Book #29: The Mystery at the Ski Jump

Nancy vs. a Fake Fur Company, Reverend Moore from Footloose, and... herself

Two themes hail from The Mystery at the Ski Jump: 1) Diligence and evidence collection pays off, and 2) Nancy Drew is kind of an asshole.

Our story starts with bang, so to speak.  One of the Drews' neighbors has a car crash into her house.  The driver, a full-on-bitch named Mitzi Channing, manages to sell the neighbor and Hannah Gruen some fake stock and totally bail on the damages on her way out of town after the accident.  She also manages to royally piss off Nancy by mocking her detective abilities.  Ooooohhh, Mitzi.  Don't go there.  Anyway, with a name like Mitzi Channing, can't you just imagine her draped in fur and drinking a martini, plotting ways to kill off her rich husband?

Well, the imaginings I've projected onto you aren't far off, dear reader.  Mitzi Channing has been selling stolen furs, and stock in a fake fur company to all the unwitting women of River Heights.  Nancy, Bess and George follow her north from town to town, but she evades their grasp, even managing to convince a couple business owners that Nancy herself is the thief.

Oooohhhh, Mitzi.  You just made a bad situation worse.

Not to be deterred, Nancy continues to follow up on some leads.  The fake fur company seems to be located in Vermont, but it's in a place called "Dunstan Lake" which nobody seems to have ever heard of.  A Mountweazel, perhaps?  She goes to New York to visit Aunt Eloise, suspecting one of the crooks working with Mitzi has been peddling fake stock there.  Unfortunately, Mitzi's cohort, Sidney Boyd, has left a whole slew of swindling victims in his wake.

Meanwhile, Bess and George find a fur trapper named John Horn who looks "like a cross between Daniel Boone and Santa Claus" and can tell the difference between a genuine and fake fur with his eyes closed.  Naw, I'm just kidding.  His eyes really do have to be open.  Nancy briefly meets with him, but then jet-sets off to Montreal, seemingly to help her father on his own case before she continues with the fur mystery.

In Montreal, she finds even more clues as to the racketeering bunch (Seriously, why do the criminals follow her on vacation?  They're just digging their own proverbial graves...) and meets a young handsome man named Chuck Wilson.  Poor Chuck Wilson, a ski champion, has an unscrupulous uncle who threatens to keep him from his inheritance.  You see, Chuck's own parents were joyful, carefree types, but his uncle hates anything of entertainment value-he won't even let Chuck dance or listen to music.

Aaaaaaannnnd then it's Footloose.  Nancy promises to help Chuck bring dancing back to Bomont--ehr, I mean find proof to collect his inheritance.  Apparently, the only man who could possibly know the truth is an old fur trapper (CONNECTION?!) named John Horn (CONNECTION.).

Nancy and Chuck make quite the pair, skiing together, having meals, blushing when his name comes up...I feel like I'm watching trouble brew before me.  Fortunately, Nancy leaves Montreal without any chaste middle-grade indiscretions, and gets back to River Heights just in time to tell John Horn about the Footloose situation.  Having discovered several clues about the possibly-fake Dunstan Lake, Vermont, trailing it all back to a P.O. box not far from her Aunt's summer home in the Adirondacks, Nancy decides that the whole group (Bess, George, Ned, Burt and Dave) should go meet up with Aunt Eloise, along with John Horn.  Because, of course, Chuck Wilson is also going to be there for some reason.

It's all a little too convenient, but I let it slide (not without a price of half a mag).

We then realize that Nancy is a total asshole.  While visiting the Adirondacks, and a local ski lodge, it becomes apparent that Chuck and Nancy have a bit of a rapport and had been hanging out in Montreal.  At Ned's hurt expressions and clear jealousy, Nancy only shows "amusement," occasionally teasing Ned by letting Chuck insert himself into their daily activities.

Wow.  Insensitive, thy name is Nancy Drew.

The thieves, who have of course also settled back in the Adirondacks (although at least that area, Montreal, and Vermont are all slightly close together), continue to do their dirty deeds while Nancy is hot on their trail.  When she sees the nefarious Mitzi Channing ice skating nearby (because that seems smart--robbing a bunch of people and then stopping for a casual ice skating break) and discovers the twist of the book: Dunstan Lake is a MAN, not a place.

It's like a reverse Ambrose Chapel, guys!

The crooks kidnap Nancy and leave her to freeze in an abandoned cabin, but are eventually apprehended when she is freed by her friends.  In an unusual turn, the crooks maintain their innocence instead of blurting out why they did it like they're in an episode of Perry Mason (the usual m.o. of Nancy Drew criminals).  Fortunately, Nancy retraces her steps and finds evidence of stolen fur pelts, messages concerning the bad stock, and an easily-identifiable pair of stolen earrings Mitzi herself has on.

You see what happens, Mitzi?!  You see what happens when you f*** a stranger in the a** THAT'S what happens, Mitzi! THAT's what happens!

Like I said, don't mess with Nancy.  She's a methodical android of a girl, and is occasionally cold-hearted enough to dismiss even Ned's puppy dog eyes.

This one was great.  I was a bit annoyed as per usual with the fact that people seemed to show up wherever Nancy went; I mean, if she were following the criminals it would be one thing, but they are clearly following her.  I kind of imagine them all (still sipping martinis and draped in fur) saying: "I say, gang.  That River Heights townie, Nancy Drew is going off to the Adirondacks.  Who does she think she is, vacationing in places we might steal in?  Let's all pay her a little visit, even though she has a 100% success rate in solving crimes perpetrated by scoundrels like us."

Idiots.

Anyhoo, I digress.  Despite this problem, which I'm beginning to see is a problem with pretty much all Nancy Drew books, this was a really good one.  It had a few twists and turns, and at one point I even thought John Horn (a.k.a. Santa Boone) might be in on the racket.  All of our favorite characters were involved in the mystery, and the pacing was a welcome change from the Clue-of-the-Black-whatever-thing-it-was I just reviewed.  This one gets 4 1/2 out of 5 mags.


P.S. Footloose gets his inheritance, by the way, but it's pretty much an afterthought.  Nobody caaaaares, Chuck.  Nobody cares.