Book Review: Nancy Drew: The Hidden Staircase

Book: Nancy Drew: The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew book #2) by Carolyn Keene

Edition: Hardcover

Description:

After receiving a call from her friend Helen Corning, Nancy agrees to help solve a baffling mystery. Helen's Aunt Rosemary has been living with her mother at the old family mansion, and they have noticed many strange things. They have heard music, thumps, and creaking noises at night, and seen eerie shadows on the walls. Could the house be haunted?

Just as soon as she hangs up the phone, a strange man visits Nancy's house to warn her and her father that they are in danger because of a case he is working on buying property for a railroad company. This warning leads Nancy and her father Carson to search for the missing Willie Wharton, a landowner, who can prove he signed away his land to the railroad and save the railroad from a lawsuit. Will Nancy be able to find the missing landowner and discover how these mysteries are related?



Rating: 5 stars

Review:

Over the years, I have read a lot of Nancy Drew books but surprisingly never in order. In this second book in the series, Nancy found herself being asked by her friend Helen Corning to investigate a possible haunting of Helen's great-aunt Rosemary Hayes' home, Twin Elms. Mrs. Hayes who also shares the home with her elderly mother Miss Flora stated that besides the many strange occurrences there have also been several thefts. They tried contacting the police but were met with disbelief about the haunting and the thefts suggesting that it was all in their imagination.

Nancy was very interested in taking on the case but was hesitant because she was worried about the current case her father was working on. He was involved in the process of acquiring land for the railroad company. Nancy thought maybe she needed to stay near him because she believed he was in danger after she had received a thinly veiled threat against her father from Nathan Gomber, who is representing Willie Wharton who is holding up the railroad project trying to seek more money. Her father reassured her that he was in no danger but he was having difficulty in trying to find Wharton.

Although she still had doubts regarding her father's safety, she was assured enough to take on the haunted house case. And this case was a peculiar one because it didn't take long before strange things started to happen such as items going missing and phantom music playing but the strangest thing of all was Nathan Gomber showing up at Twin Elms. He was trying to get Miss Flora to sell her home.

Things go from bad to worse when Nancy found out her father had been kidnapped on his way to visiting her at Twin Elms. Now she not only had to solve the mystery of the haunted house but now she needed to find her father as well. These cases were really getting to her because someone was tormenting Rosemary and Miss Flora but there were no clues as to who it was and how they were getting in the house. Meanwhile Gomber was trying to intimidate them into selling their home and Nancy had to deal with all of that while trying to track down clues as to who took her father and where he could be.

I enjoyed reading this, the story was fast-paced and full of drama and suspense as Nancy was on a nonstop search for clues. I was surprised that this story didn't feature Nancy's two best friends Bess Marvin and George Fayne but she did get some help investigating from her friend Helen. What I love about Nancy is that she is fearless and even more so when she's afraid. She didn't let the fear she had for her father being missing keep her from trying to find him. She could have easily left it up to the police to handle but not Nancy she has to untangle the clues and solve the mystery.

It's been a while since I've read a Nancy Drew book, I might have to pull another one off the shelf real soon.