I read the 1933 version, complete with roadsters, telegrams and girls wearing 'dainty lingerie.' Nancy's old - and new - car have a rumble seat and she's allowed to run around doing just about anything she wants, including getting into trouble again and again. Of course her father, renowned lawyer Carson Drew, is ever in the background 'cautioning' Nancy to be careful, but Nancy is as Nancy does and Nancy, far ahead of what nice girls in 1933 should be doing, does whatever she wants.
In this story a carrier pigeon is injured mid-air by a small plane. The pigeon just so happens to fall practically in Nancy's arms. Attached to the bird's leg is a message in a small container. It's a mysterious message - of course it is - and at once Nancy contacts the local carrier pigeon association to determine who the pigeon belongs to.
It belongs to no one! It's an unregistered pigeon! Oh my gosh!
Shortly thereafter as Nancy is driving along in her roadster, she notices a strange car with its 'curtains drawn' by the side of the road, and then a local doctor - a bone specialist - is racing along the same road, stops near the mysterious car and disappears inside it. The car then races off. Oh, my gosh...
This leads to questioning said doctor which leads to an old woman being held somewhere, and a bracelet the doctor takes from her (he was blindfolded when brought to the woman), and then Nancy being followed and spied upon and stalked and a lot of this just happens. Which means no one is told about most of it, except one sort-of-lame police detective who tosses the bracelet aside and tells Nancy - and her father! - to let the 'real detectives' handle this.
Turns out that carrier pigeon, messages about passwords, larkspurs, being stalked and followed - and Nancy having her handbag temporarily stolen - all are linked in a nefarious way to a criminal gang that cheats elderly, wealthy women out of their money and keeps them locked up in a sanatarium out in the woods! Oh my gosh gosh gosh!
I actually did like this book. Nancy's predicaments are spelled out almost logically and she gets out of a major predicament - a dirty old well or cistern - in a fairly original and believable manner. Of course, great portions of the book make no sense - not in 1933 or 2016. But who cares? She's resourceful, tough and smart, yet can wear an evening dress fit for a fairy princess, plus - big plus - Nancy has a natural wave in her hair and all the other girls are super-envious of her. She even manages to save a little girl from either 1. being smashed by a powerboat on a lake, or 2. drowning. Said little girl and her parents also tie in to the mystery - of course they do!
Ned's in this one, too, though terribly underused. Nancy does admire his 'physique' in one scene, so perhaps he's in this book just for window dressing. :D
Entertaining and engaging. Four stars!