Nancy Drew #11: The Clue of The Broken Locket

Here is my review for Nancy Drew mystery #11, The Clue of The Broken Locket.

  The book starts out like this: Nancy comes down to the breakfast table and sees a key next to her plate. She asks Carson Drew, Her Criminal Lawyer father, tells her it is the key to a cottage which she is to open up for a girl named Cecily Curtis, in place of a Mr. Winch because he was scared of something. Nancy is accompanied by Bess Marvin and George Fayne. It is a two day trip,in which they run into a strange, red haired girl at a resturant who is having trouble with her apparent fiancé, over a iron bird and a lawsuit. When they finish their food, Bess says she lost her earring and knows exactly where it is. Before their food came, they took a walk through the forrest where they overheard the young couple, they had walked over a rickety old bridge where Bess tripped. The go there and Nancy sees it at the bottom of the bank. Because te bridge doesn't look sturdy enough, Bess stays on ground. George holds Nancy's feet while Nancy hangs over the edge. Just as she grabs the earring, the red haired girl dashes across and the bridge collapses. They rescue her and themselves and continue on. When they get there, all the townsfolk insist on the being careful, or better yet, not going because it's no place for 3 teenage girls to go with all the scary stuff going on. Nancy promises they will be careful, and they head down to the cottage to wait for the renter.  When the Cecily finally gets there, it's the red headed girl from earlier that day!

Sorry that was so long. Anyway, I would give this book a 8/10 because it just isn't one of Nancy's better mysteries. There are too many coincidences, A police chief embarrasses Nancy and just really doesn't listen to what she says because she is a girl, and at the time the book was written, boys were superior to girls. The rest was good though. Ned, Burt and Dave show up, and a singer they get to know well, and quite a mystery! I would probably not suggest this to you off the top of my head, but if you like mysteries by the lake, like The Secret of mirror Bay, then you will like this one.

- Samantha Quick