Book Review: The Nancy Drew Files: Secrets Can Kill

Book: Secrets Can Kill (The Nancy Drew Files case #1) by Carolyn Keene

Edition: Hardcover

Description:

Nancy poses as a student and goes undercover to investigate a series of thefts at Bedford High.




Rating: 4 stars

Review:

In Secrets Can Kill, Nancy Drew was hired by Mr. Parton, the Bedford High School principal to look into a string of thefts happening at the school. To solve her case, she was going undercover as a student. But the night before she was to start her investigation, Nancy received a menacing video meant to scare her off the case.

Despite the threat, Nancy was ready to solve what she thought would be an easy case. However, the more she looked into the case, she was finding it to be very complicated. The minor thefts led her to several suspects and looking into them further led her to one prime suspect who seem to specialize in extortion. Just when she was narrowing in on her main suspect, the person was found dead. Now Nancy will have to shift the focus to finding a killer before she becomes the next target.

What I found interesting about this mystery is that initially this was a case that Nancy could have easily solved in a day or two. She even seemed a little overconfident at first which felt out of character for her. Especially since as the case started to become more complicated, she really had to step up her investigation. This case was turning out to be bigger than she imagined and what I also found interesting is that during her investigation, Nancy got a little romantically distracted by Daryl Gray, a high school senior who was also her contact on the case.

With this case taking on a deadly twist, Nancy got a little help from her best friends cousins Bess Marvin and George Fayne and her on-again-off-again boyfriend Ned Nickerson. As you can tell by the cover, Secrets Can Kill was published in the 80s and was a modern take on Nancy Drew. Although, it may be slightly updated, Nancy is still smart and resourceful, however, there were a few rare occasions where she seemed a little out of character. With that said, it doesn't stop this from being a good read.