Book Review: Nancy Drew: The Secret of Red Gate Farm

Book: Nancy Drew: The Secret of Red Gate Farm (Nancy Drew book #6) by Carolyn Keene

Edition: Hardcover

Description:

Nancy and her friends, Bess and George, meet Joanne Byrd on a train ride home. Joanne lives at Red Gate Farm with her grandmother, but if they do not raise enough money to pay the mortgage, they will soon lose the farm! Nancy, Bess, and George decide to stay at Red Gate for a week as paying customers. Soon, they learn about the strange group of people who rent a cave on the property. They describe themselves as a nature cult called the Black Snake Colony. Nancy and her friends investigate the group but may have stumbled into something even more dangerous!



Rating: 4 stars

Review:

In The Secret of Red Gate Farm, Nancy Drew, George Fayne and Bess Marvin were in for a difficult case that centered around a nature cult at their new friend Joanne Bryd's grandmother's farm. Who knew that a simple shopping trip in a nearby town would lead Nancy and her two best friends George and Bess to yet another mystery.

While they were walking to get the train back to River Heights, the three girls couldn't help wondering why the sales lady at the perfume store seemed reluctant to sell Bess a certain bottle of perfume. Of course, Nancy was a little curious but she tabled that thought for later.

On the train, the girls met a new friend who departed the train with them in River Heights. As the trio were getting to know their new friend Joanne Bryd, she told them she was trying to get a job in the nearby city Riverside Heights, because she needed to earn money to keep her grandmother from having to sell their farm. Nancy agreed to drive Joanne to apply for the job but the moment they arrived at the seedy looking office, Nancy was growing suspicious of the ill-tempered guy giving the interview especially when she noticed that he wrote down a strange code while taking a phone call. When he went to interview Joanne, it gave Nancy a little bit of time to write down some of the code since the guy forgot to take it with him. However, the interview didn't last long, leaving Joanne disappointed she didn't get the job.

Nancy was actually relieved Joanne did not get the job because she believed something shady was going on at that office. Her suspicion only grew more the following day, when she along with George and Bess went to check up on Joanne who had stayed in Riverside Heights to see if she could find a job. Nancy noticed the sales lady who sold Bess the perfume enter the same building where Joanne had her interview the previous day. Nancy was able to get a bit of information about the mysterious lady including her name from the building's janitor before he grew suspicious of her numerous questions.

After several failed attempts at finding a job, Joanne planned to head back home, she was hoping to stop her grandmother from selling the farm. But she wasn't going alone, Nancy, Bess and George were driving Joanne back to Red Gate Farm and the girls had a plan that could help lessen some of Joanne and her grandmother's financial burden. Since Joanne's grandmother was accepting boarders, the three girls were going to stay for at least a little while as a way to help out.

Getting to the farm was a bit of an adventure but once they got there Nancy couldn't shake her suspicions that The Black Snake Colony, the nature cult who were renting land from Joanne's grandmother were up to something. Things were starting to take an interesting turn in Nancy's investigation because the more she investigated the more questions she had about the cult along with a growing feeling that they might be connected to the shady business back in Riverside Heights.

Nancy, Bess, George and Joanne were planning to find out what was really going on with the cult. Unfortunately, I think they got more than they bargained for when they infiltrated the group leading to a much needed rescue.

I like Nancy, she's brave and fearless but she also gets scared, however she doesn't let it stop her from investigating. I was surprised that Nancy and the girls received help at the most opportune time from Karl Abbott Jr. the son of one of the farm borders.

Even though I found the story to be interesting, there was plenty of drama and suspense included, it seemed like Nancy sort of lucked up on information or simply received information from her friend River Heights Police Chief McGuinnis. Despite that, she does solve the mystery involving the strange code, the Riverside Heights business, the cult and helped with saving the farm.

I noticed in reading the many of the earlier books in the series that Nancy had not acquired her escape artist skills such as escaping from being tied up, picking locks, etc. which left her in need of rescuing. In later books, she became a lot more self-reliant. 

I would like to note that since this book was published back in the 1930s, it has a very racist feel when the perfume sales lady was described as being "Oriental" or "Oriental looking" as well as the perfume that Bess bought. Also, the nature cult were using robes and hoods that gave them a Klansman-like look to them. Even though this is a exciting story, I could not review this without mentioning this.