VIOLARAMA!

The Secret of Shadow Ranch

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #5: The Secret of Shadow Ranch

FAQ 

What is the mystery?

Why does a phantom horse gallop at night near a ranch in Arizona? Where is Dirk Valentine’s treasure hidden and who is after it?

Who are the main suspects?

A ranch hand named Dave Gregory is presented as a suspect, but a fellow cowboy named Shorty Steele is the more likely candidate because he has the funnier name.

What does Nancy wear?

Nancy wears an olive-green knit with matching shoes. She changes into a yellow blouse and skirt with a matching slipover. Later, the girls purchase new outfits at an Indian souvenir store, where Nancy chooses a turquoise-blue squaw dress with silver rickrack trimming. She wears the dress to a square dance.

What is Nancy driving when disaster strikes?

Nancy is driving a ranch wagon when a sandstorm hits. No one is injured, but Bess gets sand in her hair.

What are the primary clues?

• A ring that contains a torn photograph with half of a note on the back
• A pastel crayon 

Who has to rescue Nancy this time?

Nancy and her friends are held captive in a “prison room” beneath the floorboards of a cabin. They are about to be blown to bits with dynamite. Dave and a small posse arrive just in time to apprehend the thieves.

How does Nancy solve the mystery? 

Nancy has access to evidence that is withheld from the reader. After the ranch’s dog returned from a confrontation with the phantom horse, Nancy had apparently discovered phosphorescent paint on his teeth. Although the ranch’s cook has been in hysterics and threatens to leave, Nancy waits a few days to reveal the trick to her (and us). The answers to the other mysteries are offered eagerly by the three thieves after Nancy is kidnapped.

Are there any lingering questions?

Yes. The thieves used the phantom horse trick with the intention to scare the Shadow Ranch family away so they could find the hidden treasure. But the owners of the property feel fine about people hunting for the treasure; both Nancy and Dave had been searching for it independently. All the gang had to do was ask nicely and it would be all theirs. Why the theatrics?

Also: How is Nancy able to win the square dancing contest so easily when she presumably has no prior experience?      

Nancy finds a clue

“Look!” In front of her lay a crushed blue crayon. “It’s a pastel!”

Nancy dropped to her knees and examined the colored powder. “This is fresh,” she said with excitement.

The Secret of Shadow Ranch

Carson Drew is a silly man.

I finished my fourth Nancy Drew book, THE SIGN OF THE TWISTED CANDLES. It was about an old man who lives in a tower. He was once a genius candle innovator. He invented a candle with two holes that allow wax to drip from the top to the base, and it gets recirculated from there. He made his fame and fortune on his patented “twisted candle,” which became the logo that he stamped on all of his property. But now, one his 100th birthday, he proclaims that he is “the saddest mortal on earth.”

It begins, of course, as Nancy is driving her car in another severe rainstorm, this one so devastating that trees are being uprooted.

But I want to talk about Nancy’s father, Carson Drew. I described his penchant for gossip in a previous post, and now I wonder about his competency as a parent. For one thing, he should tell Nancy to stop driving in the rain for god’s sake. But more curiously, every time Nancy follows a mystery, she gets herself into even worse trouble than a rainstorm. She is chased by thieves and arsonists, locked in closets, and basements, tied up and left to starve, and she is rarely able to handle herself in these situations. Half the time, her father has to find her and rescue her, other times it is Ned or a complete stranger. In this book, her father finds her holding onto the top of a ladder while a nasty dude tries to push her to her death.

Most parents would put their foot down after the second rescue. And you could say, look, Nancy is eighteen, her father can’t control her. But she still lives with her father and has free and easy access to his credit accounts. And he doesn’t even try to dissuade her. On the contrary, he encourages her; he supports her sleuthing to the point that he regularly feeds her clues. He clearly admires her inquisitiveness and respects her detective work. And he wants her to be happy.

But at what cost, Mr. Drew? How many times are you going to rescue her? What if you can’t find her before it’s too late? Could you really rest with a clean conscience, knowing that she was doing what makes her happy? And, as I’ve argued, this is not making her happy.

I don’t expect you have given these questions much thought, but if you have decided that yes, it’s worth the risk, then why don’t you buy her a gun? Then at least she would have the upper hand. Because these crooks don’t seem to carry them.

Nancy’s Strange Lover

I’ve finished my third Nancy Drew novel, THE BUNGALOW MYSTERY (also the third volume in the series). The criminal in this one is Stumpy Dowd. That is not a spoiler; once you realize there is a character named Stumpy Dowd, there can be no doubt in your mind that he’s the guy.

I know some mothers, particularly those of an older generation, who fret about the safety of their adult children. The mother of one of my co-workers calls to warn him whenever snow is coming. These mothers are acutely aware of the perils of driving in the rain, in the dark, and on the highway. And they worry that their sons and daughters are in danger when they take those chances.

I wonder if they grew up reading Nancy Drew books, because in the first chapter of every novel so far, Nancy is behind the wheel when disaster strikes. In THE SECRET OF THE OLD CLOCK, Nancy is driving her convertible when a rainstorm appears and she nearly runs over a child crossing the street. In THE CLUE IN THE DIARY, Nancy is driving when she is hit by another car, a house catches fire, and her convertible almost explodes. Now in THE BUNGALOW MYSTERY, she is steering a motorboat when another rainstorm comes, causing her to hit a stray log, which puts a hole in the boat, the boat sinks, and her friend begins to drown.

Would you reconsider leaving the house when shit like this keeps going down? Well, you’re not Nancy Drew. You see, every time it rains or a house explodes, she happens upon a mystery. And Nancy thrives on mysteries. At the end of THE BUNGALOW MYSTERY, the narrator hints at the deep “loneliness” that Nancy feels when she realizes the case has been solved. She is pathologically obsessed.

Mystery is Nancy’s lover and putting her life at risk is the only way he will notice her. They flirt, they dance, he pushes her to the brink, and once she thinks she has him all figured out, he ignores her, leaving her empty and unsatisfied. Will she ever quit this cycle? Probably not; there are 175 titles in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. She will be playing this record again and again, grasping for a fulfillment that is always out reach.

MeCAF 2012

Come to Portland, ME this weekend for the Maine Comics Arts Festival! It is in a beautiful building overlooking the ocean! And there will be many charming cartoonists, including me and my friend Cara Bean! We both will have brand new books. I’ll have the latest (and last) Herman minicomic collection, Herman the Manatee Has Had Enough, and Cara will be unveiling the first chapter in her new series, Gorilla Year. Also Portland is a cool city to walk around and shop and stuff, and the weather is supposed to be real nice! Yes!

Nancy Drew’s Mad Obsession

I’m about halfway through THE CLUE IN THE DIARY, which is the seventh volume of the original Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. I skipped #2-6, but now I think I have to read them because some major shifts have happened since THE SECRET OF THE OLD CLOCK.

By this point, Nancy seems to have lost all faith in the police. In the first volume, she was notifying the police every step of the way. She even helped them chase down and apprehend the crooks. But now she keeps them out of it. A house is set on fire and she witnesses a man fleeing. She doesn’t tell the police about the man she saw, nor about the evidence she stole. She stole someone’s diary without hesitation, and her friend Ned stole a ring!

Ned and Nancy, by the way, have the hots for each other. But you know the romance is doomed to fail because if she married him, her last name would be Nickerson, and who the hell wants to read the Nancy Nickerson Mystery Stories?

Nancy’s grip on reality has also loosened. The clues she “finds” lead her to a man named Joe Swenson. She doesn’t yet know where he is, but befriends the rest of the Swenson family, who are poor and hungry. She wants to help them, so she goes grocery shopping and cooks up a big feast. She becomes concerned that if Joe is found guilty, the family will continue to be down and out, and their reputation will be shot. She declares to Ned that she is determined to prove Joe Swenson’s innocence.

The question I have is, prove to whom? She covered his tracks pretty well by taking the evidence and not telling the police she saw him. As far as she knows, he is not currently under any suspicion. No one has come looking for him. There is no one to defend him to except Nancy Drew herself.

Nancy is eighteen. If she were a man, she could join the police force and become a professional detective. Does her spurning of the police betray a hidden resentment? Is her obsession with her work creating an alternate reality in which she is both halves of Law & Order? I am eager to continue reading and see how she adjudicates in the mad courthouse of her mind.