Book #4: The Mystery at Lilac Inn (1961 Edition)

Okay, WOW.  This one was just amazing.  It was another one I haven't read in 10-15 years, and I think part of me was mixing it up with The Whispering Statue plot.  This book starts with Nancy and Helen Corning heading out to Lilac Inn, where their friend Emily is to be married to some guy named Dick.  Heh.  Anyway, Emily and Dick (Heh heh.  Okay, so maybe I have roughly the emotional maturity of this series' target audience...whatever) have purchased the Lilac Inn in order to support themselves after they get married.  Unfortunately, as Nancy soon discovers, a series of "haunted activity" has been taking place at the Inn.

Oh, Yeah!  A Haunting!  Oh, wait...

So, Nancy sets out to try and find the source of the mysterious happenings, with the help of an attractive Best Man (Helen is now about to be married and has crossed over to completely useless), John McBride.  Meanwhile, she hears word from home that the Drew house has been burglarized!  Many of Nancy's clothes, photographs and her charge placard from the local department store have been stolen.  So many of Nancy's things have been targeted that we must wonder...will this be a case with a mysterious Nancy doppelganger?  And...the answer is YES!  Apparently, Nancy Drew is the most generic looking person in the world, because this is the first of about 82 look-a-likes we will see in the series.  Some are just random, but this one is...eeeevvvil.  That's right, Nancy Drew's first doppelganger is roving around doing very bad things and claiming to be Nancy herself.

What.  A.  Biotch.

In the midst of all this, we have a pain-in the ass social director who's got eyes on Carson Drew, a bomb (yes, a BOMB) that goes off in Nancy's cottage, a skin-diving accident (evidently, among Nancy's million talents is skin diving), stolen diamonds, a man-made earthquake, and a g-g-g-ghost sighting (but not really a ghost, as we know by now they NEVER are).  Nancy suspects spoiled social director Maude at first, mostly because she is a total asshole, but, due to some strange incidents, must include the handsome John McBride on her suspect list.  As the story comes to a close, the action picks up even more.  Nancy is abducted and taken to a SHARK-SHAPED SUBMARINE (that's right!) by her doppelganger, who has been at the Inn all along as timid waitress Jean Holmes!  She not only has been planning this whole thing to get the diamonds, but specifically targeted Nancy Drew out of revenge, as Carson Drew prosecuted her for check fraud, ending her acting career five years earlier.  Jean and her gang of misfits go on to explain how they pulled everything off, as criminals will tend to do, giving the authorities enough time to arrive.  Never one to rely on a man saving her, however, Nancy trips her doppelganger, leaving her sprawled face-down on the submarine deck so that she's all ready to be arrested.  Awesome.

This is my first 5 out of 5!



N.D. Doppelganger Count: 1
N.D. Head Injury Count: 0 (2 total)