A Crime for Christmas
by Carolyn Keene
Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super Mysteries (2), Nancy Drew (Nancy Drew / Hardy Boys Super Mystery series — ND & HB Super Mystery 2)
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Description
Nancy Drew combines her particular talent for sleuthing with Frank and Joe Hardy's two-fisted brand of detective work in an extremely puzzling case set in Christmastime New York.Tags
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Member Reviews
Started out enjoyable, but the last quarter of the book dragged. Initially Frank, Joe and Nancy are called to NYC on a case of a cat burglar duo out to snag the Crown Jewels of (fictional country) Sarconne. But the book than took a turn and focused more on crown prince Jean-Claude of Sarconne and his flirtations with Bess and the escapades around a kidnapping. The cat burglar mystery was left in the dust for most of the book, until it returned with a quick mop-up that took up a paragraph or two. I wanted more cat-burglar action!
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The Stratemeyer Syndicate
605 works; 1 member
Author Information
925+ Works 201,301 Members
Carolyn Keene was the pseudonym that Mildred Wirt Benson and Walter Karig used to write Nancy Drew books. The idea of Nancy Drew came from Edward Stratemeyer in 1929. He also had other series, that included the Hardy Boys, but he died in 1930 before the Nancy Drew series became famous. His daughters, Harriet and Edna, inherited his company and show more maintained Nancy Drew having Mildred Wirt Benson, the original Carolyn Keene, as the principal ghostwriter. During the Depression, they asked Benson to take a pay cut and she refused, which is when Karig wrote the books. Karig's Nancy Drew books were Nancy's Mysterious Letter, The Sign of the Twisted Candles, and Password to Larkspur Lane. He was fired from writing more books because of his refusal to honor the request that he keep his work as Carolyn Keene a secret. He allowed the Library of Congress to learn of his authorship and his name appeared on their catalog cards. Afterwards, they rehired Benson and she wrote until her last Nancy Drew book (#30) was written in 1953, Clue of the Velvet Mask. Harriet and Edna Stratemeyer also contributed to the Nancy Drew series. Edna wrote plot outlines for several of the early books and Harriet, who claimed to be the sole author, had actually outlined and edited nearly all the volumes written by Benson. The Stratemeyer Syndicate had begun to make its writers sign contracts that prohibited them from claiming any credit for their works, but Benson never denied her writing books for the series. After Harriet's death in 1982, Simon and Schuster became the owners of the Stratemeyer Syndicate properties and in 1994, publicly recognized Benson for her work at a Nancy Drew conference at her alma mater, the University of Iowa. Now, Nancy Drew has several ghostwriters and artists that have contributed to her more recent incarnations. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- A Crime for Christmas
- Original publication date
- 1988
- People/Characters
- Nancy Drew; Fred Hardy; Joe Hardy
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 225
- Popularity
- 144,298
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.85)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 1
