from Grandpa Chap, who has buried his worldly possessions beneath the tree because the bad guys are going to kidnap him. Carson Drew calls in the sheriff and a posse', who essentially do nothing and eventually leave the men to prospect for gold on Nancy's land and without searching for Chap.
Nancy agrees to give her land to the crooks in exchange for Grandpa Chap, that is, if they know where he is. Carson Drew thinks she's crazy, but signs the necessary papers as her legal guardian. The prospectors go away for a while, presumably to get Grandpa Chap, which they do. With everyone safe, that gives Nancy the opportunity to dynamite a dam (!!?), flooding the very area where the men were hunting for gold. But not before finding the cache of hidden gold nuggets and taking them.
Turns out all the bad guys were also the bad guys in Carson Drew's case, and Nancy is left with a bag of gold nuggets for her trouble.
I really liked this volume, and couldn't see why it couldn't have been modernized to have a TV contest or magazine contest having Nancy win the deed to the property. And while there were no racial or social stereotypes, there was a whole lot of sexist remarks from Niles to Nancy, which surprised me since Mildred Wirt wrote the book. On to the RT!
I remember the Revised Text (RT) of Message in the Hollow Oak very well, but had never read the Original Text (OT) until now. As happened from time to time, the OT is a completely different story from the RT.
Nancy wins the deed to a piece of property in Canada in a radio contest. It just so happens that Carson Drew is working on a case for a Canadian lumberman who also happens to have a house in River Heights that he rarely uses. The man says he knows of an elderly woman coming to town, who would be headed in the general direction of Nancy's new property and would probably gladly chaperone her. (Remember, in the OT, Nancy is only 16). Once again, Bess and George are invited for another exciting adventure.
Before they even leave town, the bad guys show up, Tom Stripe and Raymond Niles. First they try to steal her deed, then trying to buying it from her. It turns out that this tract of land may contain gold, so of course Nancy must check it out.
The young ladies and their chaperone, Mrs. Donnelly, take a train to get to Canada. How quaint. That's certainly something you don't read about every day, unless it is Murder on the Orient Express, but it fits perfectly for 1935 when this text was written.
On the train, Nancy meets an authoress named Annette Chap who is very successful in whatever she writes, whether it's articles or radio shows or screenplays. Before Nancy can find out more about this mysterious middle-aged woman, the train jumps the tracks and all are thrown about. Annette is injured severely and it's touch and go for a while. Mrs. Donnelly is also injured and requires a hospital stay.
For some strange reason, at the hotel while waiting for Mrs. Donnelly recover, Bess starts to sleepwalk and heads outside on something like a fire escape. She's got something clutched in her hand. Nancy, who learned how to lasso in Secret at Shadow Ranch, happens to find a rope and lassos it around Bess, who wakes up, dropping the paper she was holding. Even though it is the middle of the night, there's a man down in the garden who picks up the paper, which turns out to be Nancy's deed to the property.
Nancy places an ad in the paper to recover the deed and finds out a man named Ranny has it. She visits the farm and retrieves it. She also visits Annie Chap in the hospital and Annie tells her about the secret of an old oak, where she used to slip notes for clandestine meetings with her boyfriend, Norman Ranny. Could it be that the Rannys are related? Of course they are, because this is a Nancy Drew book! It turns out Chap put a note in the oak to meet Ranny in a nearby town so they could elope. She waited two days and Ranny never showed up. Ashamed to go home, Chap headed to the big cities where she earned her living as an authoress (really, the use of the word happens repeatedly so I feel I must, too.) Ranny went away to the war (World War I for you young folks), and they never saw each other again. Nancy hurries back to the Ranny's farm and asks to borrow a picture of their son. The parents have no clue why, but oblige.
Once Nancy, Bess and George get to Canada, they are dogged by Stripe and Niles. They hire a guide to take them through the wilderness to Nancy's land and oh, on the way, just happens to be the Chap property where Annie's grandpa lived. They encounter a prospector who also knows the area well. He's got a bushy beard and hair, but Nancy feels there is something familiar about him. It's Norman Ranny, hiding out in the woods. He returned from the war and didn't want to deal with people, so he made his home out in the Canadian wilderness. Stripe and Niles are headed in the same direction.
Really, I lost count of how many times the young ladies were out in the wild and kept running into people. For an area of dense forest and a river cutting through it, I wouldn't expect it to be that well traveled. They lose their guide, only to find him some miles away, wanting revenge on Tom Stripe, with whom he has a history. Then they run in to Stripe and Niles again. And again.
Back to civilization the girls go, and Nancy sends a telegram to her father. He decides to come see for himself, as well as continue the investigation into the Canadian lumberman's case. A third villain appears with a prospecting crew on Nancy's land. Norman Ranny brings Nancy to the hollow oak, where they find a message from Grandpa Chap, who has buried his worldly possessions beneath the tree because the bad guys are going to kidnap him. Carson Drew calls in the sheriff and a posse', who essentially do nothing and eventually leave the men to prospect for gold on Nancy's land and without searching for Chap.
Nancy agrees to give her land to the crooks in exchange for Grandpa Chap, that is, if they know where he is. Carson Drew thinks she's crazy, but signs the necessary papers as her legal guardian. The prospectors go away for a while, presumably to get Grandpa Chap, which they do. With everyone safe, that gives Nancy the opportunity to dynamite a dam (!!?), flooding the very area where the men were hunting for gold. But not before finding the cache of hidden gold nuggets and taking them.
Turns out all the bad guys were also the bad guys in Carson Drew's case, and Nancy is left with a bag of gold nuggets for her trouble.
I really liked this volume, and couldn't see why it couldn't have been modernized to have a TV contest or magazine contest having Nancy win the deed to the property. And while there were no racial or social stereotypes, there was a whole lot of sexist remarks from Niles to Nancy, which surprised me since Mildred Wirt wrote the book. On to the RT!