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Nancy Makes a Mistake . . .

Author: Carolyn Keene

In their 15th adventure, Nancy and friends are once again torn between crime, leisure, and competitive sports. While helping her attorney father, who spends more time trailing crime than keeping law and order in the courtroom, Nancy arrives at Deer Mountain Lodge. This time, Carson Drew is helping the FBI chase down a dangerous international ring of jewel thieves. Nancy, with her calm ability to have one look at someone and tell their character, is helping to scope out potential suspects from the local hotels and lodges. While doing this, she might be able to spot some of the missing jewelry, including a unique makeup compact that was stolen.

Meanwhile, Nancy and the girls are sunning themselves at the resort. Nancy just so happens to be a pro-golfer (of course) and joins in on a competitive game, only to suffer an unfortunate wrist injury. She also discovers a supposedly haunted bridge that leads to a burned-out mansion. Two mysteries, one tournament, and a one annoying male guest who won’t take a polite “go away” for an answer later, and Nancy has her hands full in The Haunted Bridge.

The interesting thing about this installment is that all the mysteries do not necessarily relate. We have four distinct storylines going on here, plus one sort-of side story. There is the search for the jewel thieves, which starts strong and is mostly forgotten until the end, there is the haunted bridge itself (which is solved early, but then leads into a second mystery that becomes a main mystery), there is the perishingly dull golf tournament that takes WAYYY too much time, and then there is the story of Martin Bartescue, a competitor and sleazy guest who has his eye on Nancy. The one side story that barely gets page space is Ned, Nancy’s pseudo-boyfriend, who almost grows a spine for a moment who Nancy ignores him. But don’t worry, he soon goes back to being the amiable sidekick.

I will admit, The Haunted Bridge wasn’t my favorite of the stories so far. It just had a lot going on, and the stories were not evenly disbursed. The golf also had way more page space than it needed. Arguably, I wonder if it really needed any space at all. Does Nancy have to be a pro at every sport all the time? Can she just, you know, not this time?

What was interesting was that Nancy *shock and awe* does make a mistake here, and there. So, Nancy is not perfect! Bring us the smelling salts, do!

Of course . . . there was the entire bit where we leave that unconscious dude alone with the boys for days on end and even the doctor is ok with it, so don’t expect too much strong logic here yet. Still, progress, am I right?

Overall, it’s the usual Nancy. She is perfect and daring. She takes risks and figures out what others cannot, there is danger and yet no true risk. There is horror and misunderstanding, but all comes right in the end, and even the most heinous of criminals won’t go far enough to say a bad word or anything. It’s still cozy without losing out on plot. I look forward to number 16.

– Frances Carden

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Frances Carden
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