Book Review: Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk

Book: Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk (Nancy Drew book #17) by Carolyn Keene

Edition: Hardcover

Description:

A brass-bound trunk mistakenly delivered to Nancy's cabin on a New York-bound ocean liner becomes the first clue leading her to suspect that international jewel thieves are aboard.



Rating: 3 stars

Review:

In this story, Nancy Drew and her two best friends cousins George Fayne and Bess Marvin were traveling on a ship from Holland to New York City. Before the ship departed Nancy noticed a man on the dock who was communicating a message through sign language to someone on the ship. She's not fluent in the langue but she does know a few letters and was able to glean some of the message and it said -eware Nancy Drew and NE. Of course that caught her attention seeing her name being mention by a stranger.

Nancy wasn't quite sure about the message but she figured out the NE part when she met the trio's new roommate, the Captain's niece Nelda Detweiler. But her mystery solving really started when the suitcases were delivered to their room and she was given a locked trunk that had the initials N.D. on it but it wasn't hers or Nelda's.

The mysterious trunk wasn't the only issue, after Nelda received a threatening letter she told Nancy, Bess and George how she had witnessed a jewelry theft but the crooks some how framed her for it. Thankfully her lawyer was able to convince the store owner to not press charges since she was innocent.

That trunk brought with it lots of issues such as two men who were disguised as plumbers trying to forcible take it away from them to someone trashing their room trying to find it after the girls hid it. Nancy and her friends got a little help investigating from the ship's purser Rod Havelock and Nelda's uncle Captain Detweiler. 

After the ship's locksmith unlocked the trunk, it gave them a chance to search through it as a way to find the owner (since it wasn't claimed). As they were searching through the trunk they found plenty of clothes and wigs but they also found various gems locked in a hidden compartment. It was becoming evident that they were dealing with jewel thieves who were on the ship. It's possible they may be the same thieves who stole the jewelry and framed Nelda.

After Nancy figured out who owned the trunk and the group found even more hidden jewels and stolen official paperwork, I was surprised that the Captain made no attempt to have the criminals arrested. I was also surprised the ship didn't have on board security. However, they did have a plan set in place once the ship arrived in New York but they had to keep avoiding getting attacked or ambushed by the crooks until then.

This was a fast read but sometimes it seemed like the story really wasn't going anywhere and the ending felt rushed. I also found Nancy to be a little out of character and her mystery solving skills to be a little subpar at times.

I really wish there was a way to determine or identify who wrote which Nancy Drew books. Because some of the authors were great at writing these stories while others did not seem to know what they were doing. I would put Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk's writer squarely in the middle because the story was good but it did have quite a few issues.