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Nancy Clue & Cherry Aimless
Ghost in the Closet: A Nancy Clue and Hardly Boys Mystery
With their fearless crime-fighting, good manners, and manly fashion sense, the Hardly boys are the pride of Feyport, Illinois. In A Ghost in the Closet , dark-haired, muscular Frank and his lovable kid brother Joe return from a gay trip to Europe to find that their parents -- world-famous detective Fennel P. Hardly and his wife, Mrs. Hardly -- have been kidnapped! Even worse, so have six poodles from the Lake Merrimen Dog Show! Pals Nancy Clue, Cherry Aimless, R.N., and Police Detective Jackie Jones help the Hardly boys track down the criminals -- and in the meantime, pick up useful tips on fingerprinting, evidence retrieval, and the laundering of sporty twill slacks. Like her beloved camp classics, The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse and The Case of the Good-For-Nothing Girlfriend , Mabel Maney's A Ghost in the Closet brilliantly parodies 1950s boys and girls adventure series. Pull on a casual rayon shirt and join the queer caper!
250 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
6 people are currently reading
251 people want to read
About the author
Mabel Maney
8 books67 followersMabel Maney is an artist and author from San Francisco, California known for her lesbian pulp fiction. She is the author of the Nancy Clue series, a lesbian parody of the Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, and Hardy Boys series. More recently, she is the author of the "Jane Bond" novels, a series of parodies of James Bond. Mabel's short fiction can also be found the humor anthology "May Contain Nuts".
Maney is famous for the quote "For a long time I thought I wanted to be a nun. Then I realized that what I really wanted to be was a lesbian."
Mabel was born in New Jersey. Her family moved to the midwest where was educated and permanently scarred by dour nuns. She was one of four children in an Irish Catholic family in Appleton, Wisconsin where she worked in her family's paper hat factory. She graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from San Francisco State University.
Maney is famous for the quote "For a long time I thought I wanted to be a nun. Then I realized that what I really wanted to be was a lesbian."
Mabel was born in New Jersey. Her family moved to the midwest where was educated and permanently scarred by dour nuns. She was one of four children in an Irish Catholic family in Appleton, Wisconsin where she worked in her family's paper hat factory. She graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from San Francisco State University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
November 2, 2020
This story wraps up the Nancy Clue and Cherry Aimless mystery series.
If you've gotten this far, you most certainly need to read this. It's in the same vein as the others where it's so over the top and nearly every line is a double entendre. There are so many jokes you almost have to prepare to read something so irreverent and silly.
The previous books, surprisingly, had some serious subject matter come into play but this one was all humor.
The writing is solid and, I not only enjoyed this, I full-heartedly appreciated it. I think it's much harder to write comedy than drama and Mabel Maney did an excellent job.
The entire cast of characters are super funny and it's actually the supporting characters that really shine.
If you are looking for romance, don't. It's subtle and here but it doesn't play out the way you'd think. Just roll with the punches and enjoy the ride.
If you want a silly, slap-happy reading experience, definitely get this series.
If you've gotten this far, you most certainly need to read this. It's in the same vein as the others where it's so over the top and nearly every line is a double entendre. There are so many jokes you almost have to prepare to read something so irreverent and silly.
The previous books, surprisingly, had some serious subject matter come into play but this one was all humor.
The writing is solid and, I not only enjoyed this, I full-heartedly appreciated it. I think it's much harder to write comedy than drama and Mabel Maney did an excellent job.
The entire cast of characters are super funny and it's actually the supporting characters that really shine.
If you are looking for romance, don't. It's subtle and here but it doesn't play out the way you'd think. Just roll with the punches and enjoy the ride.
If you want a silly, slap-happy reading experience, definitely get this series.
October 28, 2015
This book is exactly what it claims to be, a parody of a certain titian detective (here called Nancy Clue) and another contemporary detective duo (here the Hardly boys). It contains ridiculous amounts of stupid adjectives, excessive alliteration and whole chapters dwelling on outfits, food and how these are great detectives BECAUSE of the way they accessorise. It's also a queer book, meaning if any couple in it is straight be VERY SUSPICIOUS because some sort of a twist is coming.
The book is ridiculous, excessive and well paced for what it is with short chapters and sex scenes that are of the nudge, nudge, wink, wink variety rather than descriptive or lingering. Nancy is shallow, vain and at times inexplicably vulnerable. The Hardly boys are heroic and manly and good at arranging flowers and swooning when a handsome, muscly scientist comes past. I loved the ridiculousness (never explained) of Midge (a butch lesbian who doesn't care what she wears) being the exact double of Frank (a dapper gay man who would never leave the house with a hair out of place or anything mis-coordinated).
Another pointlessly stupid (and therefore hilarious) episode was when the two girls are in the cool room for too long and their friends knock on the door. Midge answers incoherently (implying she is in the middle of going down on Velma and therefore has her mouth full). Yes it's silly and illogical. It's like written slapstick only with rainbows.
If you want anything serious, don't read this. But if you want the good guys to be good, the bad guys to be bad and the heroes to insist that smoking is good for your health and LSD is a harmless additive to drinking water then read it.
The book is ridiculous, excessive and well paced for what it is with short chapters and sex scenes that are of the nudge, nudge, wink, wink variety rather than descriptive or lingering. Nancy is shallow, vain and at times inexplicably vulnerable. The Hardly boys are heroic and manly and good at arranging flowers and swooning when a handsome, muscly scientist comes past. I loved the ridiculousness (never explained) of Midge (a butch lesbian who doesn't care what she wears) being the exact double of Frank (a dapper gay man who would never leave the house with a hair out of place or anything mis-coordinated).
Another pointlessly stupid (and therefore hilarious) episode was when the two girls are in the cool room for too long and their friends knock on the door. Midge answers incoherently (implying she is in the middle of going down on Velma and therefore has her mouth full). Yes it's silly and illogical. It's like written slapstick only with rainbows.
If you want anything serious, don't read this. But if you want the good guys to be good, the bad guys to be bad and the heroes to insist that smoking is good for your health and LSD is a harmless additive to drinking water then read it.
January 3, 2010
I picked this up at a used book store and couldn't stop laughing at the first few pages, so I had to buy it. This is a hilarious parody of the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys mysteries, which I loved as a kid. If you didn't inhale those as obsessively as I did, this would probably be less funny, but I loved it and would highly recommend it for other former Nancy Drew fans.
January 11, 2010
I love this queer spoof of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. I got a little tired of the outfit descriptions, but loved the stereotypical characters and somewhat predictable plot. This was a good read aloud with my partner.
May 19, 2014
Fun book but sometimes irritating what with the frequent exclamation marks and pulp-styled dialogue that sounds like either a commercial or a porno. Everything in this is a sexual metaphor.
This is a parody of the old pulp novels so a lot of this is to be expected, of course.
If you like this sort of thing you will get a kick out of it, certainly. It's not my cup of tea but in terms of accomplishing what it set out to do, it does it perfectly.
This is a parody of the old pulp novels so a lot of this is to be expected, of course.
If you like this sort of thing you will get a kick out of it, certainly. It's not my cup of tea but in terms of accomplishing what it set out to do, it does it perfectly.
September 10, 2007
Surprising enjoyable queer version of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, in which everyone in 1950s America is gay, Carson Drew is a child abusor, the Hardy Boys' dad is transgender, and Nancy has to work very hard to win the heart of her girlgriend. Despite these radical changes to the premise, the author stays true to the Carolyn Keene style, while adding lots of sex to the plot.
August 20, 2013
I love this series of books, but the language itself is so funny that it almost disrupts the story! Almost every sentence has some wickedly hilarious description or double entendre and is pleasing on its own without relation to the story. I spend the whole time reading these books with a smile on my face and a good portion of the time LOL'ing. I wish she had done more than three!
November 27, 2007
This is the third and last of this particular series. Still as fresh as ever. So glad she quit at her peak.
June 18, 2008
My favorite of the Mabel Maney books. Clever and funny.
December 28, 2008
Fun fun fun! If you ever read serial fiction as a kid, you'll enjoy the Mabel Maney books.
November 22, 2010
fun, silly, sexy, exciting, and utterly immersible. I love the whole series!
August 2, 2011
highly entertaining
August 23, 2022
This book is... a problem.
If you spoof a type of novel that is, for the most part, cheesy, badly written and where the characters are slightly ridiculous, and you do it so well that you've made it even more cheesy, badly written and the characters are completely ridiculous... is it well written? Or is it just really, really bad?
I don't know, but I know that this book is so much of a "gay" parody of the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys books that it borders on cringe most of the time.
And maybe, in those books, the chapters were radically different lengths, ranging from several pages to three quarters of a page. But if not, they do that here, and it's weird. Every time Maney wants to change scene or viewpoint, it's a new chapter, but it just gave me whiplash eventually.
The other issue I have with this book, which, isn't completely Maney's fault, is the fault of Scott Idleman, who designed the cover for this edition.
Because this is NOT a "Hardly Boys" book. The Hardly Boys are supporting characters at best. This is a "Nancy Clue" book. It's not even that, honestly... if anything, the main character is Cherry Aimless, Registered Nurse. But you wouldn't know that based on the front cover or the back cover. There is no reference to Nancy anywhere, the art, the text, the back blurb, they all point this to be a completely different book than it is.
Once again, I know that Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys did crossovers a number of times. And it would just amount to a cameo or, more accurately, one of the many writers who wrote as either the pseudonyms "Carolyne Keene" or "Franklin W Dixon" wrote it in the style of that author and just included the crossover characters.
I was disappointed by that "misdirect" when I read the book originally in the late 90's, and I'm disappointed by it reading it now. And although it's made it through several house moves and numerous book purges, it's definitely got it's head on the chopping block for the next one.
Also, not a single one of these characters is... likeable. They're all idiots. Which is something of the point, once again, coming back to it being a parody of a style of book both for children and from the 1950's, but doesn't make it any easier to read.
Cherry is an idiot. The Hardly Boys are complete himbos. Nancy Clue is a self absorbed cow. The only characters who seem to be worth reading are Velma and Midge... I assume they're parodies of... something. Maybe side characters in Nancy Drew books, I don't know. But they're married lesbians in the 1950's... and really horny for each other. So, sure. They're also the only ones who seem to have half a brain between them. I still didn't enjoy reading their parts, but, on the upside, it wasn't Cherry or Nancy or Frank or Joe.
And Maney seems to only have mastered the single entendre for the most part. There are all these references that should be sex jokes... they're set up like they're sex jokes... but none of the characters GET the joke, and the author just leaves the set up for a dirty reference hanging in the air as though that suffices for, you know, comedy. It's like none of it is intentional, but at the same time clearly intentional because every single main character in this book is gay/lesbian. But still clueless.
I like to finish books that I start. I don't like to abandon novels. But this was very much a "hate read". Or "hate reread" I guess, since I read it once before as I said.
If you spoof a type of novel that is, for the most part, cheesy, badly written and where the characters are slightly ridiculous, and you do it so well that you've made it even more cheesy, badly written and the characters are completely ridiculous... is it well written? Or is it just really, really bad?
I don't know, but I know that this book is so much of a "gay" parody of the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys books that it borders on cringe most of the time.
And maybe, in those books, the chapters were radically different lengths, ranging from several pages to three quarters of a page. But if not, they do that here, and it's weird. Every time Maney wants to change scene or viewpoint, it's a new chapter, but it just gave me whiplash eventually.
The other issue I have with this book, which, isn't completely Maney's fault, is the fault of Scott Idleman, who designed the cover for this edition.
Because this is NOT a "Hardly Boys" book. The Hardly Boys are supporting characters at best. This is a "Nancy Clue" book. It's not even that, honestly... if anything, the main character is Cherry Aimless, Registered Nurse. But you wouldn't know that based on the front cover or the back cover. There is no reference to Nancy anywhere, the art, the text, the back blurb, they all point this to be a completely different book than it is.
Once again, I know that Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys did crossovers a number of times. And it would just amount to a cameo or, more accurately, one of the many writers who wrote as either the pseudonyms "Carolyne Keene" or "Franklin W Dixon" wrote it in the style of that author and just included the crossover characters.
I was disappointed by that "misdirect" when I read the book originally in the late 90's, and I'm disappointed by it reading it now. And although it's made it through several house moves and numerous book purges, it's definitely got it's head on the chopping block for the next one.
Also, not a single one of these characters is... likeable. They're all idiots. Which is something of the point, once again, coming back to it being a parody of a style of book both for children and from the 1950's, but doesn't make it any easier to read.
Cherry is an idiot. The Hardly Boys are complete himbos. Nancy Clue is a self absorbed cow. The only characters who seem to be worth reading are Velma and Midge... I assume they're parodies of... something. Maybe side characters in Nancy Drew books, I don't know. But they're married lesbians in the 1950's... and really horny for each other. So, sure. They're also the only ones who seem to have half a brain between them. I still didn't enjoy reading their parts, but, on the upside, it wasn't Cherry or Nancy or Frank or Joe.
And Maney seems to only have mastered the single entendre for the most part. There are all these references that should be sex jokes... they're set up like they're sex jokes... but none of the characters GET the joke, and the author just leaves the set up for a dirty reference hanging in the air as though that suffices for, you know, comedy. It's like none of it is intentional, but at the same time clearly intentional because every single main character in this book is gay/lesbian. But still clueless.
I like to finish books that I start. I don't like to abandon novels. But this was very much a "hate read". Or "hate reread" I guess, since I read it once before as I said.
November 25, 2019
This book is satire...rather a stretch but satire none-the-less. It tends to be a bit heavy handled and obvious. All the gays and guys are just squeakily cheerful and all about being detectives. And thereby the book manages to be a satire on several levels.
The homoerotic stuff is overly drawn as is the mystery. It has fairly funny moments, but I found it hard to really enjoy the book, although having read it, I concurred it did have some value.
I would not recommend this book particular for those that like humor that is a bit more subtle and not quite so ham handed. I am almost certain, the book never came out of character, with even the "author" being satirically created.
I have to admit though, that some of the humor I missed might have been due to my not getting it. I have to admit it took me some time to finally realize that this was not a "Hardy Boys" but a "Hardly Boys". The Nancy Clue instead of Drew was pretty obvious.
The homoerotic stuff is overly drawn as is the mystery. It has fairly funny moments, but I found it hard to really enjoy the book, although having read it, I concurred it did have some value.
I would not recommend this book particular for those that like humor that is a bit more subtle and not quite so ham handed. I am almost certain, the book never came out of character, with even the "author" being satirically created.
I have to admit though, that some of the humor I missed might have been due to my not getting it. I have to admit it took me some time to finally realize that this was not a "Hardy Boys" but a "Hardly Boys". The Nancy Clue instead of Drew was pretty obvious.
December 28, 2021
obsessed with the fact that it's never explained why exactly midge and frank are identical tbh. also i was waiting for the reveal that mrs hardly is also trans which would have rocked. nice new additions to the new crew, though i missed lauren and felt that jackie needed a bit more screentime considering the prominance of the love triangle. good on cherry for choosing the right girl in the end!
November 5, 2019
I love the entire Nancy Clue trilogy, but this last one really takes the cake as the best. It is funny, witty, filled with insider jokes and very smartly written...parody like this is hard to pull off but Maney really nails it. Definitely worth a read (I've probably read it 6 times)...
August 23, 2023
Full review here:
https://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/...
While I can't say it's on my list of favorite reads, I will say it's a hell of a lot better than I judged it in 1995.
https://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/...
While I can't say it's on my list of favorite reads, I will say it's a hell of a lot better than I judged it in 1995.
December 24, 2017
this was so much fun!!!! p.s. i'll date you, nancy clue
June 21, 2021
This is a goofy, cheeky, very well-written mystery. There’s a lot going on to keep you on your toes and giggling throughout the entire ride. I liked it best out of the three in the Nancy Clue series.
February 6, 2022
I had high hopes for this book. It was just ok. It was very wordy and super annoying trying to be gay themed that it simply pushed it too far.
November 3, 2025
Not as satisfying as the earlier books in the series. I suspect it was the addition of the Hardly Boys that made me feel there was not enough Cherry Aimless.
February 15, 2024
so gay but also has similar ideas to the actual Nancy Drew series. a very good read so far lmao
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June 18, 2020The third book is better than the second, but only when you have waded through more verbiage about dresses and wardrobes, which slow down the book and bore the reader (at least this reader) into zombieland.
In this one, Nancy Clue comes to realize that she has been a jerk to poor Cherry Aimless, whose eye has been wandering to Jackie, the handsome police woman from San Francisco, who has driven to River Depths just to woo her. She asks her friends the Hardly Boys to help her win back Cherry’s heart. In the process, they find a plot to kill pretty much everyone in town, ruin the good name of Hardly, and wreck America’s fledgling space program.
Joe Hardly’s first suggestion—that Nancy become a nun—doesn't meet with her approval because it would mean “wearing the same outfit day after day.” Humor like this in moderation works great. And, after the adventure is set up, this is a rousing, rollicking book.
Note: I read the fairly tame Cleis first printing from 1995. There is a later e-book available that may contain some differences.
Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
In this one, Nancy Clue comes to realize that she has been a jerk to poor Cherry Aimless, whose eye has been wandering to Jackie, the handsome police woman from San Francisco, who has driven to River Depths just to woo her. She asks her friends the Hardly Boys to help her win back Cherry’s heart. In the process, they find a plot to kill pretty much everyone in town, ruin the good name of Hardly, and wreck America’s fledgling space program.
Joe Hardly’s first suggestion—that Nancy become a nun—doesn't meet with her approval because it would mean “wearing the same outfit day after day.” Humor like this in moderation works great. And, after the adventure is set up, this is a rousing, rollicking book.
Note: I read the fairly tame Cleis first printing from 1995. There is a later e-book available that may contain some differences.
Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
October 27, 2015
A Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys crossover in which everyone is gay. I knew it would be ridiculous, but I was caught off-guard by how awesome it actually was. I mean, ridiculous, but awesome. Having read and reread, as a kid, every single Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys book that your small-town public library stocked isn't necessarily a prerequisite to reading this series, but I feel like these books don't have much to offer you if you haven't. Maney NAILS the tone, the turns of phrase are pitch-perfect, and no matter how preposterous the plot twists get, they're never more than a few degrees more absurd than any of the preposterous plot twists in the original series. As good as the parodying is, in some ways that was the fatal flaw for me - it's just sort of exhausting to slog through that much relentless satire, no matter how skillfully and lovingly executed. But I stuck with it, and it was totally worth it.
June 21, 2014
There's a sweetness to the novel that's hard to deny, and you have to give Maney some kind of points for her flawless replication of the tone and prose of the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys novels. That being said, this type of wink after wink after wink humor can be supported for maybe a reasonable 150 pages, not the 300+ that this thing weighs in at. Suffice to say by the end of the novel I had not been converted into a fan. I don't feel too bad about that however, as it's clear that Mabel Maney is pleased enough with her novel for the both of us.
August 21, 2015
Given to me by a friend as a joke. Because apparently lesbian Nancy Drew was a thing? I don't remember the original stories much. The constant descriptions of everyone's outfits are worth a laugh (until it gets annoying) and so is the hackneyed exposition. Maney doesn't quite commit to being ridiculous though - it's a queer mix of parody and sincerity. Interesting and historic in its own way (I think Maney wrote for one of the first little LGBT publishing companies), but I would probably enjoy one of those Soviet-era lesbian pulp novels more!
April 14, 2013
If you started with "Ghost in the Closet," you may want to go back to Maney's 1993 novel, "The Case of the Not-So Nice Nurse" (with amazing frontspiece by Susan Synarsky). At any rate, you'll enjoy "Ghost in the Closet" with high jinxs from the Hardly Boys.
Cover design by Pete Ivey
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This First Edition donated by CSC Archivist, Tess McCarthy. Has West Berkeley Women's Book "Signed by the Author" seal on the front, inside inscription: "Things are not what they seem. Mabel Maney."
Cover design by Pete Ivey
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This First Edition donated by CSC Archivist, Tess McCarthy. Has West Berkeley Women's Book "Signed by the Author" seal on the front, inside inscription: "Things are not what they seem. Mabel Maney."
July 15, 2008
I picked up this book because I read a review somewhere that it was a good take off on the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys mysteries. I absolutely loved Nancy Drew as a pre-teen. While it was true to the original in many ways, it wasn't as funny as I expected. My reaction was a big "ehh". I found it a little precious and overly impressed with its own cleverness.
February 8, 2013
Hated it. This is the most ridiculous of the three Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys parodies I've read. The parody is so relentless, it's impossible to read the (pretty much non-existent) story.
And she got the Hardly Boys' physical descriptions wrong. In the real books, Frank was dark and Joe was blond, but she mixed them up.
Anyway, I'm done with Mabel Maney.
And she got the Hardly Boys' physical descriptions wrong. In the real books, Frank was dark and Joe was blond, but she mixed them up.
Anyway, I'm done with Mabel Maney.
August 23, 2013
These books are highly amusing, especially if you were a fan of the Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, or Hardy Boys books. The way they parody those books is exquisite and a lot of fun. They noticed facets of the genre that I never did as a kid, but find highly amusing now. I'd never read Cherry Ames, but after reading a couple of Mabel Maney's books, I actually read several.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews