Hey, remember when I almost read the entire Nancy Drew series? Well, here’s a few more that I missed because someone had checked them out.

The Clue in the Crumbling Wall shows that Nancy Drew, much like Kim Possible, has built up her reputation as a reliable teen sleuth so now other adults are seeking her skills like Lt. Masters asks Nancy for her help. Young Joan Feinmore is an at-risk eight year old constantly getting to trouble while her mother is overworked and underpaid, and is at risk of losing her home and daughter. They have an aunt, Julianna Feinmore who was a prima ballerina but has been missing for years. This missing aunt has a sizable inheritance that if Nancy could locate Julianna, she may save the entire Feinmore family. Why, they think the aunt is still alive after 20 years of no contact, I have no clue but Nancy is on the case.

This was a fun adventure as Keene doesn’t leave lost-and-found aunt reveal until the end. No, she’s found in the middle of the book only to reveal itself to be an imposter making this not only a missing persons case but a fraud and it involves the titular crumbling wall in a treasure fake-out for the ages. I found it to be a very original mysery although some of the kid characters like Teddy, Joan’s neighbor to be a bit much. I get Keene was trying to portray the bad lifestyle Joan was getting into because she was growing up in poverty but I think there’s a difference between delinquent and budding psychopath. And then they try to shrug it off that Teddy’s going to boarding school now, he’ll be socialized. Yeah right, guy’s gonna come back as a charming psychopath if this was on the CW. Also Ned proves himself as a really good boyfriend when he helps Nancy out of these jams and very patient when she ignores all his reasonable suggestions of slowing down the mission by literally going off to investigate the moment he turns his head away.

The Clue of the Leaning Chimney: Yet another couple of adults require the services of a teen sleuth rather than the police force when Nancy’s friend, Mr. Eng has a missing friend from China and a stolen vase. Wow, this one is very dated and I have a feeling the stereotypical Chinese-English depicted from Mr. Eng and Mr. Soong wouldn’t fly today. But it is very exciting as it turns into almost a James-Bond-esque kidnapping where the missing Soongs turn out to have been trapped in a sweatshop for decades churning out forgeries. Just crazy.

The Ringmaster’s Secret: Come one, come all and turn your gaze to the center ring where Nancy Drew is reuniting mothers and daughters and foiling blackmailers. I don’t have much to critique in this one. Maybe I’m biased but circuses are just fun fun fun. the whole premise of two members of British nobility being circus folks is incredulous but who cares, and the whole mother-daughter reunion between Lola and Lolita gave me Anastasia vibes although their connection was as obvious as their names. Plus Nancy fights off a man who tries to choke her with a whip. Sounds weird but I was getting tired of Nancy getting kidnapped, she needs different types of danger sometimes.

The Scarlet Slipper Mystery: Taking advantage of ther era’s concern for former Soviet Union refugees, Nancy finds herself in another mystery when she meets a nice pair of siblings escaping from the made-up country of Centrovia. Henri and Helene Fontaine have made a nice life for themselves running a dancing school but it seems the secret police have followed and been threatening them. Then they go missing! What I found most entertaining was Nancy balancing her investigation while running dance classes in the Fontaines’ absence. I did find the method of smuggling jewels in paintings to be suspected though.

The Phantom of Pine Hill: This one was a dud honestly. It reminded me too much of The Secret of the Wooden Lady with its focus on pirates and sunken treasure combined with the helpful yet barely individualized depiction of the native people in The Spider Sapphire Mystery. The only cool things were the detailed illustrations and Bess saving the day by commiserating with the bad guy about her diet.

So The Clue in the Crumbling Wall and The Ringmaster’s Secret were great, the rest were forgettable. But now, there’s only four more left for me to go if they ever get returned to the library.