Hello and welcome to Nancy Drew Book Reviews.
My name is Michael, and today, I am reviewing
Nancy Drew Book #2:The Hidden Staircase.
Originally written in 1930 by Mildred Wirt
Benson, this book was rewritten in 1959 by
Harriet Adams.
This review will cover the rewrite of the
book; I will discuss the original book in
a separate video.
The book begins with Nancy at home, when a
stranger named Nathan Gomber arrives.
Gomber is a pompous slimeball, who steps inside
without being invited.
He says that Nancy's father, Carson Drew,
is in great danger.
Carson is working with a railroad company,
which purchased a lot of land in order to
build a bridge.
Unfortunately, one of the legal documents
was improperly notarized, meaning that the
railroad company has started construction
on a property they don't own.
Gomber says he's willing to produce the property
owner and fix the entire situation, for a
high price.
Otherwise, who knows?
One of the angry property owners could try
to hurt Carson.
Nancy recognizes this as a vague threat against
her father, and because Gomber is rude person
in general, Nancy kicks him out of the house.
Afterwards, Nancy's friend Helen Corning arrives
with her aunt Rosemary.
They have a mystery for her to solve: their
house at Twin Elms is being haunted by a ghost.
Augh!!!!
That night, Nancy speaks with her father.
Carson gives her permission to stay at Twin
Elms for a week and solve the mystery.
Carson is also going to be leaving town; he's
going to Chicago to find Willie Wharton, the
missing property owner.
The book is eager to put Nancy in danger,
so Nancy and her father visit the Wharton
property, and they almost get killed by a
runaway truck.
Was it an accident, or did someone purposely
try to murder them?
Also, Nancy goes on a date with Dirk Jackson,
the red-haired tennis champion, and...Dirk
Jackson...the tennis...Dirk Jackson...date...
MOVING ON.
In the next chapter, Nancy goes to Twin Elms.
Aunt Rosemary lives there with her elderly
mother, Miss Flora.
Nancy's friend Helen is also there.
Helen is engaged to marry Jim Archer...um...Helen
is engaged to Jim...Archer...
MOVING ON.
Twin Elms is an old Colonial house from 1785.
Over the past few weeks, it has been haunted
by strange noises and shadows.
Even worse, someone stole a valuable necklace
from the second floor.
Nancy explores the house for a bit, hoping
to find a hidden passageway, but she finds
nothing.
The doorbell rings, and Nathan Gomber arrives.
Once again, he's running a real estate scam.
He says that he wants to purchase Twin Elms,
but since its "haunted", he's only going to
pay 10% of what the house is really worth.
Helen bets a cooky that Gomber is lying.
Betting a cookie, Helen?
That's dangerous!
Our heroes dismiss Gomber, and they tell him
if he REALLY wants the house, he should buy
Riverview Manor next door, which is an exact
duplicate of Twin Elms.
Not long after, the chandelier starts moving
on its own.
Nancy goes upstairs to investigate and Helen
screams.
She lost her cookie, and--no, wait, she saw
a horrible, gorilla-like face at the window.
No one has the heart to tell her that it was
actually her fiancee.
Nancy goes upstairs, and she manages to duplicate
the "moving chandelier" trick, which proves
it wasn't a ghost.
Mr. Drew calls, and even though he's still
busy in Chicago, he makes plans to come visit
Nancy in two days.
The ghost strikes again, this time by playing
violin music upstairs.
Hmmm...first the chandelier, now a violin?
This is one classy ghost!
That night, Miss Flora screams about a pair
of frightening, burning eyes on her dresser.
It turns out that an owl got into the house
somehow.
Nancy puts on heavy gloves, grabs the owl,
then throws it outside.
The next day, Nancy and Helen search for a
secret passageway in all of the outside buildings,
like the smokehouse, the icebox room and the
carriage house.
Uh, hey, girls!
I've got a detective tip for you.
If there's a ghost haunting the house, try
investigating INSIDE THE HOUSE.
Don't waste time looking for clues in an area
the ghost hasn't visited!
Nancy gets a telegram from her father, who
cancels their meeting.
Nancy finds it odd Mr. Drew would use a telegraph
office, instead of calling her directly, but
she doesn't question it.
Nancy and Helen go to the attic to look for
hidden passageways, and ha ha!
Just kidding.
They go to the attic, so they can play dress
up with all the old Colonial clothing.
Then they have a dance party.
It has nothing to do with the mystery.
Not much else happens in the next two chapters.
They catch a neighbor who was on the property,
the girls practice going upstairs without
making noise, and they set a trap to catch
the ghost at midnight.
The trap is ruined, when Helen gets scared
by the sofa and screams her head off.
Hannah Gruen, the Drew family housekeeper,
calls Nancy at this point.
It turns out that the telegram from Mr. Drew
was a fake, and Mr. Drew has been kidnapped
by unknown villains.
Of course, the villains are NOT unknown, because
Nathan Gomber has threatened Carson's life
multiple times, but Nancy doesn't make any
connections between those two incidents.
Nancy investigates at the train station.
Carson Drew arrived on Tuesday.
Thanks to the fake telegram, Nancy wasn't
there to pick him up, so he was forced to
take a cab.
With the help of a woman, Nancy finds the
correct cab driver.
He says that he drove Carson Drew, along with
two other men.
Halfway through the car trip, Carson collapsed,
unconscious.
The driver stopped the cab, and they took
Carson outside to get some air.
The strangers loaded Carson onto a nearby
car, and they threatened to kill the cab driver's
kids if he told anyone about it.
Nancy's only clue is that one of the kidnappers
has a crinkly ear.
Nancy drives back to Twin Elms, but she stops
far away from the house and explores the grounds.
She finds an empty cave with a recent newspaper
inside.
After exploring the cave thoroughly, Nancy
sees the man with the crinkly ear near her
car.
She runs at him, but he gets in his car and
drives away.
Nancy returns to the house, where the ceiling
collapses on top of her, and she is knocked
out for an hour.
She calls Hannah and asks about the newspaper
found in the cave.
It seems that the criminal cut out a newspaper
ad for a used car dealership.
Nancy gives this information to the police,
and they discover that the man with the crinkly
ear is named Samuel Greenman.
Nancy decides to get serious, so she re-examines
the parlor.
She finds a hidden button built into the cabinet.
Pressing the button causes the cabinet to
slide forward, revealing a hidden passageway
behind it.
The passageway leads to a listening post,
which is connected to the kitchen.
A conveniently-placed letter from the 1780's
explains that the original owners used the
listening post to spy on their servants and
determine which ones were traitors during
the Revolutionary War.
Our heroes deduce that the ghost has been
using this listening post to spy on them.
The hidden passageway goes on for several
hundred feet, but for some reason, Nancy doesn't
bother exploring it.
I...I don't know why.
The next day, Hannah calls with bad news.
If the situation isn't resolved by Monday,
the railroad company is going to give in to
Nathan Gomber's demands.
Of course, the situation can't be resolved,
because Mr. Drew and the property owner have
both disappeared.
Nancy thinks for a bit, and she finally realizes
that Nathan Gomber probably kidnapped them
both.
After visiting the police and buying groceries--not
at the same place--Nancy and Helen see Nathan
Gomber driving away from Twin Elms.
The girls give chase, and Gomber stops at
Riverview Manor to flash his headlights.
Presumably, he's signalling someone inside
the abandoned house.
He drives away, and the girls lose him.
When they return to Twin Elms, they learn
that Gomber threatened the two old ladies,
in order to get them to sell the house.
Nancy hears a noise up in the attic, and wastes
a chapter exploring the attic and roof.
Way to completely diffuse all the tension,
Nancy.
Meanwhile, the police have caught the man
with the crinkly ear.
He refuses to cooperate, and the police send
Nancy to talk to him, because police always
let teenage girls take charge of criminal
investigations.
Nancy tells the criminal that deep down, he's
really a good person, and he immediately confesses.
On the way home, Nancy has a hunch that the
real criminal is Willie Wharton, the missing
property owner.
Wharton kidnapped Nancy's father, and he's
been haunting Twin Elms because...um...okay,
he doesn't have a motive, and there's no evidence
which indicates he is guilty of any wrongdoing,
but Nancy is SURE he's the culprit.
Nancy and Helen get permission from a realtor
to explore Riverview Manor.
If you remember Chapter Five, this house is
an exact duplicate of Twin Elms, meaning that
both houses has the same secret passageways.
The girls find a hidden staircase built into
a closet, and even though they've been talking
the entire time, they manage to surprise Willie
Wharton.
Wharton has to be the guilty party, because
Nancy said so.
He confesses that he is working with Nathan
Gomber to scam the railroad out of more money.
Gomber paid Wharton to haunt Twin Elms and
kidnap Carson Drew.
Wharton is sick of working for criminals,
so he turns himself in.
The situation with the railroad company is
resolved, and they find Nancy's father tied
up in one of the three hidden passageways
connecting the two houses,
Offscreen, the police arrest Nathan Gomber
and the third kidnapper, who everyone forgot
about until just now.
The End.
Post-Book Followup:
The best part about this book is its pacing;
it is a real page turner, with a lot of suspense.
Reading it a second time, I realized a lot
of the suspense was fabricated; half the time,
Nancy THINKS she is in danger, when it turns
out she is perfectly safe.
The overall tension is increased when Carson
Drew gets kidnapped and continues throughout
the entire book.
I particularly liked the sections where Nancy
is bold and takes charge during dangerous
moments, like grabbing the owl and trailing
the criminals in a car chase.
Some problems with the book.
There are about three chapters, where Nancy
and Helen waste time, accomplishing nothing.
There is some suspense in these chapters,
which contributes to the overall drama, but
in the end, they're mainly filler.
Critics complain about Helen Corning in this
book; she's mostly there to explain the plot
and make Nancy look good.
Helen is in the first four Nancy Drew books,
but she doesn't do much to solve the mysteries.
She gets replaced by Bess and George in Book
5, and only makes occasional appearances after
that.
Personally, I think Nancy has an unrealistically
easy time, in getting the criminals to confess.
I can understand ONE person in the group of
four being reluctant to go along with the
crimes, but Nancy gets THREE confessions without
even trying.
Overall, the book is well-written, despite
some large coincidences and pointless sequences.
Nancy's sleuthing skills have definitely improved
since her last mystery, and the book keeps
your interest until the very end.
I give Nancy Drew #2: The Hidden Staircase
an eight out of ten.
