Back to some good old (actually old) Nancy Drew, circa 1932... well, kind of- we'll just say 1962 since that's when it was revised. But this was one of the very first in the original Nancy Drew series, back when it was still developing. And on that note, I consider this book to be especially important because a major character is brought into the picture for the first time- Mr. Ned Nickerson!
Since I started reading these books, I never questioned that Ned had just always been a character- until I was reading the Nancy Drew Wiki page (since that's what I do when I'm bored) and discovered that Ned didn't exist at all in the first several books. Because this is also one of the most popular in the entire series, I figured it would be the next installment for me to tackle.
To sum things up, Nancy is driving home from a carnival with Bess and George, admiring the mansions in the hills beside the road, when the one they praise the most explodes before their very eyes (my guess is that Nancy can secretly blow things up using only the power of her mind... why? Because she's Nancy-freaking-Drew and she's a boss). They drive over quickly to help, and as Nancy is running around the house to make sure no one is hurt, she sees a man fleeing from the scene, leaving behind a diary- written in Swedish- in the grass. The man runs away and Nancy ponders for a while about who he is, whilst learning from neighbors that the mansion was owned by a Mr. Raybolt and his wife, two unpleasant people that everyone hated- mainly because Mr. Raybolt swindled people out of their money. However, the couple can't be found anywhere and it's very suspicious. As Nancy seeks out answers about the diary, the man running from the house, and the ill deeds/whereabouts of the Raybolts, she also helps a young woman named Mrs. Swenson and her 5-year-old daughter Honey, who are living in poverty since Mr. Swenson (an inventor) left to earn money for the family and never returned. Long story short (too late), Nancy discovers that the man fleeing the mansion was Mr. Swenson, who was angry with Mr. Raybolt for essentially stealing his invention- as was the case with many other inventors- and when the police arrest him, Nancy sets out to clear his name and catch Raybolt.
Now before I start talking about Ned, there is one little nitpicky thing I have to mention, because it totally drove me nuts- this entire book is basically just Nancy, Bess, and George (and sometimes Ned) driving around everywhere. I mean, everywhere. I don't know if she just has a bottomless tank of gas or what, but she woke up every day, picked up her besties in her sweet ride, and drove all over the countryside until she finally decided to go home at night (at which point she also decided at least once to get right back in her car and drive somewhere else). How your precious little convertible lasted through this book (let alone so many after it) is beyond me. But hey, if you derive pleasure from driving for hours to go ask someone you've never met a single question that they don't know the answer to, more power to you. Your dad's pretty wealthy, he'll buy you a new car when this one dies after a year- lucky you, Nancy!
Okay, now I'll turn back to the real purpose of this post- Ned Nickerson! Because, being the nerd that I am, I hold in high respect the introduction of a character- particularly one as important as Ned. How a character is first brought into a book or series can say a lot about them. What I find particularly funny about Ned's first appearance is that, at first, Nancy thinks he's trying to steal her car. I would insert an actual quote here because I dogeared the page specifically for that reason, but I seem to have misplaced my copy of The Clue in the Diary. Bah.
Ned is someone rarely seen in a bad light throughout the series- save for an early edition of #21: The Secret in the Attic (see my 'Old Favourites' post) and those few books in which Nancy runs off with other guys (see #77: The Bluebeard Room and #78: The Phantom of Venice). For a character who becomes sort of the Lois Lane to Nancy's Superman, it's pretty fantastic that he was initially painted to look the bad guy. I give major props to Millie Benson (the ghostwriter of this book and the original Carolyn Keene) for making the story of Nancy's and Ned's first meeting somewhat interesting, rather than some tired old chance meeting at a school dance. Which reminds me, since when does Nancy even go to school? Because I have plenty to say on that matter...
To sum this up, it really matters (in my mind) how characters are treated by the author who writes them. Before the tail-end of my freshman year of college (when I took a creative writing class that got me back into writing stories), I didn't seem to realize that the characters in every novel and short story are people. And so, they need to behave and speak as any normal person would do. They can have their quirks and their strange motives, but they're there because somehow, they hold a role in the story that cannot be left out. They are, by the author's definition, important. And so, knowing the role that Ned would come to have in almost every Nancy Drew book since 1932, I held my breath- and then relaxed a little, because Millie Benson (unlike so many ghostwriters after her) understood the importance of this character and she didn't drag him around.
That's it for this installment! Up next, stay tuned for #47: The Mysterious Mannequin. It's so mysterious that I don't even know what it's about yet.
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