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Nancy Drew tries to find out who's spreading terror through the offices of Flash, the hottest new teen magazine in the country.Tags
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I finished the third book in The Nancy Drew Files series and barely took a breath, so to speak, before I jumped right into this fourth one. I'm getting a kick out of these '80s YA mysteries.
I also got a little kick out of the tie to other actual mystery novels and authors in this book, including a mention of books about the Hardy Boys. And one character's comment about detective stories being too predictable for her—a pretty mischievous move on the writer's part to stick a line like that into one of these quick and easy Nancy novels.
I found it kind of funny that at one point, the narrator adds a little explanation about what the phone number "911" is. That emergency number had been in effect for almost two decades by the time this show more book was written, so the book's young target audience would have grown up knowing the number already.
As I suspected would happen while reading the previous novel, Nancy and her boyfriend Ned run into more relationship trouble as romantic plans of theirs are again interrupted by a case Nancy takes on. As for the case itself, some of the most interesting action and its resulting problem are brought on by a critical mistake on Nancy's part, when she jumps ahead of "the rational side of her brain." Not the first time that she's messed up in a way that doesn't make the most sense for a detective who's so experienced.
Nevertheless, I still found the read quite entertaining, from the workplace mystery, to the dash of teen magazine industry glitz and glam, to the now outdated tech and the presence of a store like good ol' Woolworth's. (Am I dating myself?)
Looking forward to reading (and revisiting) more of this series. show less
I also got a little kick out of the tie to other actual mystery novels and authors in this book, including a mention of books about the Hardy Boys. And one character's comment about detective stories being too predictable for her—a pretty mischievous move on the writer's part to stick a line like that into one of these quick and easy Nancy novels.
I found it kind of funny that at one point, the narrator adds a little explanation about what the phone number "911" is. That emergency number had been in effect for almost two decades by the time this show more book was written, so the book's young target audience would have grown up knowing the number already.
As I suspected would happen while reading the previous novel, Nancy and her boyfriend Ned run into more relationship trouble as romantic plans of theirs are again interrupted by a case Nancy takes on. As for the case itself, some of the most interesting action and its resulting problem are brought on by a critical mistake on Nancy's part, when she jumps ahead of "the rational side of her brain." Not the first time that she's messed up in a way that doesn't make the most sense for a detective who's so experienced.
Nevertheless, I still found the read quite entertaining, from the workplace mystery, to the dash of teen magazine industry glitz and glam, to the now outdated tech and the presence of a store like good ol' Woolworth's. (Am I dating myself?)
Looking forward to reading (and revisiting) more of this series. show less
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925+ Works 201,405 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
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Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Smile and Say Murder
- Original publication date
- 1986
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Statistics
- Members
- 270
- Popularity
- 119,236
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.61)
- Languages
- 5 — Czech, Dutch, English, French, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 15
- ASINs
- 3
