Broken Promises

Nancy Drew: On Campus #9

by Carolyn Keene

Leslie has a shocking story to tell about one of her professors, and while Nancy and Jack team up to do the story for the school newspaper, Leslie's story spreads across campus, but now the story has changed, because her professor has turned up dead. Original.

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1996

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 In a few cases, outdated plots were completely rewritten.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

[LuAnn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since I’ve read many other Nancy Drew series, I wanted to read at least one story from ND On Campus, though it’s not highly thought of among fans. Such a different Nancy from the rest! She’d rather “not get involved” in the latest mystery that comes her way. And she, Bess and George are very much into PDAs with their boyfriends, one of the things she’d rather do. Weirdly, there’s a secondary plot involving a separate group of students unrelated to the main plot. The book does address sexual harassment of college students by a professor well, long before the “Me, Too” movement.

[Bookish Indulgenges with b00k r3vi3ws · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys throughout my school and college days.
Nancy Drew is an amateur detective who solves crimes with occasional help from her best friends, Bess and George and, her boyfriend Ned. She also has occasional help from her father Carson Drew who runs a private law practice. From finding stolen goods to missing persons and solving mysterious happenings, Nancy is a force of nature.
Until I discovered that Carolyn Keene is a pen name for a whole bunch of ghostwriters, I used to feel confused about the slight differences in each character from books to book over the many series of Nancy Drew mysteries. I like the character of Nancy best in the original books written by Mildred Wirt Benson where Nancy is truly a character to root for – an independent and street smart girl with a penchant for trouble.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

i never liked nacy drew. and this book didn't change my opinion abou the character or the series. it was a light easy read, but certainly not a good mystery. the end was way too predictable and worse, carolyne keene tried make leslie as some sort of a wicked girl who's in trouble and nancy and her friends as a bunch of angels who still helped her. all the other books do the same, they always nancy and her friends as perfect angels and some other girl as a snob who will be helped by nancy, and who, in the end turn into a changed person thanks to nancy, and will be forever grateful to her.

[Shayeri Mukhopadhyay]

stupid idiotic girlie book without any meanings or emotions !

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read September 2009
Read April 2006