Book review: The Clue of the Leaning Chimney, Carolyn Keene
Title: The Clue of the Leaning Chimney (Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #26)
Author: Carolyn Keene
Genre: mystery, teen lit, pre-teen lit
As a result of an encounter with a sinister stranger on a lonely country road, Nancy Drew and her friend Bess Marvin discover that a rare and valuable Chinese vase has been stolen from the pottery shop of Dick Milton, a cousin of Bess.
Dick had borrowed the vase from his Chinese friend, elderly Mr. Soong. He is determined to repay Mr. Soong for the loss and tells Nancy that if he can find “the leaning chimney,” he feels he will be on the track of a discovery which will solve his financial problems.
Can Nancy find the leaning chimney? Can there be any connection between the vase theft - one of a number of similar crimes - and the strange disappearance of pottery expert Eng Moy and his daughter Lei? (adapted from the blurb)
Not bad.
I like that the plot's not so focused on the mystery that it's all Nancy thinks about or does in this story - we see her go to a wedding, babysit, and visits an aunt (although that was in connection with the case) in this book.
There's a lot to love here. Some moments that stood out to me:
-- George Fayne - another one of Nancy's friends - attempting to get herself out of a tricky situation even before help gets there. She also gives another friend a birthday present that no-one else would (which...is one of the things that sort of dates the book; but still ♥).
-- Bess Marvin using a something we're told she's learning to good (not really “useful” to the case, but still good) use.
-- Library research being shown as valuable and important. Of course this is set in an era without the Internet, but for the kind of local knowledge Nancy needs books are probably the best thing - and there's a helpful librarian, too. :)
-- Nancy herself being willing to ask her friends for help...and also knowing when she needs “cool reasoning”, and not letting fear (which she had for good cause!) get the better of her. Actually the second point is also true of another girl - of the several! - we meet.
-- The present Nancy gets for solving the case is symbolic in a lovely way, which actually made me smile when I read about how it was presented to her.
On the other hand, some things were a bit weak. I think that “it was needed for the plot to progress” was one reason some of these were used, but they still stood out to me as odd.
-- Nancy “just happened to read” an article about shoe lifts before the case, so recognized that a footprint she saw was of a shoe that used one.
-- Why didn't Dick Milton put the “leaning chimney” and “Masonville” clues together the way Nancy did? It seemed like it took her less time to find it than it took Dick - though he did say he used “all the time he could” take away from his business to look...and he may not have had the time Nancy had.
-- Why didn't Nancy recognize an iron symbol that she found - described as “a lot of crisscross bars” - as Chinese? She'd looked at enough - and actually written some! - before that incident for me to think that she should have at least suspected the symbol could have been Chinese, or else she should have followed up on the possibility. Also, the reader can see from the cover that it's Chinese...
-- At one point, Nancy gets into Dick's shop too easily in my opinion - the boy at the front desk should have stopped her and asked her to wait while he got Dick, or just not allowed her to go the back. “I'm a friend of his” is a reason anyone could use to get access to him!
-- Mr. Soong “speaks better English” at one point than someone whom Nancy is searching for...though in the scene as written, Mr. Soong doesn't speak English at all! I guess we'll have to assume that there was a spoken assent to a request from Nancy that wasn't transcribed in the text, but that the other character with Nancy and Mr. Soong hears.
-- Nancy inadvertently put another person she was looking for at risk when she asks a careless question. Since she was an experienced detective talking to a potential suspect in the scene, I think she should have known better.
Then there were smaller things. For example, apparently “Hypers!” is a “trademark” phrase of George's? Maybe I've not (re)read enough of the original Nancy Drew series, but I've not heard her use the word before, and she does at least three times in this book. Something to look out for when I read more, anyway.
The rest of the things that stood out to me as odd probably did that because of the age of the story:
- an older person exclaims “land sakes!” (which amused me) and “my lands!”
- a girl is given lingerie as a birthday present at a party with her parents in attendance
- Nancy calls her aunt “darling”
- a biracial person being described as “of mixed blood” (is that phrase even in use now?)
- a person is described as being “in the Orient”
- a postal order for $500 was considered unusual (though I'm not sure about this...is this still true?)
- a Chinese suspect was described as looking “...like a Chinaman!”
- a “country club” is considered a good place for a post-wedding dance party
- US federal agents are described by an antagonist as “federal dicks”...a usage I haven't heard.
Overall though, not bad at all. I'm glad I read it. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that it took place just before The Secret of the Wooden Lady - one of the first Nancy Drew books I read, certainly the first I ever owned, and which I recall liking.
Author: Carolyn Keene
Genre: mystery, teen lit, pre-teen lit
As a result of an encounter with a sinister stranger on a lonely country road, Nancy Drew and her friend Bess Marvin discover that a rare and valuable Chinese vase has been stolen from the pottery shop of Dick Milton, a cousin of Bess.
Dick had borrowed the vase from his Chinese friend, elderly Mr. Soong. He is determined to repay Mr. Soong for the loss and tells Nancy that if he can find “the leaning chimney,” he feels he will be on the track of a discovery which will solve his financial problems.
Can Nancy find the leaning chimney? Can there be any connection between the vase theft - one of a number of similar crimes - and the strange disappearance of pottery expert Eng Moy and his daughter Lei? (adapted from the blurb)
Not bad.
I like that the plot's not so focused on the mystery that it's all Nancy thinks about or does in this story - we see her go to a wedding, babysit, and visits an aunt (although that was in connection with the case) in this book.
There's a lot to love here. Some moments that stood out to me:
-- George Fayne - another one of Nancy's friends - attempting to get herself out of a tricky situation even before help gets there. She also gives another friend a birthday present that no-one else would (which...is one of the things that sort of dates the book; but still ♥).
-- Bess Marvin using a something we're told she's learning to good (not really “useful” to the case, but still good) use.
-- Library research being shown as valuable and important. Of course this is set in an era without the Internet, but for the kind of local knowledge Nancy needs books are probably the best thing - and there's a helpful librarian, too. :)
-- Nancy herself being willing to ask her friends for help...and also knowing when she needs “cool reasoning”, and not letting fear (which she had for good cause!) get the better of her. Actually the second point is also true of another girl - of the several! - we meet.
-- The present Nancy gets for solving the case is symbolic in a lovely way, which actually made me smile when I read about how it was presented to her.
On the other hand, some things were a bit weak. I think that “it was needed for the plot to progress” was one reason some of these were used, but they still stood out to me as odd.
-- Nancy “just happened to read” an article about shoe lifts before the case, so recognized that a footprint she saw was of a shoe that used one.
-- Why didn't Dick Milton put the “leaning chimney” and “Masonville” clues together the way Nancy did? It seemed like it took her less time to find it than it took Dick - though he did say he used “all the time he could” take away from his business to look...and he may not have had the time Nancy had.
-- Why didn't Nancy recognize an iron symbol that she found - described as “a lot of crisscross bars” - as Chinese? She'd looked at enough - and actually written some! - before that incident for me to think that she should have at least suspected the symbol could have been Chinese, or else she should have followed up on the possibility. Also, the reader can see from the cover that it's Chinese...
-- At one point, Nancy gets into Dick's shop too easily in my opinion - the boy at the front desk should have stopped her and asked her to wait while he got Dick, or just not allowed her to go the back. “I'm a friend of his” is a reason anyone could use to get access to him!
-- Mr. Soong “speaks better English” at one point than someone whom Nancy is searching for...though in the scene as written, Mr. Soong doesn't speak English at all! I guess we'll have to assume that there was a spoken assent to a request from Nancy that wasn't transcribed in the text, but that the other character with Nancy and Mr. Soong hears.
-- Nancy inadvertently put another person she was looking for at risk when she asks a careless question. Since she was an experienced detective talking to a potential suspect in the scene, I think she should have known better.
Then there were smaller things. For example, apparently “Hypers!” is a “trademark” phrase of George's? Maybe I've not (re)read enough of the original Nancy Drew series, but I've not heard her use the word before, and she does at least three times in this book. Something to look out for when I read more, anyway.
The rest of the things that stood out to me as odd probably did that because of the age of the story:
- an older person exclaims “land sakes!” (which amused me) and “my lands!”
- a girl is given lingerie as a birthday present at a party with her parents in attendance
- Nancy calls her aunt “darling”
- a biracial person being described as “of mixed blood” (is that phrase even in use now?)
- a person is described as being “in the Orient”
- a postal order for $500 was considered unusual (though I'm not sure about this...is this still true?)
- a Chinese suspect was described as looking “...like a Chinaman!”
- a “country club” is considered a good place for a post-wedding dance party
- US federal agents are described by an antagonist as “federal dicks”...a usage I haven't heard.
Overall though, not bad at all. I'm glad I read it. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that it took place just before The Secret of the Wooden Lady - one of the first Nancy Drew books I read, certainly the first I ever owned, and which I recall liking.