Nancy plays tournament golf...oh!, and there's a mystery as well. Departing from the standard series formula, Nancy's adventures on the links play a near equal narrative driver with the underlying mystery of a supposed haunted, golf-ball stealing bridge. A search of The Rules of Golf reveals no special relief for haunted obstructions so Nancy and the gang have to shoot around this one on the 16th hole. She does and apparently at a championship level despite being 18 years old and none of the books mentioning her spending hours practicing her game prior to #15. Interestingly, none of those earlier books mention Carson Drew passing along his playing prowess to his sleuthin' daughter or even playing himself for that matter. How did Nancy get so good? Maybe a mystery for another installment?The mystery playing out at the golf resort plays out somewhat confusingly but with a nice narrative red herring thrown into the mix to keep it interesting. However, many of the standard elements of a Nancy Drew mystery are in place including Nancy's disregard to society's laws (but not the Rules of Golf) by stealing a box of jewels which she pries open with golf spikes. She masquerades as someone else and uses her feminine wiles to glean enough information to identify the ring of jewel thieves and brings Ned and the boys in to back her up when need be. So all the checkboxes get ticked. In short, a little better story in the series or at least one that breaks things up by adding in an underdog sports tale.
This Nancy Drew book was just a fun read. As I've said about every other Nancy Drew books - yes they are dated with no internet, no cell phones and apparently women didn't have to work, but this one was more realistic. They were on vacation at a resort area. Nancy is there to help her father on a case and enjoy the resort with her best friends Bess and George. Nancy is a champion golfer - who knew? and encounters a creepy man who plays head games, faces an injury that almost sidelines her from the golf tournament and chases down a jewelry thief. I believe this book was written by a different author. There was a lot of extra description and the style was slightly different and a few details seemed to change - whereas Nancy was always referred to as titan haired in the past (I had to look up titan hair because I wasn't sure of that color) now she is a strawberry blonde. It wasn't a distraction, but I noticed it. Also some of the wording seemed different, but I actually felt this Carolyn Keene was easier to read. On to book 16 next along with Nancy.
Good, but not great book in the series.Decent setting, some nice spooky scenes and some good ideas, but the bridge of the title gets less important to the story the longer it goes on and the mystery that takes over is overly dramatic, but not terribly interesting.Nancy is well written, her sidekicks are fun and fairly helpful. Her boyfriend Ned is still the most put upon boyfriend in the history of literature. Don't know what kind of spell Nancy has him under, but it's sure effective.While the golf club is a nice setting, Nancy's golf game tends to take over the story and reading about golf is every bit as boring as watching it on TV.
—Travis
Compared to the last Nancy Drew novel I've read, this one was so much better, probably due to the fact that this is a later piece.Mystery-wise, it is the usual Nancy-Drew-is-so-lucky scheme to be at the right place, and in the right time, to have met people that would help her solve the case, even her finding that small brass chest that would help determining the suspects.I did like the plot-twist where a character was highly suspicious but turned out to be uninvolved. And, can I just say I loved the old-school feel of the story? Using a telephone where at present we have cellphones. I wonder how much use the technology of today would be to Nancy's sleuthing.
—Kate ★
This is one of those Nancy Drew mystery stories that starts out really strong, with amazing creepy moments and nightmarish imagery, and then suddenly it jumps the rails and turns into this completely bogus, boring country club mystery. There is way too much golf in this book for my tastes. I read the original 30s version and it is notable in that 30s Nancy Drew actually has a personality, and gets irritated at Bess when she starts whimpering about the haunted bridge. I grew up reading the condensed & edited versions (for more on this fascinating subject, read GIRL SLEUTH) and it is a breath of fresh air to see Nancy basically say, "BESS, CUT THE CRAP" instead of smiling indulgently.
—Phyllis
