Book name: The Clue of the Broken Locket
Author: Carolyn Keene
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Format: Print, ebook
Genre: Children
Publication Date: 1934
Star Rating: 5/5
There’s nothing like a spooky lakeside mystery.
The Clue in the Broken Locket is the eleventh Nancy Drew mystery story. Although we see Ned and the other boys, the focus in this story is on women.
Nancy is asked by her father to investigate a mystery at Misty Lake, Maryland. One of Carson’s clients has a summer cottage up there.
The client is having trouble getting his usual caretaker, Herbert Winch, to open up the cottage so a tenant can move in. The tenant is Cecily Curtis.
Herbert has refused to help open up the cottage, saying he is too scared. Everyone who knows him says that this is very out of character.
Nancy asks Beth and George to accompany her on the trip. On the way, they stop for lunch and run into a red-haired young woman.
She is arguing with her boyfriend, and Nancy then saves her from falling into a river when the bridge collapses.
They go their separate ways, with Nancy and her pals heading off to the lake to find the cottage.
They intend to stay at a local boarding house, but become intrigued by the locals’ reluctance to go to the cottage after dark. Instead, they decide to brave it out and stay at the cottage instead.
They are also undeterred by local tales of a launch carrying tourists that sank, drowning everyone, on the far side of the lake.
Spooky tales suggest that a phantom launch has been seen floating on the lake, and that this side of the lake is now deserted.
Nancy and the others spy the mystery woman again, but joke that she might have a double because she is dressed differently and doesn’t seem to know them.
When of the mystery women turns out to be Cecily, they move into the cottage together. Cecily has a broken locket with a message hinting at family treasure. She thinks it might be here at the lakeside.
There was plenty of romance in The Clue of the Broken Locket, as Cecily’s boyfriend has financial problems which must be solved if they are to get married.
There was also a focus on family, with the investigation moving on to determine whether Cecily’s double is a relation.
There was such a feel-good, family-orientated atmosphere to The Clue of the Broken Locket. I enjoyed seeing Nancy, Bess and George together. This story particularly brought out the young women’s desire to help other women, in the form of Cecily and the second mystery woman.
This was a great story. A spooky location, a plot that had been centuries in the making and Nancy and her buddies helping romance to have a happy ending. Brilliant.
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