bookshelves of doom

The Clue in the Diary: Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, #7 -- Carolyn Keene

In this book, Nancy gets slapped.  SLAPPED.

As in The Secret of Red Gate Farm, the story begins with the three girls discussing a mystery:

"I'm worried about that darling Swenson child and her mother[, who we just met at the fair five minutes ago.]  I wish we could do something to help them."

"You mean," said Bess, "find Mr. Swenson, or the money his wife told us[, virtual strangers, even though she is an extremely proud woman] he had promised to send?"

"Yes," Nancy answered.  "It's very mysterious, since apparently he has been away for some time [and it's impossible that he simply abandoned them, as that sort of thing doesn't happen in the River Heights area].  I wonder if his letters--containing money orders--were stolen.  [I'm reminding the two of you about the money orders in case you've forgotten -- we did learn about them a whole five minutes ago.]"

It should be noted that during that conversation, Bess ate at least three sandwiches and a deviled egg.

Not a lot of new skills, other than that Nancy knows a smattering of Swedish and can tell at a glance if something is written by a man or a woman AND whether or not a house can be saved from a fire.  She is also participating in the "crippled children's home kiddie show" and comes up with an "ingenious" plan to winnow out mail fraud.  And we learn that:

She expressed her opinions firmly, but did not force them on others.  Nancy's abilities of leadership were welcome and depended upon in any group.

She also "possessed an intangible appealing quality which people never forget."  Maybe that quality has something to do with her willingness to be generous to the poor -- assuming, of course, that they are attractive, polite and neat.  Or maybe it's just that she's not a litterbug.  (See page three for proof of that.)  We also learn that if your car is rear-ended, it's smart to be very polite to the crappy driver behind you because he might be a Very Rich Factory Owner Who Has a Connection to Your Case.

Driving home from the fair, the girls hear an explosion and witness a house burst into flame.  Of course, they head straight for the disaster to rescue any inhabitants.  Once there, Nancy uses her aforementioned leadership skills and orders her two friends to leave the scene and contact the fire department while she will attempt to enter the burning building alone.  Brilliant.  (She doesn't make it in, thankfully -- for a very message-heavy series, the suggestion to enter burning buildings seems to be an odd choice.)

Nancy Drew, evidence suppressor.  She sees a blond man running away from the scene, calls at him to stop, but he escapes.  Though "his actions were those of a guilty person", she decides that his appearance ("tall and gaunt, and poorly dressed") suggests otherwise.  When she finds a diary that in all probability belongs to the escapee (it's partially written in Swedish and, after all, he was blond) on the grounds, rather than turn it over to the police, she keeps it, hoping to get it translated. 

Nancy is suspicious when a strange -- but handsome -- boy at the fire scene jumps into her car and drives away, but it turns out that he's just trying to save the blue convertible from being scorched by the falling embers.  Enter Ned Nickerson. 

What's that, you say?  Wasn't Nancy knitting Ned a sweater in Book #5, The Secret of Shadow Ranch?  Well, yes.  Yes she was.  But we'll just ignore that.  Ah, the dangers of multiple authors and multiple re-writes.

As usual, the blue convertible suffers mightily.  Nancy gets rear-ended, resulting in quite a lot of damage, including a dragging bumper.  Ned to the rescue!  He rips the bumper off with his BARE HANDS and tosses it into the back seat of the car.  Wow.  Thoughtful and manly. 

Later, while slowly (to preserve her springs) traversing a one-lane, rutted dirt road, Nancy and Co. suffer harassment from Crazy Honking Truck Man, who wants to drive faster.  Ultimately, he sideswipes them while passing ON A BRIDGE.  A creaky, cracking, falling-down wooden bridge.  Oddly, that adventure was totally random and had NO BEARING WHATSOEVER on the case. 

Nancy Drew, hypocrite.  Ned calls her the day after the fire and tells her about a signet ring with a Swedish inscription that he found at the fire site.  She doesn't mention the diary she found, and says:

"It may furnish a clue.  But shouldn't the ring be turned over to the police?"

For once, Nancy's meddling gets her in trouble.  She and the girls get hauled into the police station and questioned.  As Carson Drew's daughter, I was a bit surprised that she didn't demand a lawyer.

Nancy gets teased unmercifully in this one:

"He's handsome, too."  Bess giggled.  "And what a soulful expression in those big blue eyes of his when he looks at our Nancy!" 

"Were they blue?  I thought they were--"  Nancy broke off as she realized that Bess has deliberately trapped her.

Who would've ever guessed that Bess Marvin had it in her to trick Nancy Drew?

Ned is rather persistent young man -- he calls FIVE TIMES in one day to invite her to history's most wholesome fraternity party.  At the party, she just happens to meet the Stanford postmaster's son who gives her a clue (and trusts her with some confidential information).

More coincidences:  Carson Drew's latest case?  He's representing a man who just happens to be suing the owner of the smoking ruins.  The Swenson family...  hmmm... Swenson is a SWEDISH name, isn't it?  Wasn't it a blond man who dropped the diary while running from the scene of the fire?

Loot:  Joe Swenson's mother's signet ring.

Next Up:  Nancy's Mysterious Letter.

I'm intrigued...

...though admittedly, a bit frightened of Bess's bodacious ta-tas.

Nancy Drew graphic novels.

(via A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy)

Nancy Drew meets some Little Green Men.

I was flipping through the Fall Simon & Schuster catalog last night when I came across this:

Nancy Drew: Girl Detective
#21 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

Nancy, Bess, and George head to Brody's Junction, Vermont, to fly down the slopes. Little do they realize they're in for flying saucers! Hundreds of tourists have invaded the town to watch the purported UFO sightings, which are odd enough. Odder still are reports of townspeople being abducted and the strange clues that seem to point to little green men as the culprits. Nancy's mantra, though, is "innocent until proven guilty," and she's hoping to have a close encounter with some hard facts before the town spins out of control.

A couple of things:

A)  I'm not usually attracted to the new ND mysteries, but this plot might be too awesome for me to pass up.

B)  I really like the cover.

C)  Since when is Nancy's mantra "innocent until proven guilty"?  I thought it was more "he's Rude and wearing a Tacky Suit and therefore must be Up To No Good". 

The Secret of Red Gate Farm: Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, #6 -- Carolyn Keene

Wow.  A cult.  A mysterious "oriental-looking" woman.  Foreign-make cars, secret service agents, an old lady trying to save her farm and a counterfeiting operation.

Certainly doesn't sound like the most boring Nancy Drew book so far, right?

Well, it is.  Book Six is definitely the current low point.  It took Nancy & Co. sixty pages just to GET to Red Gate Farm -- that's a third of the book!  Once they get there, it's back to Nancy-business as usual -- action, adventure and wholesome entertainment -- but it's a slow beginning.

The whole thing starts when Bess wants to buy perfume from an "oriental-looking" clerk, who doesn't want to sell it.  Bess insists, the lady finally breaks down, but all of the girls are very suspicious. 

My question may seem obvious, but in that case, it should have been obvious to the Bad Guys:  Why put something out for sale if you don't want to sell it to the general public? 

As for the "oriental-looking" clerk, she's apparently the only person of Asian descent in the River Heights area -- later, when it seems clear that she is very definitely involved in the mystery (duh), Nancy remarks:  "At least it shouldn't be too hard to find Yvonne Wong."

Not much in the way of new Nancy-skills:  Her first-aid skills come in handy again when she helps a fainting girl on the train (Later, George displays an amazingly bad memory when she scoffs "Girls don't faint these days."), she instinctively memorizes license plate numbers, deals with a snakebite, and, with the help of a book, she breaks an "unbreakable code" in two hours. 

She also learns how to milk a cow.  That was interesting -- I've never seen her described as "awkward" before.  Granted, the full description was "a bit awkward", but still.  She was really off her game this time around.

While we're on the topic of skills...  Nancy has a real talent for car accidents.  She just can't seem to get into her stylish blue convertible without some sort of catastrophe a few pages later.  It's a good thing she has sidekicks to push the car out of the ditch.

Though the book is low on Nancy-skills, we are treated to some important Nancy-life-lessons:

In her active life the attractive, titian-haired young sleuth had learned that being on time was important.

However, it was Nancy's lively interest in people that was largely responsible for involving her in unusual adventures...

So, if you're always on time and sensitive to the needs of other people, You, Too, Could Be An Intrepid Girl Sleuth.

Carson Drew is a big help, as usual: 

"I'd really like to help you with this mystery," her father said, "but I'm so tied up with this Clifton case I just can't tackle anything else right now."

As for the sidekicks, they come in very handy when Nancy decides to Play Hero and needs someone to carry her bags.  George is also a tad obsessed with the idea of being involved in another mystery:

"Oh, Nancy," teased George, "there you go again, dreaming up another mystery!" (3)

"Well, here we go again!  Never a dull moment with Nancy around!"  George laughed gaily.  (25)

"I've never been with you yet that we didn't run into an adventure or mystery!  Maybe a trip to Red Gate will be exciting!" (42)

The Bad Guys are back to being easily identifiable by their cruel faces, "hostile, penetrating eyes", tacky clothes, coarse looks, foreign cars and all-around rudeness.  And don't forget the "distinctive Oriental features" -- always a good tip-off.  Also, Baddies frequently spend time in "dingy-looking" places and are very pushy when trying to buy property from nice little old ladies.

And now we move on to the cult.  It's a nature cult, called the Black Snake Colony.  They mostly live in tents and dance around by moonlight.  They seem odd, but pretty harmless.  But our Nancy doesn't think so -- if the townspeople don't like 'em, that's good enough for her.  Give her a pitchfork and a torch to wave and she'd be at the front of the mob.

But, really. Give her a break -- she did have a Break-Through People Can Be Different Than Me And Still Okay Moment: 

Nancy took time to scrutinize her companion more carefully than before.  She wore a blue gingham dress which was plain and durable, and certainly did not appear to be a costume.  The woman did not speak or act as Nancy imagined a member of the cult would.  She seemed like any other person.

Of course, as usual, she's right.  They are Bad Guys.  The one nice lady was forced into it by her somewhat abusive husband.  (Right?  Domestic abuse and a cult in a Nancy Drew book = Wicked Hardcore.)

Scooby-Doo Moment:

"Outwitted--by that snooping kid!" Maurice Hale screamed.

Nancy's Loot:  Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.

Nancy's Man:  Karl Abbott, Jr.  A bit of flirting, not much, though he did ultimately Save The Day by bringing in the Secret Service guys.  Not a single mention of Ned.

Next Up:  The Clue in the Diary.

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

Mystery-wise, The Secret of Shadow Ranch is ridiculously similar to Book Four.  Someone wants to scare away the inhabitants of Shadow Ranch, so the baddies commit minor acts of vandalism and rig up a phantom horse.  But wait, there’s more!  Nancy also promises to look into a six-month old missing persons case AND a bank robbery to solve AND a generations-old treasure to find. 

Similarities aside, there are quite a few firsts in this book.  The major one being that this is the first time we meet Bess Marvin and George Fayne, Nancy’s "best friends" with whom she's "shared many exciting adventures" with...  even though we've never heard of them.

This says all you really need to know about the trio’s dynamics:

George insisted on collecting Nancy’s suitcases at the baggage-claim section.  "But save the mystery until I come back!" George said and hastened off.  Bess led Nancy toward an attractive sandwich shop in the air terminal.

George is always 'hastening off' to do something, whether it be fetching luggage, bringing the car around, or lugging pails of water.  You know.  The man-stuff.  Because tomboys love to do chores.

In terms of appetite, Bess is a precursor to The Clique’s Dylan Marvil.  When she's upset, she says she isn't hungry –- which she proves by ordering a 'double-chocolate sundae with walnuts'.

She also looooves the boys.  Nancy tells Bess about the sweater she's knitting for her father and Bess responds:

"He'll love it.  Not to change the subject, but there are some handsome cowboys at the ranch."

While Carson Drew doesn't make an appearance in this mystery, the idea of Bess's thought process there was enough to give me the same skeevy feeling.  Eeeeeew.  I wonder what he'll act like with THREE attractive young girls around the house.  Double-Eeeeeew.

This is also the first mystery away from the River Heights area.  In it, we learn that Nancy can knit, that she's an excellent equestrian and that she knows how to deal with scary dogs.  She also knows a whole lot about life on an Old West ranch and is able to reconstruct events from 1880 to find the treasure.  She knows how to react in a sandstorm, can identify a snake's rattler (not attached) at a glance, what to do when a car overheats, has strong orienteering skills and puts knowledge learned in chemistry class to good use.  She also courageously stops a robbery in progress, deduces that the sabotage must be an inside job because the guard dogs don't bark, leads Bess (on horseback) through a raging flood and finds a secret passageway.

The Car in the Desert Incident revealed an interesting fact – when the Stratemeyer Syndicate has to choose between Nancy’s Know-How and High Drama, they went with the drama.  Nancy knew enough to check the radiator when the car overheated, but not enough to wait for it to cool off a bit before unscrewing the cap.  Luckily, when the boiling water fountained out, George was there to take the hit for her.  (That isn't to say that our heroine doesn't take knocks, too -- later, Nancy is romantically thrown from a horse and briefly blacks out.)

For the most part, the baddies in Book Five were the same as usual. 

If you want a job as a bad guy in a Nancy Drew book, crabbiness and a bad attitude are a must.  It also helps if you're a braggart, have bad penmanship and have a short temper.  It's also a plus if you spill everything the moment you have the Good Guys tied up.

Being completely illogical helps, too:

On page SIX, before the girls have even LEFT the AIRPORT, a man very obviously eavesdrops on them, then swipes Nancy's purse and leaves a threatening message in their car.  Considering that the baddies are trying to convince the people at the ranch that the ranch is HAUNTED, it's kind of a bad move to pull such a non-paranormal stunt. Nancy's fame must be great indeed if the crooks in Arizona are concerned that she's on the case.

Another First:  There is a crabby cowboy who was ALSO smart and handsome!  What to think there?  Can Dave Gregory possibly a Good Guy, despite his bad manners?  Or is he a Bad Guy despite his good looks??

The last major First is the introduction of Ned Nickerson as Nancy’s boyfriend.  He doesn’t make an actual appearance, as he’s in (shocker) Europe, but you'd think that his existence would put Nancy in a bit of a romantic quandary, considering she goes a bit flirtastic with Dave Gregory, the mysterious-maybe-bad-but-handsome cowboy. Nope.:

When he was out of earshot, Alice said, "As for you, Nancy, he's really flipped!"

"And what'll poor Ned do?" George teased.

Nancy grinned. "We'll be home by the time he gets back from Europe."

Editing glitch?  At the beginning of the book, Nancy mentions a sweater she's making for her dad.  At the end, the sweater is mentioned again, but now it's for Ned.  Hmmm.

Nancy's Loot:  An antique gold woman's watch/pin that can be traced back to the romantic yet tragic story attached to the ranch.

Next Up:  The Secret of Red Gate Farm

PS. This is unrelated to the story itself, but check out the inscription that I found when I opened the book (which I bought from the library booksale):

Easter Sunday 1970

With the hope this book is but one of the many pleasures reading will bring you

Love Dad

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

The Mystery at Lilac Inn: Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #4 -- Carolyn Keene

The ante is upped in The Mystery at Lilac Inn:

Far less description of clothing/food and far more DANGER.  Nancy's reputation is making her sleuthing more difficult -- the Bad Guys actually try to get rid of her BEFORE she starts meddling.  She survives a canoe mishap, is driven off the road, gets a rock thrown at her car, experiences a man-made earthquake, has a spear thrown at her face WHILE SHE'S UNDERWATER, has a bomb detonate in her hotel room and is tied up and left to drown.  Also, in a very Lulu-Dark-ian twist, there is someone impersonating her!

Nancy continues to exhibit her seemingly limitless expertise in the realm of water sports.  (Heh.)  She's excellent at canoeing, is capable of underwater photography and her skin diving skills are so impressive that she got a write-up in the local newspaper.  (Which says a lot about the local paper.) 

Also:  She participates in a wholesome country sing-a-long and plays ping-pong.  She knows how to deal with a faint, specific ways of telling identical twins apart and showcases her skills at typewriter identification and analysis.  Her knowledge of hidden panels and general first aid come in handy yet again.  She knows how to get a car out of a ditch, but luckily, isn't forced to get muddy -- a handsome young police officer happens by just in time.  Sometimes, as in the instance of the ditch, her knowledge is even passed on to the reader Kiki-Strike-style.

Nancy's dancing/sparkling/flashing eyes have been replaced by her "fleeting moments":

...Nancy noticed a look of anxiety in Emily's eyes.  But the next instant it vanished.

For a fleeting moment Nancy once again detected a worried look in the young woman's eyes.

For a fleeting moment the sleuth detected a hard, calculating look replacing Jean's usually shy expression.

In a move that speaks volumes about the capabilities of the River Heights police force (and about Hannah Gruen, for that matter)...  When Hannah Gruen discovers a break-in at the Drew house, does she immediately call the police?  Nope.  She calls Nancy, the intrepid young sleuth -- who tells her to call the police.  Brilliant. 

I suspect that the River Heights area must have a HUGE police force -- and that all of the crime in the area is centered around Nancy Drew.  Once again, the police post a 24-hour watch -- both at the Drew house and at Lilac Inn.

As all of Helen Corning's relatives seem to have had their mysteries solved, we discover that the Drew family has a stable of close "family friends".  Close enough that Nancy is invited to be a bridesmaid in an upcoming wedding, but not close enough to ever get mentioned before.

Speaking of Helen Corning -- her friendship with Nancy has turned her into a very suspicious (and nosy!) young lady:

"He didn't even try to help us!" Helen said indignantly.  "Do you think maybe he upset our canoe?"

...

"What a way for a social director to act!" Helen said in disgust.  "I wonder why the two women were quarreling about money."

If the suspect is female, The Bad Guy Rudeness Rule no longer always applies.  There's a lady in this one who is a mega-bitch, which originally led me to think that she was in cahoots with the BGs -- but she was a red herring.  She was dabbling in a bit of free-agent blackmail, though.  Of course, The Rudeness Rule still applies to men, as does the Shifty-Eye Factor. 

What would Nancy do without her awesome dad?  After discovering that Nancy's hotel room has been bombed, you'd think that he might be a tad concerned -- that maybe he might want her to drop the case -- or maybe even stick around -- or, DUH, tell the folks at Lilac Inn to CONTACT THE POLICE... 

Wrong:

"Nancy, I wish I could stay here and help you work out this mystery.  Unfortunately, I have to return to River Heights and review highly important evidence for a case I'm to try next week."

Then, THEN, forty pages later, she calls Carson to ask him for permission to go skin-diving again.  You know, because of the spear-to-the-face incident.  So he has no issue with her staying in a hotel where HER ROOM WAS BOMBED, but she's expected to call home if she's going swimming?

The BGs have gone a bit Bond-ish -- when the Big Bad captures Nancy, not only is she told the entire plan, but she's INTRODUCED to the gang.  They give her their REAL NAMES.  This is the same group that has managed to get their hands on a miniature submarine, engineered a fake earthquake, stolen fifty thousand dollars worth of uncut diamonds and bombed a local hotel.  And they still give her their real names.  In an IQ test, they'd give Chief McGinnis a run for his money.

While there wasn't actually a girl-fight, I do have high hopes for the future.  Nancy TRIPS someone.

Nancy's Loot:  a diamond pin shaped like a lilac spray

Next up:  The Secret at Shadow Ranch

The Bungalow Mystery: Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, #3 -- Carolyn Keene

Like the first book, The Bungalow Mystery revolves around an inheritance.  But this one is much more complicated (it might take three or four brain cells to solve, rather than one or two), involving stolen bearer bonds, a kidnapping, stolen identities, and a sack of jewels.

• Nancy begins her adventure on vacation.  On vacation from what, I don’t know.

• Nancy, you bad girl!  She doesn’t wear a life preserver – in fact, she and Helen Corning go out for a jaunt in a motorboat without even bothering to be sure that they have a couple stowed in the event of an emergency.

• Nancy has taken a class in auto mechanics, always carries an emergency overnight bag in her car (Slut!), volunteers regularly, her tennis game is “terrific”, she is able to pick flattering clothes out for other people, and she knows how to escape rope bonds (she learned from a detective).

• Nancy is also an excellent swimmer with a “powerful crawl”.  She seems to be fond of surface dives, which she uses to find Helen Corning after their boat sinks during a freak storm, because Helen’s arms have inexplicably stopped working.  (The explanation is that she “bumped them” when the boat hit a log, but the second they reach land, her arms are fine, so I don’t buy it.)

• While I wouldn’t quite chalk the ridiculous coincidences in this series up to deus ex machina, there has to be some sort of middle ground term that isn’t coming to mind.  At the very least, all of the coincidences together should count as one big DEM:

Just as Nancy is about to succumb to exhaustion while towing Helen the armless wonder back to shore, a girl in a rowboat comes along to rescue them.  Not only had she been walking the beach during the storm (because she liked to do that), but she just happened to hear their cries for help and just happened to have lost her father to drowning so she just had to rescue the girls and then, upon hearing their names, just happened to need Nancy’s help.  That’s just in the first ten pages.  We don’t even need to go into the fact that Nancy’s case just happens to be the same as El Sketch-o Carson’s case.  At this point, that’s pretty much a given, even though we’re only three books into the series.

• The Stratemeyer Syndicate continues to love exclamation points. As far as I’m concerned, they used up their allowance for the next three books in the first chapter alone.  I counted seven on one page. SEVEN. !!!!!!!

• Nancy becomes suspicious of the bad guys when they make a point of mentioning their adoptee’s lack of money – she is surprised that they would discuss money matters with a virtual stranger.  Interesting that that never has bothered her before – she totally took it in stride in the last two books.  For that matter, I think that Nancy might be a tad guilty of failing to allow for a little bit of variety in human personalities:

Nancy drove away, but told herself they would bear further investigation. It seemed unnatural that they would not have told what parts they were playing.

She hasn’t even met them and she thinks they’re acting “unnatural”.  Good, Nanc.

• You can always spot the bad guys and gals by their rudeness.  If you still aren’t sure, they’re the ones driving the foreign car (which is, of course, black):

“That’s the end of my story,” he said, “except to tell you, Aborn, I sold your blue sedan this morning.  The money helped pay for my new foreign car.”

• Impressively, Nancy once again converts a bad guy:

”Thanks, Miss Drew. And I want to tell you I’m tired of this whole business. You’re only a kid but you’ve really taught me a lesson.”

• Nancy receives a frightening phone call – the caller manages to ask for Nancy, then gasps, there is a crash, a thump and the phone is slammed down.  She tells her father what happened.  Carson’s response?

”Well, dear, I must run down to the office.”

• Why, if Carson is such a big-time lawyer, is he doing what basically amounts to private investigator work?  He’s so lame.  If he got in a fight with Keith Mars, Keith would totally wipe the floor with him.  As for that, it totally makes sense to me that Veronica Mars helps her dad out on his cases – they have money problems, etc. But I have no idea why Carson Drew, Mr. Rich Guy, keeps asking Nancy for help. It makes no sense. Also, Keith is a gazillion times more protective than Carson – he at least tries to keep Veronica from doing anything dangerous.  Carson, though: “Sure, honey – no problem – why don’t you go out and snoop around the supposedly violent alleged embezzlers?  Let me know what you turn up.  Oh, and make sure you go alone.”

Maybe he secretly bumped off her mom and he’s trying to get rid of her, too, so that he and Hannah Gruen can finally give into their forbidden passion.

• A couple of hotties in this one – one is the helpful neighbor of the kidnapped man, one is an old high school friend of Nancy’s – actually, she’d gone to the Spring Prom with him.  Apparently, Ned doesn't appear until Book Eight or so.  I'm waiting with bated breath.

• While Book Two highlighted the utter crappiness of Nancy’s local police force, Book Three provides evidence that they do have one thing going for them:  response time.  Nancy calls them to report an intruder in her house and despite the fact that River Heights is apparently crime-ridden (judging from the last three books) they’re there within five minutes.  When they realize that the intruder is, in fact, Carson Drew, everyone has a good laugh over the mix-up.

• Never one to be content with only solving the mysteries, re-uniting the adoptee with her real adoptive parents AND saving the bad guys from a car crash, Nancy throws herself under the burning wreckage to rescue the bearer bonds, too, thus assuring the adoptee’s status as an independently wealthy young woman.  Mere seconds after she pulls the suitcases from the car, it explodes.  It was a gripping moment.

• She’s eventually going to need to add a wing to her house – so far, she’s been given the Old Clock, a silver urn and an aquamarine ring. I wonder what she’ll get at the end of The Mystery of Lilac Inn…