Thursday, March 27, 2014

Book # 30: The Clue of the Velvet Mask

Alternately titled: "Nancy Drew and the Mysterious Case of George Going Bat-Shit Crazy."

It's a lesser-known original title.  You know, like "War, What is it Good For?"

Our story starts with Nancy getting ready to attend a masquerade ball with Ned at a mutual friend's house.  Nancy is a Spanish "senorita" (you know that just means Miss or young lady in Spanish, right Nancy?), and has a bullfighter costume all set for Ned, but it looks too tight--she is sure that Ned's muscular frame will cause the costume to burst!  I am about to suggest that Ned go as a bullfighter/The Hulk, but then I realize I am making suggestions aloud to a book written over 50 years ago. In any event, Ned manages to squeeze his evidently body-builder-like physique into the bullfighter costume and they start to head out when...

WAIT!  Carson has an ominous warning.  Apparently there has been a rash of burglaries at parties in the area and Ned and Nancy should be careful.  Nancy, of course, can barely contain her delight.  The very concept of an exciting night out at a masquerade ball was simply too dull for her to bear--she needs a mystery.

And she is not disappointed.  Not twenty minutes into the party, Nancy and Ned find a discarded VELVET MASK (Yay!  Relevant title! Take THAT, Black Keys!)) and Nancy jokingly puts it on.  However, a mysterious man sees her in the mask and whisks her onto the dance floor, berating her for being late for the heist--he's mistaken her for an accomplice!  Nancy plays along, trying to smoke the gang out all in the first few pages of the book, but the lights suddenly go out, and the burglary is carried out despite the mistaken identity.

Nancy runs into a friend (doesn't it seem like she has about five thousand friends?) who works for the events company running the party, Linda Seeley, who tells her that she had warned the hosts to check invitations but hadn't been heard.  Despite this, the assistant manager of the company, Mr. Tombar, blames Linda for the theft.

Enter Nancy Drew: Party Crasher.  Nancy decides that crashing/"working undercover at" every local party is the way to go.  What ensues can truly be described as a game of cat and mouse, where at times it seems that Nancy is about to catch the Velvet gang (named for their masks), and at times it seems they are closing in on her.  At one point, Nancy is transporting an important clue and has George dress up like her to throw them off-track.  Unfortunately, the gang kidnaps George thinking she is Nancy.  They drug her heavily and threaten her in some nebulous way we don't discover until later.

After this point, George's character completely changes for the rest of the book.  She is basically an shut-in, panicked and distraught at the idea of Nancy pursuing the case.  Honestly, she seems to be having a nervous breakdown.  Nancy, being a characteristically clueless friend, continues to show up at the poor girl's house and doesn't even have the common decency to lie and say she's given up the case.  That being said, I'm as concerned as Nancy is; it seems like the sporty, tough girl that is George is disappearing.

Eventually, Nancy and Bess (who has taken a more brazen role in this mystery) discover that the assistant manager at the events company, Mr. Tombar, is actually the ringleader of the velvet gang, working with his wife and a few other couples.

BRIEF RANT: What is up with all of these "double date" criminals.  I mean, do these people really go out with other couples, have a glass of wine, and then say something like: "Well, swinging isn't in fashion yet--let's go rob a bunch of people?"  Is this an acceptable group date back in the day? Try bowling or painting pottery or something, people!

Nancy and Bess head out to capture the gang, stopping briefly by George's house to check in (and apparently make her more upset.)  Fortunately, George's nervous breakdown pays off when the girls are captured and only George knows where they've gone.  When Mrs. Fayne reminds her that Nancy and Bess could be seriously hurt, George finally snaps out of it.  She leads Carson and Ned to the Blue Iris Inn, where the girls had gone to track town the criminal group, followed by the police.  They find Nancy and Bess and capture all of the crooks but one--Mr. Tombar.  George apologizes for her freak-out and explains that the gang had threatened not only Nancy and her friends, but George and Bess's families as well.  Along with the massive drugging and the fact that she saved their asses, I think all is forgiven.

And then Carson, Nancy, Bess and George head off to...WAIT.  Where the hell is Ned?

Well, turns out he tackled Tombar in the kitchen of the Inn and has been sitting on him during the entire rescue.  That's right.  Just sitting on him.  Wow.  I guess Ned IS the Hulk.

This one is good.  The action is fantastic and the story is much more cohesive, not taking the circuitous route of the sometimes-annoying "second mystery."  The focus really is on the Velvet Gang and, despite their relatively boring names, they are pretty scary.  I find myself taking away a mag because I wish they had dealt with the George storyline better.  It seemed as though they could have focused more on the extent of her drugging (I'm pretty sure she was given opiates or something) to explain her panic and paranoia.  But they didn't really spend too much time on George other than desperate pleas for Nancy to stay away from the mystery.  I feel like the shift in the end where she snaps out of it would have been stronger if they had taken more time to explore that part of the story and less time on party after party of robberies and near-misses.

4/5 mags for this one.







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