The Clue of the Gold Doubloons

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #149

by Carolyn Keene

Nancy and George are thrilled to take part in the filming of a pirate movie onboard the Swift Adventure, a reproduction of a centuries-old sailing ship. Twin brothers Andrew and Daniel Wagner are producing the low-budget film, and they’ve asked their friends to help out. With Nancy as assistant director and George set to play a notorious female pirate, the girls can’t wait to jump in. But a series of robberies at the hotel where the cast and crew are staying, plus the discovery of gold doubloons at the crime scenes, has almost everyone in the production under suspicion. Could the robberies be a publicity stunt staged by one of the brothers? An angry crew member trying to sabotage the film? With her own safety in jeopardy, Nancy needs to figure out who in a big cast of characters is masterminding this criminal production.

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

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 1999

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 In a few cases, outdated plots were completely rewritten.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

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library)]

I think the series had already jumped the shark by this point...

[Vintagebooklvr]

I liked this one a lot. I was actually a little surprised by the culprit. Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys/The Bobbsey Twins aren't really mysteries in the sense of Agatha Christie where it is actually a puzzle to figure out who did it but in this one there are actually a number of suspect and she doesn't know who did it until the end. The book also follows police procedures (to a small degree), Nancy tries to get the figure prints from a number of suspects and they use that against fingerprints found at the crime scenes to identify the culprit. There many not have been as many attacks against Nancy in this book as in some but they were in appropriate places and made sense instead of throwing them in just for a bit of action. So I thought the story was handled well.

And pirates are always fun. Even fakes ones.

[LuAnn]

I quite liked this story, maybe because I've actually stayed at a hotel near Baltimore's Inner Harbor, just like Nancy, George and the film crew they're working with. The mystery was interesting and the suspects more numerous than usual.

[Serena]

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

[Alaina]

Best thing about this book: Fanny packs. And lots of them.

Worst thing about this book: No Bess. Not even a phone conversation with her. Completely unacceptable.

[Dana]

Nancy is acting in a movie but mysteries will never leave her even n a film set! And especially if its a movie about pirates,risks and dangers are more, lurking around the corners to leap over you.

[Melmo2610]

Another fun adventure for Nancy and George. The mystery of this one was really good and kept me guessing.

[V. Arrow]

This was... a lot going on all at once. I liked how involved George was in the story, but I missed Bess as well. And it's weird that apparently Ned didn't exist??