Nancy Drew Mystery #46, The Invisible Intruder...Part 1
Hi, everybody! Well, I’ve posted several recaps on the 1bruce1 community, but this is my first Nancy Drew recap. It’s hard to snark on Nancy because she’s…well, she’s Nancy, but I’ll give it a shot!
This cover always scared me because of the ghost, but now I think it’s kind of funny. It looks like a ghostly devil ray. Oooh. Scary. Except, not. I don’t know how Nancy and Ned (?) can be so scared when they’re not even looking at the phantom devil ray and Nancy looks possessed.
We open with Carson, sitting on a chaise lounge (that image totally cracks me up) and hearing Nancy talk about this ghost hunting party she’s been invited to by Helen and Jim. Jim’s read about a few local haunted places and wants to get a group together to see if the ghosts are real. Bess, George, Ned, Dave, and Burt have also been invited, because it wouldn’t be an adventure without her posse.
Nancy makes a list of clothing that she wants to pack. I do that too! She gets a phone call from someone warning her to back off on the ghost party, which is silly because it only makes her more determined.
Helen and Jim come over and tell Nancy and the gang about the five places they’re going to check out. They are:
Pine Grove Camp - haunted canoe
Fortune Teller’s Tent - people hear thunder when they’re inside the tent
Red Barn Guesthouse - ghost horse
Mountaintop Inn - ghost prisoners
Private Home - invisible intruder
Nancy practically has an orgasm over the mystery of it all. The other couples are Bab (but I call her Babs) and Don Hackett, Rita and Rod Rodriquez, and Ann and Bill Blanchard. How quaint!
The group arrives at the first spot and go swimming. Immediately, Bess see the haunted canoe, rowing by itself. Nancy decides to swim over to it and overtake it. The guys reach it first to point out how men are superior athletes to women and therefore, better than us. Ned thinks that there are “spoofers” underneath the boat and I think if I ever heard that word come out of Boyfriend’s mouth, I’ll need a new boyfriend. There is nothing underneath the boat though. No signs of foul play and suddenly, the boat speeds up and away. The gang gets in a motorboat to check the lake, but can’t find the canoe.
At dinner, everyone has roast beef. The girls order it medium and the boys order it rare. Sick! Burt makes a sexist joke about “rare meat for he-men.” Shut up, Burt. Ned kisses Nancy’s ass and tells everyone about how awesome she is at solving mysteries. So awesome, in fact, that her cases are documented and printed by Simon & Shuster and sold to the public so everyone can hear about her sleuthing skillz! They talk about the haunted canoe and how it’s keeping guests away and so business is bad for the owner. They decide to switch subjects and Jim tells a terrible joke about cows and mooing and I don’t get it, but everyone else does and they have a good laugh and then a burst of wind blows the door open. Papers scatter everywhere and then it’s gone. Phantom wind. Nancy walks out and sees a man running away. She and Ned chase him but lose him in the dark woods. They hear a car start and figure that he’s making a getaway. The group searches the woods to see if he dropped the object he was carrying. He did. They find a large bellows. It’s one of those accordion-looking things that people use for fires. I didn’t know that. I just always referred to them as “those accordion-looking things that people use for fires.” It worked. I got my point across.
The group wonders if the man has something to do with the canoe, but Rita thinks that canoe really is haunted. She totally believes in ghosts and her husband teases her about it. They all decide to go to bed.
Nancy gets woken up at 2 am. She hears voices outside and goes to investigate. She gets another warning, this time in singsong, to stay away from the lake.
She tries to find the person who sang the warning, but only sees a ghost. It’s a woman wearing a long, flowing dress. Bess wakes up and sees the ghost, too. She screams and wakes George and the whole camp up. The ghost has vanished though, but after investigating the woods where it appeared, Burt finds some layers of chiffon. After Nancy looks a closer look at the fabric, she finds a long balloon in the shape of a woman. Wha? The only balloons I know like that are blow up dolls. Burt jokes that he’s going to ask the blow up doll on a date. Burt is getting on my nerves. Nancy realizes that Ned and Dave are missing. She decides to search for them, just as they show up. They went off chasing two people with flashlights. They jumped in a canoe and got away though.
On the balloon there’s a name of a company, J.B. Newton. He’s the owner of a stationary/novelty shop in town. Nancy plans to talk to him tomorrow after a late (i.e. 8:30 am) breakfast. These kids make me feel so lazy. A late breakfast for me is called lunch!
J.B. Newton tells Nancy that he sold a box of white womanly balloons to a couple. They weren’t locals and might’ve rented a cottage from the local real-estate agent. Also, they both had brown bushy hair. That’s how Ned described the flashlight duo.
Nancy talks to the agent and finds out they rented a cottage from her and their names are Wilbur and Beatrice Prizer. And they have eight kids, but Nancy calls bullshit. I love how helpful people are in these books. They’ll tell anybody your business!
Speaking of telling your business, Nancy and the posse run into the rest of the hunting party downtown and she tells everyone everything. They all go together to talk to the Prizers. Mr. Prizer's dad is there and he invites everyone in. Wow, there are like 12 of them. That’s kind of rude. He confirms that Wilbur and Bea have no kids. He collects shells and shows them one from an octopus. He and Babs bond over it and he wikipedias about the early development of octopi. Boring. More ghosts! I know this stuff will be important later, especially the part where he tells them that moray eels are the enemies of octopi. It’s a moray eel on the cover! I don’t know why I never got that when I was younger.
They go back to Pine Grove and Bess wants to swim. Me too. George asks The Incredible Madame Rita (she’s got ESP) what her take is on the sitch. Madame Rita predicts there will be a boat crash. But Bess gets her way and everyone goes swimming.
Ned wants to hook up with Nancy in a boat and she agrees. They see the haunted canoe and start paddling towards it, but they find that they’re suck. They paddle and paddle, but they go no where and then the boat capsizes. Nancy can’t find Ned and dives under to save him a la Elizabeth Wakefield, but see that he’s already been saved. By an octopus. Good thing Old Man Prizer told her all about them.
As she swims over to them, she wonders if it’s a real octopus or a man in costume. Nancy! I’d like to think that you’d know the difference! She yells at it and it lets Ned go. That was an easy save.
He tells her that the thing hit him on the head when the boat tipped over and he held his breathe until they reached the surface. So, he didn’t need saving at all. Their boat is missing so they have to walk around the whole lake to get back to where everyone is. Madame Rita looks pleased that her prediction came true. The owner decides to sell the camp. He wad made an offer by Prizer. Nancy begs him to wait until she can solve the mystery. Give the girl some time, dude!
Prizer calls and gets mad when the owner wants time to think about his offer. Everyone hears something on the dock and it’s Burt and Dave, holding an octopus. It’s a fake and it’s got a tiny motor that makes it move through the water. They think that they might find motors on the other canoes and they do. The haunted canoe isn’t haunted, it’s radio-controlled.
Nancy wants to see Old Man Prizer again, but he doesn’t answer when they knock and they can see through the window that his octopus shell is gone. They turn to leave and run into the real estate agent. She’s hella pissed because the old man skipped town and his son’s check bounced.
Babs is upset because she wanted to see his shell collection. Agent says that he probably stole is from someone else anyway. Wha wha what? A valuable shell collection was stolen from a town nearby called Sheldon.
Agent lets Nancy and pals look for clues. They find an article from a Florida paper about another valuable shell collection that was stolen. Who knew shells were such a hot commodity?
Ned searches in the attic and finds the “haunted” canoe. He and the canoe fall through the attic floor. The police come and thank Nancy for doing their job for them. They must be from Sweet Valley. Even though Nancy didn’t catch the Prizers, they decide they wrapped up the mystery and can go to their next spot on the ghost tour.
They leave the next day for Vernonville and learn that Madame Tarantella is holding personal consultations and then a girl’s only séance that night. Wow, a psychic and a feminist. I’m going to refer to her as Madame Tarantula because it’s easier to remember. Nancy, Bess, and George go for personal consultations and Nancy gets picked first. Because even psychics love Nancy. She tells Nancy that she loves mysteries and that Ned will propose in the future! Yesss! Oh, and another warning. You can’t scare Nancy! Or…may you can. Madame T grabs her by the shoulders and won’t let go.
Bess and George save her and Madame Tarantula is all, “Ooops. I got a nasty premonition and it freaked me out.” She asks Nancy to take some secret papers with her, but Nancy doesn’t want to. They wait for the séance to begin. Madame T calls Bess out for being a scaredy cat and tells a spirit to send her a positive message. A male spirit says that she and Dave are going to get married soon and Bess freaks because Dave hasn’t graduated yet! Oh no! They leave because she’s a big cry baby.
Outside a storm is brewing and the girls get shocked by lighting that hit the ground. The car is locked, but Nancy didn’t lock it. You didn’t? That was stupid, Nancy. Bess finds a cardboard box in the backseat and freaks because it might be a bomb. That’s why you lock your doors.
They open the box and there are papers inside. Madame Tarantula’s papers. Nancy consults Carson and he tells her to give them back. She tries, but a neighbor tells her that the psychic left in a car last night with two men, one of whom had bushy hair. Like Wilbur Prizer.
Carson tells Nancy, he’ll send a layer friend to pick the papers up and as she waits, she talks to Helen. Helen knocks over the box and papers go everywhere. Nancy sees that there is a letter from Wilbur Prizer and there are property development papers and stuff. She goes to the mirror to brush her hair and sees a man trying to steal the box.
She grabs the hand away and chases after the man. He gets away though. Lawyer shows up and Nancy tells him everything. Helen finds a shell that was in the box of papers and Lawyer tells them it’s a fraud shell. It’s rare and valuable. He leaves with the papers and Nancy wants to go swimming. She and Helen open the door and see a ghostly figure. Nancy thinks it’s just odorless gas and that Wilbur Prizer is responsible. Boyfriend is usually responsible for odorous gas.
Nancy gets a phone call from a woman. She has a message from Dead Grandpa Drew. Nancy is given instructions on where and when to drop off the papers. She freaks and calls Lawyer. He tells her to leave a decoy box and that he’ll put two policemen to stake out who retrieves the box.
Ned goes with her and they find kittens. Awww. A boy comes over and tells Ned that Burt and Dave are looking for him. He stupidly leaves Nancy to get grabbed.
The police save her and the assailant tells them that he received a call from a woman who had a message from the spirit world. Same woman who called Nancy? The woman said that he was told to attack Nancy. He gets arrested. Nancy freaks because Ned is missing. She and the policemen go searching and find a boarded up house. There’s something inside. Could it be Ned? It could, but it’s not. It’s just a dummy. They search the house for clues and find a shell with the initials M.T. Madame Tarantula!
And I’m going to stop there since I’m a person with a very active social life and have social things to do.
Till next time!!!
This cover always scared me because of the ghost, but now I think it’s kind of funny. It looks like a ghostly devil ray. Oooh. Scary. Except, not. I don’t know how Nancy and Ned (?) can be so scared when they’re not even looking at the phantom devil ray and Nancy looks possessed.
We open with Carson, sitting on a chaise lounge (that image totally cracks me up) and hearing Nancy talk about this ghost hunting party she’s been invited to by Helen and Jim. Jim’s read about a few local haunted places and wants to get a group together to see if the ghosts are real. Bess, George, Ned, Dave, and Burt have also been invited, because it wouldn’t be an adventure without her posse.
Nancy makes a list of clothing that she wants to pack. I do that too! She gets a phone call from someone warning her to back off on the ghost party, which is silly because it only makes her more determined.
Helen and Jim come over and tell Nancy and the gang about the five places they’re going to check out. They are:
Pine Grove Camp - haunted canoe
Fortune Teller’s Tent - people hear thunder when they’re inside the tent
Red Barn Guesthouse - ghost horse
Mountaintop Inn - ghost prisoners
Private Home - invisible intruder
Nancy practically has an orgasm over the mystery of it all. The other couples are Bab (but I call her Babs) and Don Hackett, Rita and Rod Rodriquez, and Ann and Bill Blanchard. How quaint!
The group arrives at the first spot and go swimming. Immediately, Bess see the haunted canoe, rowing by itself. Nancy decides to swim over to it and overtake it. The guys reach it first to point out how men are superior athletes to women and therefore, better than us. Ned thinks that there are “spoofers” underneath the boat and I think if I ever heard that word come out of Boyfriend’s mouth, I’ll need a new boyfriend. There is nothing underneath the boat though. No signs of foul play and suddenly, the boat speeds up and away. The gang gets in a motorboat to check the lake, but can’t find the canoe.
At dinner, everyone has roast beef. The girls order it medium and the boys order it rare. Sick! Burt makes a sexist joke about “rare meat for he-men.” Shut up, Burt. Ned kisses Nancy’s ass and tells everyone about how awesome she is at solving mysteries. So awesome, in fact, that her cases are documented and printed by Simon & Shuster and sold to the public so everyone can hear about her sleuthing skillz! They talk about the haunted canoe and how it’s keeping guests away and so business is bad for the owner. They decide to switch subjects and Jim tells a terrible joke about cows and mooing and I don’t get it, but everyone else does and they have a good laugh and then a burst of wind blows the door open. Papers scatter everywhere and then it’s gone. Phantom wind. Nancy walks out and sees a man running away. She and Ned chase him but lose him in the dark woods. They hear a car start and figure that he’s making a getaway. The group searches the woods to see if he dropped the object he was carrying. He did. They find a large bellows. It’s one of those accordion-looking things that people use for fires. I didn’t know that. I just always referred to them as “those accordion-looking things that people use for fires.” It worked. I got my point across.
The group wonders if the man has something to do with the canoe, but Rita thinks that canoe really is haunted. She totally believes in ghosts and her husband teases her about it. They all decide to go to bed.
Nancy gets woken up at 2 am. She hears voices outside and goes to investigate. She gets another warning, this time in singsong, to stay away from the lake.
She tries to find the person who sang the warning, but only sees a ghost. It’s a woman wearing a long, flowing dress. Bess wakes up and sees the ghost, too. She screams and wakes George and the whole camp up. The ghost has vanished though, but after investigating the woods where it appeared, Burt finds some layers of chiffon. After Nancy looks a closer look at the fabric, she finds a long balloon in the shape of a woman. Wha? The only balloons I know like that are blow up dolls. Burt jokes that he’s going to ask the blow up doll on a date. Burt is getting on my nerves. Nancy realizes that Ned and Dave are missing. She decides to search for them, just as they show up. They went off chasing two people with flashlights. They jumped in a canoe and got away though.
On the balloon there’s a name of a company, J.B. Newton. He’s the owner of a stationary/novelty shop in town. Nancy plans to talk to him tomorrow after a late (i.e. 8:30 am) breakfast. These kids make me feel so lazy. A late breakfast for me is called lunch!
J.B. Newton tells Nancy that he sold a box of white womanly balloons to a couple. They weren’t locals and might’ve rented a cottage from the local real-estate agent. Also, they both had brown bushy hair. That’s how Ned described the flashlight duo.
Nancy talks to the agent and finds out they rented a cottage from her and their names are Wilbur and Beatrice Prizer. And they have eight kids, but Nancy calls bullshit. I love how helpful people are in these books. They’ll tell anybody your business!
Speaking of telling your business, Nancy and the posse run into the rest of the hunting party downtown and she tells everyone everything. They all go together to talk to the Prizers. Mr. Prizer's dad is there and he invites everyone in. Wow, there are like 12 of them. That’s kind of rude. He confirms that Wilbur and Bea have no kids. He collects shells and shows them one from an octopus. He and Babs bond over it and he wikipedias about the early development of octopi. Boring. More ghosts! I know this stuff will be important later, especially the part where he tells them that moray eels are the enemies of octopi. It’s a moray eel on the cover! I don’t know why I never got that when I was younger.
They go back to Pine Grove and Bess wants to swim. Me too. George asks The Incredible Madame Rita (she’s got ESP) what her take is on the sitch. Madame Rita predicts there will be a boat crash. But Bess gets her way and everyone goes swimming.
Ned wants to hook up with Nancy in a boat and she agrees. They see the haunted canoe and start paddling towards it, but they find that they’re suck. They paddle and paddle, but they go no where and then the boat capsizes. Nancy can’t find Ned and dives under to save him a la Elizabeth Wakefield, but see that he’s already been saved. By an octopus. Good thing Old Man Prizer told her all about them.
As she swims over to them, she wonders if it’s a real octopus or a man in costume. Nancy! I’d like to think that you’d know the difference! She yells at it and it lets Ned go. That was an easy save.
He tells her that the thing hit him on the head when the boat tipped over and he held his breathe until they reached the surface. So, he didn’t need saving at all. Their boat is missing so they have to walk around the whole lake to get back to where everyone is. Madame Rita looks pleased that her prediction came true. The owner decides to sell the camp. He wad made an offer by Prizer. Nancy begs him to wait until she can solve the mystery. Give the girl some time, dude!
Prizer calls and gets mad when the owner wants time to think about his offer. Everyone hears something on the dock and it’s Burt and Dave, holding an octopus. It’s a fake and it’s got a tiny motor that makes it move through the water. They think that they might find motors on the other canoes and they do. The haunted canoe isn’t haunted, it’s radio-controlled.
Nancy wants to see Old Man Prizer again, but he doesn’t answer when they knock and they can see through the window that his octopus shell is gone. They turn to leave and run into the real estate agent. She’s hella pissed because the old man skipped town and his son’s check bounced.
Babs is upset because she wanted to see his shell collection. Agent says that he probably stole is from someone else anyway. Wha wha what? A valuable shell collection was stolen from a town nearby called Sheldon.
Agent lets Nancy and pals look for clues. They find an article from a Florida paper about another valuable shell collection that was stolen. Who knew shells were such a hot commodity?
Ned searches in the attic and finds the “haunted” canoe. He and the canoe fall through the attic floor. The police come and thank Nancy for doing their job for them. They must be from Sweet Valley. Even though Nancy didn’t catch the Prizers, they decide they wrapped up the mystery and can go to their next spot on the ghost tour.
They leave the next day for Vernonville and learn that Madame Tarantella is holding personal consultations and then a girl’s only séance that night. Wow, a psychic and a feminist. I’m going to refer to her as Madame Tarantula because it’s easier to remember. Nancy, Bess, and George go for personal consultations and Nancy gets picked first. Because even psychics love Nancy. She tells Nancy that she loves mysteries and that Ned will propose in the future! Yesss! Oh, and another warning. You can’t scare Nancy! Or…may you can. Madame T grabs her by the shoulders and won’t let go.
Bess and George save her and Madame Tarantula is all, “Ooops. I got a nasty premonition and it freaked me out.” She asks Nancy to take some secret papers with her, but Nancy doesn’t want to. They wait for the séance to begin. Madame T calls Bess out for being a scaredy cat and tells a spirit to send her a positive message. A male spirit says that she and Dave are going to get married soon and Bess freaks because Dave hasn’t graduated yet! Oh no! They leave because she’s a big cry baby.
Outside a storm is brewing and the girls get shocked by lighting that hit the ground. The car is locked, but Nancy didn’t lock it. You didn’t? That was stupid, Nancy. Bess finds a cardboard box in the backseat and freaks because it might be a bomb. That’s why you lock your doors.
They open the box and there are papers inside. Madame Tarantula’s papers. Nancy consults Carson and he tells her to give them back. She tries, but a neighbor tells her that the psychic left in a car last night with two men, one of whom had bushy hair. Like Wilbur Prizer.
Carson tells Nancy, he’ll send a layer friend to pick the papers up and as she waits, she talks to Helen. Helen knocks over the box and papers go everywhere. Nancy sees that there is a letter from Wilbur Prizer and there are property development papers and stuff. She goes to the mirror to brush her hair and sees a man trying to steal the box.
She grabs the hand away and chases after the man. He gets away though. Lawyer shows up and Nancy tells him everything. Helen finds a shell that was in the box of papers and Lawyer tells them it’s a fraud shell. It’s rare and valuable. He leaves with the papers and Nancy wants to go swimming. She and Helen open the door and see a ghostly figure. Nancy thinks it’s just odorless gas and that Wilbur Prizer is responsible. Boyfriend is usually responsible for odorous gas.
Nancy gets a phone call from a woman. She has a message from Dead Grandpa Drew. Nancy is given instructions on where and when to drop off the papers. She freaks and calls Lawyer. He tells her to leave a decoy box and that he’ll put two policemen to stake out who retrieves the box.
Ned goes with her and they find kittens. Awww. A boy comes over and tells Ned that Burt and Dave are looking for him. He stupidly leaves Nancy to get grabbed.
The police save her and the assailant tells them that he received a call from a woman who had a message from the spirit world. Same woman who called Nancy? The woman said that he was told to attack Nancy. He gets arrested. Nancy freaks because Ned is missing. She and the policemen go searching and find a boarded up house. There’s something inside. Could it be Ned? It could, but it’s not. It’s just a dummy. They search the house for clues and find a shell with the initials M.T. Madame Tarantula!
And I’m going to stop there since I’m a person with a very active social life and have social things to do.
Till next time!!!