I updated the website, with a new layout. I’m trying to put everything on there.
http://mysterysleuth.webs.com/
Go check it out. I’ll be adding more soon.
SCK page
The first book in the Files series! Pretty suspenseful, and overall mysterious.
Nancy Drew is asked by the principal of Bedford High to look into the strange but juvenile crimes taking place in the school. Nancy is paired with Daryl Gray, who is posing as her contact to help her with school work. Almost immediately Nancy is caught up more in dreamy Daryl than the mystery at hand, and she takes for granted the seriousness- until a student that knows a little too much is murdered. This change in events scrambles the whole mystery for Nancy, and she soon finds that she cannot trust anyone.
My opinion: I liked the writing style and the general plot. I thought it was interesting to see how Nancy went undercover much like The Hardy Boys do in recent books with ATAC.
I’m not convinced when Nancy says she thinks American History is boring, because she has always seemed like that kinda girl. I suppose it is not strange, because this the start of the series. The writers were probably trying to make her seem cool to the reading target.
I did have a problem with Nancy cheating on Ned, though. In the first chapter she talks about how perfect Ned is and how no guy could ever be better. Then, she goes to Bedford High and starts getting comfy with ‘cool’ guys. And I mean comfy! Phew. I’m not sure what Mr. Drew would think, but there were some implications! (And the worse part is that Hannah was in the house… cringe.) There is nothing more than PG scenes, so to speak, but I still do not think that what Nancy did just because ‘this guy was nice for a short time, so she made the best of it’ was alright. Come on Nancy! She does not seem to have morals or brains in this book.
Despite that, it is a pretty good book.
Hey everyone! I just wanted to point out a great website, NancyDrewPalace. My e-bff Katie and her friend Rachel run it, and it has some amazing features!
One thing that you won’t find anywhere else is the amazingly catagorized list of characters from the Nancy Drew games! Also, the layout is cool and so is the message board. Go check it out. Give Katie and Rachel and Tyz a shout-out!
I was finally able to finish my Nancy Drew book lists! I will be changing the website a little and then I will post of the new features!
Thanks for reading!
Just checking… the posts were not working yesterday…
Hey!
I recently went on the HI message boards again and decided to continue a Alternate Ending for one of the Nancy Drew games that I started about a year ago. I posted it on MY message board. So if you want to check it out, private message me in the MysterySleuth message board and I’ll give you the password.
I just read this book a second time and it was REALLY good. The main character, Dina, is based after the author’s grandmother. Who says you can’t make your characters personal?
Another reason I liked this book was that it is a historic novel. Not only is it based before 1950- it’s in 1870 to 1872- it is mostly a true story, with some character adjustments. I loved the way the author detailed Germany, and then the apartment in New York. It is sad when she has to leave Germany, and funny when she tries to learn english. I liked the ending a lot.
I apologize for not posting recently. I’ve been working on another blog project and taking a short break. I have been reading; though, and also there may possibly be a new blog poster added soon!
I hope to add a lot more as soon as I finish up a few books and I have a big amount of time to add some cool stuff. Simon & Schuster updated their website so that I can no longer view it without downloading some huge thing. But that’s okay, because there wont be too much about the new Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys on here anymore. I’ve decided that I’m going to have a few guidelines to things I post about. Instead of making a huge post about how horrible a book was, I will try to find more of the good books and try not to make too many exceptions.
-G.G.
Trixie Belden:
Overall Rating: 89
Plot: Great!
Characters: real
Why: This book was fast and new things happened every chapter. I liked the characters and thought that each one had important roles.
Trixie and Honey are off to explore! Bobby runs into an abandoned gatehouse and falls on a… diamond! Wow. Trixie figures out that the diamond was just dropped into the dirt and she and Honey want to figure out who did it. The book starts out at a good pace but it get’s repetitive. Brian and Mart come home from summer camp and make quick friends with Jim and Honey.
One thing I didn’t like about the book was the hired help. Mostly Dick and the gardeners. The Wheeler’s first gardener quits because the shovels go missing for one day? And then suddenly as Trixie and Honey find a mystery, there is all of this new help?
The Bob-Whites of the Glen are awesome. I think it’s great that they want to earn their money. They really portray a good image to kids of work and being a nice person. The great part is that they aren’t fake cool, either! Jim is very nice to Brian and Mart.
The ending is very much like a mystery book. It was very suspenseful, especially since it is just getting dark when Trixie meets up with the bad guy.
The book was interesting and fast. The mystery was slow but teaches you about investigation. Don’t take a shovel and leave it down at a gatehouse if you have a disgruntled gardener!
Overall Rating: 85.5
Plot: okay
Characters: Uh… characters
Why: The overall book is okay, but when you look closely it kinda drags after the second half of the book. It seemed slightly unrealistic. There were a lot of characters and personality.
Trixie and Honey are trying to find Jim Frayne II, who ran away in #1. This book begins just moments from when the previous book in the series ends. It starts out fast and interesting. This book was published in 1950, so I can see why Trixie felt strange in a trailer, and the fact that Miss Trask only drives 20 miles an hour.
The book basically has a huge space between Chapters 8-12 and 15-17. Very little happens besides discussions about what they’ve already done to find Jim and what their going to do about a poor little girl named Joeanne. In fact, they seem more concerned about finding Joeanne faster than Jim! I know Jim is much older and can take care of himself, but he talked about leaving the country! Joeanne was too young to go far.
I don’t think they tried too hard to find Jim, either. He knows Jonesy thinks he is dead, but he wouldn’t risk walking along the highway were he could be spotted. Why would Honey and Trixie just stay next to the highway and on the trails?
I do like that Honey and Trixie developed as characters. Honey seems like she is less nervous and Trixie seems a little less pushy.
This book was okay. I really cannot say that I liked it, but it had a lot of great things and plot ideas. The characters were interesting and unique, the scenes were mysterious, and the bad guys were… surprising!
Overall Rating: 93.5 – Read it!
Plot: Great Plot!
Characters: Real
Why: Overall, I thought that the book was great. It was very real and exciting. The plot did not have any apparent gaps and it was realistic. The characters had separate personalities and were not too ‘perfect’.
Trixie is trying to save money to buy a horse in this book. I liked that. How her parents consented to $5 a week (saying as this book was originally written/published in 1948) I don’t know. Today, it would seem very realistic, but back in the 1940’s, and when you live in a big family with only one parent working, it seems a little odd. She seemed a little pushy at the beginning of the book, I’m surprised Honey didn’t run away crying.
Honey was sweet and she wasn’t written as fake-nervous, she progressed naturally out of it. I feel bad when she thinks she has to tell Miss Trask everything. I did think she was a little sudden about adopting Jim as her brother. Trixie didn’t know what was going to happen to Jim in later books, why didn’t she suggest more than once that her parents might adopt him? 
Maybe she realized she already had enough [of] brothers.
The whole book was pretty good. I’m not impressed with the ’superstious’ references near the end of the books, but other than that, the book flowed and seemed like a story about summer with suspense and a treasure hunt; including a few things about horse, what to do when someone gets bit by a copperhead 101, how to be a good kid, and what not to do when your running away from a bad person. 
