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Dana Girls Mystery #12
The Portrait in the Sand
The Danas' pottery teacher, Miss Warren, asks Jean and Louise to help her find her missing fiancé, F.B.I. agent Richard Henley. The girls and Miss Warren stay with her aunt and uncle, the Pattons, while they work on the mystery. The Pattons fear that Henley has drowned, since his boat has washed up on shore.
The Danas find few clues but wonder if the strange hermit, Ham Gert knows anything about Henley. Gert refuses to talk except to warn the girls away from the cliff and the beach. The girls become suspicious of Gert and wonder about the strange cries they hear coming from the top of the cliff. When the girls investigate, the cliff is deserted.
The mystery proves difficult to solve, especially when Lettie Briggs appears on the scene and thwarts the Danas' investigation. How the Danas discover what happened to Richard Henley and help the government will thrill the reader from start to finish.
The Danas find few clues but wonder if the strange hermit, Ham Gert knows anything about Henley. Gert refuses to talk except to warn the girls away from the cliff and the beach. The girls become suspicious of Gert and wonder about the strange cries they hear coming from the top of the cliff. When the girls investigate, the cliff is deserted.
The mystery proves difficult to solve, especially when Lettie Briggs appears on the scene and thwarts the Danas' investigation. How the Danas discover what happened to Richard Henley and help the government will thrill the reader from start to finish.
216 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1943
About the author
Carolyn Keene
1,098 books3,972 followersCarolyn 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 18, 2022
I really enjoyed this Dana Girls. The mystery was very solid and enjoyable, and the rivalry was well done. This was one of their better-done books.
February 1, 2019
As Dana Girls books go, this one was fairly good. The girls agree to help their art teacher Miss Warren, whose FBI agent fiance goes missing while on a case. There is the usual antics of Lettie Briggs who thinks she can solve the mystery before Louise and Jean. The Dana Girls follow clues from a wooden portrait carved with a clue to that same face in stone on the top of a cliff to a hat whose band has the missing fiance's initials to a mysterious speed boat. What is the perpetrators doing that they had to remove an FBI agent on their tail? I was amused that the FBI themselves didn't looking into a missing agent who was presumed to be taken captive on an active case but allowed Louise and Jean to follow up on the clues and report to an FBI agent that Uncle Ned knows.
March 21, 2013
I loved this series of books that I read back in junior high. They are from the same syndicate that wrote the Nancy Drew books and the Hardy Boys, but I much preferred the Dana Girls.
August 3, 2019
This was an ok book. It was slow in action for me personally.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews