The Riddle in the Rare Book

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #126

by Carolyn Keene

When a series of rare-book thefts strikes the Bloom's Bookstore & Coffeehouse in River Heights, Nancy Drew finds her only clue in the handwriting of a dead woman.

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Childrens, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Crime, Classics

160 pages, Library Binding

First published August 1, 1995

About the author

Carolyn Keene is a writer pen name that was used by many different people- both men and women- over the years. The company that was the creator of the Nancy Drew series, the Stratemeyer Syndicate, hired a variety of writers. For Nancy Drew, the writers used the pseudonym Carolyn Keene to assure anonymity of the creator.

Edna and Harriet Stratemeyer inherited the company from their father Edward Stratemeyer. Edna contributed 10 plot outlines before passing the reins to her sister Harriet. It was Mildred Benson (aka: Mildred A. Wirt), who breathed such a feisty spirit into Nancy's character. Mildred wrote 23 of the original 30 Nancy Drew Mystery Stories®, including the first three. It was her characterization that helped make Nancy an instant hit. The Stratemeyer Syndicate's devotion to the series over the years under the reins of Harriet Stratemeyer Adams helped to keep the series alive and on store shelves for each succeeding generation of girls and boys. In 1959, Harriet, along with several writers, began a 25-year project to revise the earlier Carolyn Keene novels. The Nancy Drew books were condensed, racial stereotypes were removed, and the language was updated. In a few cases, outdated plots were completely rewritten.

Other writers of Nancy Drew volumes include Harriet herself, she wrote most of the series after Mildred quit writing for the Syndicate and in 1959 began a revision of the first 34 texts. The role of the writer of "Carolyn Keene" passed temporarily to Walter Karig who wrote three novels during the Great Depression. Also contributing to Nancy Drew's prolific existence were Leslie McFarlane, James Duncan Lawrence, Nancy Axelrod, Priscilla Doll, Charles Strong, Alma Sasse, Wilhelmina Rankin, George Waller Jr., and Margaret Scherf.

Reviews

[Izzy]

When did Nancy get so modern?

[Doris Ware · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book

[Lav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Used to love Nancy Drew books when I was a little girl.

[Juliet Minerva Swift · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is hands down my favourite Nancy Drew book.
It is all about old books and I just loved how they went to a book auction, the interactions with the collectors and the person who curates them.

I still remember reading this a few years ago and being so fascinated with the idea of making a mark on books that I started cataloguing each book I owed and punching a little pin needle hole in each of them in a secret location.
Which wasn't so essential as I don't borrow my books and they are definitely not worth as much as ancient first editions, but I had a lot of fun and rereading this book brought me back to those times.

I was also surprised by the culprit! There was a little red herring there and I didn't expect things to turn out differently. I liked the little action at the end, and I find Bess so infuriating OMG how can she be so stupid and dumb?? Especially when they are in MORTAL DANGER and she just stands there frozen instead of RUNNING???

But aside from this detail, a good book and maybe the only one I would still recommend to a young person now.

[Lucas Moyers (HoorayBookworm) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing read!

What a great read! I always find joy in reading Nancy Drew books, despite being all grown up. I've been reading Nancy Drew books since I was in 3rd grade and even play the computer games. What I liked about this one was the way I was captivated by the way they described the bookstore and the fact that it was a bookstore that used to be a bank made the story even more interesting. And at the same time, this book, like most Nancy Drew books, had a lot of twists throughout the story, making it hard to put down.

[Jane Irish Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even the title is misleading, since this is a case of rare books disappearing, and has nothing to do with riddles or other puzzles within those books. Extremely unbelievable. Bess's infatuation with a young poet is embarrassingly cringeworthy. Not the Nancy Drew I grew up with, but a dumbed-down version that I cannot recommend.

[peter f mathias · Rating 5 out of 5]

OBSESSION. A SAD AND OFTEN DANGEROUS FEATURE OF WEAK MINDS

Feeling an inner compulsion to acquire some physical object is such a sad reflection on a life that is not being well-lived! Tragedy again averted by Nancy with help from her entire "honesty brigade."

[Serena · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3.5

[Etiennee Myers Thake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old childhood memories

[Richard Federline · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the young adult crowd this would be interesting. I had not realized how much Nancy Drew had grown up. While there was an interesting tale, it starts off with a red herring.

[Laura Bang · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an erstwhile rare book librarian, I had to read this for the lolz. It did not disappoint.

[Maxyne.D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un Alice qui se lit tout seul!
La détective Alice Roy se retrouve face à un voleur de livres de collection, anciens et, pour certains, très coûteux. Pourtant, rien ne semble relier entre eux les livres volés aux thèmes disparates, et aux valeurs très diverses. En parallèle, Bess tombe sous le charme d'un poète, qui s'il ne lui accorde que peu d'attention en public, communique avec elle par e-mail plusieurs fois par jour et s'intéresse de près à elle et à ses amies. La liste des suspects est longue et à mesure qu'elle s'amenuise, le voleur se fait de plus en plus dangereux et tente même de tuer Alice. C'est au final en comprenant le lien qui unit le voleur aux livres qu'il choisit de voler que le mystère s'éclaircira.
Je n'en dis pas plus pour ne pas gâcher la lecture!

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story concerns a number of rare and old books that have been stolen from a variety of places including homes and even libraries. A related sublot involves Bess falling for a poet and writing him some rather bad poems. Bess seems somewhat out of character her and is sort of ditzy.

Nancy's car has a slashed tire and later has been rigged up to cause her to die of carbon monoxide poisoning while driving. The thief turns out to be pretty much insane. A fairly good story, although I still think Bess was out of character somewhat.

[LuAnn · Rating 3 out of 5]

To a book collector, of course a mystery about stolen rare books in the world of book collecting is interesting. Bess is over the edge in this one yet also amazing on as she actually help solve the mystery, so something a bit different. Funny that George has a fake clumsy moment instead of a real one. Not as enjoyable as I remembered my first reading, but still good.

[Agosto2010 fermare l'esecuzione di Ahmadreza Djala · Rating 3 out of 5]

I figli non seguono le orme dei genitori.
All'età di mia figlia aspettavo con ansia il mercoledì in cui la mia edicola riceveva il nuovo giallo dei ragazzi; appena sveglia mi scapicollavo ad acquistarlo e per mezzogiorno il libro era finito.
Mia figlia l'ha trovato noioso e non ha neanche fatto la fatica di leggerlo.

[Ren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book probably a year ago along with a ton of other Nancy Drew books and decided to read this one again. :)

[Elianara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in Swedish: Kitty och mysteriet med de stulna böckerna

[Bethany N Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great! The mystery held me even though I'm an adult reader.

[Leensey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was Munro, but it was his uncle. Oh well, close enough.

[V. Arrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fun, although the idea of a rare book binder having multiple 18-year-old apprentices made me say, "Oh, the '90s, when people could have jobs."

[Traci Andrighetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book because a) it's Nancy Drew, b) it's a mystery about a book, and c) someone left it in my Little Free Library. But *SEMI-SPOILER ALERT* what Nancy finds inside the book is not a riddle.

[Kathy Ross]

Nancy Drew mysteries provided a smart, positive role model for girls when I was growing up in the 50's. I was captivated by those wonderful stories and developed a lifelong love of books, reading and mystery stories because of them. So, I thank the writers of Nancy Drew and hope the series will continue to inspire girls to read.