The Clue of the Dancing Puppet

I have not read a Nancy Drew mystery in a very long time. When I was younger, I read the Hardy Boys instead. For the last few years, I have been collecting the classic blue Hardy Boys (1960s/1970s), so when my friends and family see some in a thrift shop they grab them often with a few Nancy Drews as well.

This was a good book to be my "reintroduction" to the series. It is set around an amateur theatre. There are alot of Shakespeare quotes and references. As we know, these books did not have guns or murders, but even in saying that, I was a little shocked at the amount of violence. In the modern world, Nancy would have spent most of the book in "concussion protocol."

Nancy is a "polymath protagonist," whose talents and interests change show more to fit the need of every book. This book pulls this off well. My two quibbles are (1) the ending was rushed and not exactly explained well, and (2) the time keeping in this book is very off. The "after-theatre" time in this book stretched and stretched. When did Nancy and her chums ever sleep? show less

Nancy is called upon to solve the case of the dancing puppet with the help of her friends. She is threatened, knocked unconscious more than once.
When she fills in as the lead in the play she is a great success.

I absolutely loved Nancy Drew growing up. This was a series I latched on to for dear life and never let go. Anytime my mom and I would go to antique stores, we'd peruse the Nancy Drews and add them to the collection (oftentimes my mom had to make deals with me on how many I could buy). So, while I don't remember the exact details of each and every one, the entire series was amazing and really fed my love for reading (especially novels full of suspense and mystery). Thank you, Carolyn Keene, for giving us an intelligent female character to fall in love with in Nancy Drew!

A solid story. Really enjoyed this mystery, and the cover art is spooky wonderful.

A very good Nancy drew book about a mysterious dancing ballerina puppet that has been appearing on the lawn of a mansion, where an amateur acting group has their theater. As Nancy tries to figure out who the puppet belongs to, and why it appears, it becomes clear that mysterious puppets are not the only thing wrong around the mansion.

5 Stars