The Secret of the Wooden Lady is truly one of the more perfect Nancy Drew novels. Old and new editions alike.
Our story starts out in River Heights, where Nancy finds out about a mystery she will soon join her father in solving--an old SAILOR (I'll get to that, don't worry) Captain Easterly, who is searching for the deed to a clipper ship he's fallen in love with named the Bonny Scot.
But, before Nancy can leave, she's called by Bess, who is at that moment being burglarized! Nancy drives straight over to the Marvin house but, when she heads in to look for Bess, a hand grabs her from behind and shoves her into the back seat of her car.
Whoa. For a minute there I thought Nancy Drew was about to get really serious. Like "very special episode" serious. But, don't worry guys. We won't need to call in River Heights: CS. It's just another head injury. In fact, the burglar causes her to pass out with what seems an awful lot like the Vulcan death grip, but not before Nancy notices about twenty details about the guy's hands.
Nice, Nancy. Anyhoo, she wakes up and finds poor Bess huddled in a closet. After this incident, Bess and George are more than ready for a little vacation from River Heights, so they join Nancy and Carson after a day in Boston.
Which brings me to Captain Easterly. Totally okay that he's a sailor, given that he operates out of Boston Harbor. That makes the kind of sense I can get behind. A kind but gruff older man, Captain Easterly's first love is the sea (of course) but running a close second is his precious Bonny Scot. Without finding the original owner, he cannot get a clean title and buy the ship, a situation made even worse by a mysterious stowaway that has been ransacking the ship's quarters.
Nancy and co. try to run down the stowaway a few times, but only manage to get a description: He dresses like a sailor and has a crazy grizzled face. So, henceforth, he is known as "Grizzle Face." Ooooh, pretty good name. Still doesn't beat Snorky, though. Grizzle face seems to somehow be involved with Flip Fay as well, the man who police know as "The Crow" and might be the same man who robbed the Marvins back in River Heights (because all of these criminals are just stupid enough to follow Nancy right into whatever mystery she's solving...dumb-ass criminals).
Meanwhile, Nancy finds a series of clues based on the missing figurehead of the Bonny Scot (the titular wooden lady) that leads her to discover the original name of the ship: the "Dream of Melissa." She gets most of her information from a local Maritime book shop, spending hours on end reading in the loft of the store. This, of course, makes for a perfect "crime research scene," akin to those montages of uncanny detectives poring over old tomes while classical music plays in the background. Love it!
When Nancy finally tracks down the wooden lady, all set to make way for Captain Easterly to find the ship, however, the ne'er do wells are waiting for her. Grizzle Face, as it turned out, was just a poor salty old petty criminal. The real bad guys are Flip Fay (a.k.a. The Crow) and his partner Fred Lane (boooorrrriiingg! get a name like Grizzle Face, guy!). Nancy, of course, gets her men, but has to deal with multiple ransackings, an abduction, and a nearly deadly storm.
This is definitely one of my favorites, but in this case there's no bias. I'm almost worried that this review will be quite boring, as The Secret of the Wooden Lady is simply a well-written, finely crafted mystery with no plot holes, few examples of prejudice (mostly because it's like all white people in the book, but still refreshing after the last one) sailors in the right location, and a satisfying ending. 5/5 mags!
Head Injuries: 1 (12 total)
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