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The Secret of the Old Clock (Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, #1)

Carolyn Keene,

Russell H. Tandy (Illustrator)

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Dec 15, 2023 Werner rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-crime-fiction, childrens

Beginning in 1927, the Stratemeyer Syndicate began publishing a series of mysteries, marketed to children and featuring two teenaged brothers, the Hardy Boys, as amateur sleuths. "Franklin W. Dixon," a house pen name, served as the byline for all the books, which were actually written by various authors. The series quickly proved to be so popular, mostly with boy readers, that the syndicate soon decided to try a distaff version, employing the same formula, to see if it would prove similarly popu Beginning in 1927, the Stratemeyer Syndicate began publishing a series of mysteries, marketed to children and featuring two teenaged brothers, the Hardy Boys, as amateur sleuths. "Franklin W. Dixon," a house pen name, served as the byline for all the books, which were actually written by various authors. The series quickly proved to be so popular, mostly with boy readers, that the syndicate soon decided to try a distaff version, employing the same formula, to see if it would prove similarly popular with girls. For this series, the house pen name adopted was "Carolyn Keene;" but the actual author for the first several books, including this series opener published in 1930, was one Mildred Wirt Benson (who at this time was still Mildred Wirt --Benson was her married name). The venture did prove equally successful, and both series have continued, in various incarnations, down to the present day.

As a kid, I discovered the Hardy Boys, and read and liked several of the books; that helped to spark my interest in the mystery genre (though even back then, I recognized that the works of Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle were more satisfying). But I never ran across any mention of Nancy Drew until I was significantly older, and my interests had moved beyond the Hardy Boys. Over the years from then to now, I've sometimes regretted that I didn't get into reading the Nancy Drew books at the same time I was perusing "Dixon's" corpus; I already liked and was intrigued by competent heroines with some "tomboy" characteristics, and would probably have appreciated her on that basis. With the advent of the Internet, especially Goodreads, I ran across comments and reviews from adult readers who appreciated the Nancy Drew books; and knowing that I have read and liked a number of kid's books as an adult, I put this one on my to-read shelf. Since I was looking to work in a short book before year's end, this seemed like an opportune time to finally read it. (I actually read it in the 1959 omnibus edition that printed it with the second book, The Hidden Staircase, not the later one shown here.) As far as the quickness of the read goes, it lived up to expectations. But that was the only way in which it did.

Some children's books certainly can appeal to adult readers; and indeed, all four of my Goodreads friends who've rated this one gave it four stars. I'm sorry to be an outlier (perhaps because for me it's not tinctured with fond childhood memories), but I can't regard it as anything more than "okay." Part of this is due to the stylistic blandness that the Stratemeyer Syndicate cultivated (and which shows in the Hardy Boys books as well). In order to facilitate the employment of multiple authors for the series, they didn't want any personal style to show in one book that later writers couldn't just as well imitate, nor any very distinct developments of the characters or setting in one book, beyond their basic series description, that writers of later books would then have to know. To let readers from all over the country identify better with Nancy, they also chose to make the location of River Heights, the "small city" where she lives, indistinct; it's not near the sea, but we have no clue what state, or even in what region of the country, it's in. So there's no sense of place whatsoever. All of this contributes to a very minimalist style, and to scanty characterization.

The book is definitely plot-driven, and has a pretty linear structure (dealing with a search for a missing will, with a closely-entwined subplot involving thieves posing as furniture purchasers). In itself, that's not a flaw. But the plot moves almost entirely as a result of fortuitous coincidences, the combination of which greatly challenges suspension of disbelief. Much of the dialogue, and much of Nancy's internal reflection, is fairly inane, with a lot of repetition and statement (and often restatement) of the obvious. Nancy and her dad, who's a lawyer, get information at one point from a fellow attorney of his which I'm sure in real life would have been a violation of professional ethics to disclose (and since the two men are friends and law school classmates, it's hard to imagine that the friend has never met Nancy before --she grew up in River Heights, and is now 18). And as at least one other Goodreader has remarked, the title itself divulges a significant detail that's obviously spoilerish.

Some might argue, in extenuation, that all of these flaws are just characteristics of all children's literature, and that it's churlish of an adult to expect anything better or to criticize what's delivered, when supposedly no child readers would be in the least critical. But the problem with that defense of the book is that it's simply flat-out wrong. True, as a, say, nine-year-old child, I was less critical than I am now, and would have rated this a star higher. But even then, I would have noted these features as flaws that made the book less interesting than others I liked more; and I've read a LOT of children's literature, both back then and as an adult, that has none of these flaws, and that stacks up far higher in literary quality. I'm not sorry to have satisfied my curiosity, and finally made Nancy's acquaintance. She's plucky, resourceful, obviously smart --it's odd that though she's newly graduated from high school, nothing is said about college being in her future, since even in 1930 a lawyer's daughter might well expect to further her education-- and can even change a tire, something a good many people, both female and male (including me) can't do even in 2023. But despite all that, I'm not really interested in reading any more of the series. ...more

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