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Book Review: Nancy’s Mysterious Letter

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Nancy’s Mysterious Letter
Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #8
by Carolyn Keene
read by Jessie Birschbach

My rating: 2.5 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic mystery

Coincidences abound when Nancy is contacted by a firm in England looking for a Nancy (Smith) Drew and thinks maybe this Nancy is the one they’re looking for. She’s not, but since the firm had tracked the other Nancy Drew to the United States, it only makes sense that she would be found somewhere in the vicinity of our Nancy Drew. The United States isn’t very big, after all, and same-name people tend to gravitate toward each other. My sarcasm aside, how hard would it have been for the author of this story to have given at least a somewhat more plausible explanation for why this other Nancy Drew happened to have connections to River Heights?

The rest of the story was decent enough, though not outstanding. What brought my rating down more was the narrator. Laura Linney was a great choice for narrating these books, and she was going to be a tough act for anyone to follow. But this narrator was objectively not great. Some of her voices were outlandish or ridiculous, and I’m glad to see she doesn’t narrate any more of these books (though apparently there are only a couple more ND books that even have audiobook editions). My reading of this long series may be coming to a close much sooner than I expected.

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Book Review: Sense and Sensibility

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Sense and Sensibility
by Jane Austen
Read by Nadia May

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic romance

For my second Jane Austen, I went with an audiobook, after feeling like it would have been better with Pride and Prejudice. Plus, I found an edition narrated by Nadia May, whose narration of Wives and Daughters I love. And though some of the characters made me want to throttle them, I enjoyed the book overall. Probably a little more than Pride and Prejudice, though I don’t think I can really compare reading one and listening to the other.

The plot of this book meandered a bit, but I don’t really remember being bored at any point. Again, that was probably helped by listening to an audiobook with great narration. I admit that I wish there had been a little more chemistry and even friendship build-up between some of the characters and maybe a little more in the way of showing their feelings and admissions of such. Overall, though, I enjoyed my time spent with this book and recommend the narration by Nadia May if you’re considering listening to the audiobook.

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Book Review: Lord Edgware Dies

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Lord Edgware Dies
Hercule Poirot #9
 by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

I enjoyed the twists and turns in this Poirot novel. As Poirot fixates on five questions that he thinks, when answered, will solve the mystery, I’m way too easily carried along for the ride. I actually did suspect the correct murderer early on, but it wasn’t much of a win, since I had no idea how it worked out. I think the guess was more about having read a few of these books now and getting a feel for how Christie wrote. I liked this book more than most of the others in the series and didn’t feel it was as bloated as many of the others are. Huge Fraser, as always, does a great job narrating, and I’m a little nervous about the next book (Murder on the Orient Express), which is almost definitely the most famous Poirot story. I hope it lives up to the hype.

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Book Review: The Clue in the Diary

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The Clue in the Diary
Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #7
by Carolyn Keene
read by Laura Linney

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic mystery

Nancy again stumbles onto a mystery when a house she’s driving by explodes. But it’s all good, because she’s able to save a mother and daughter whose husband/father is blamed for the fire. Coincidences and Nancy-is-the-best moments aside, I enjoyed this story more than most of the previous books in the series. It didn’t feel as bloated, and I can’t pretend to not have liked the introduction of Ned Nickerson. He seems to be a bit of a stereotype himself, but I’d imagine that was on purpose. Giving the young readers these books were intended for ideals in the main characters seemed pretty important to the creators. Linney does a great job bringing Nancy to life, and I’m sad to learn that this is the end of those that were narrated by her.

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Book Review: Peril at End House

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Peril at End House
Hercule Poirot #8
 by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

This was my favorite Poirot novel so far. Somehow it didn’t feel as bloated or muddled, or at least it managed to keep me more engaged throughout. I don’t know if it was due to there being a few less characters or less unnecessary side trails during the mystery, though there were certainly still some. Really, I can’t pinpoint the reason, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Granted, I guessed at the culprit fairly early on and ended up being right, though I had no idea about the motive. Maybe that played a part in my enjoyment, but maybe not, since I second-guessed myself several times, since, without a motive various things that happened along the way made me doubt my theory. 

Huge Fraser does a great job narrating, and I hope to enjoy the next book as much as I did this one.

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Book Review: The Secret of Red Gate Farm

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The Secret of Red Gate Farm
Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #6
by Carolyn Keene
read by Laura Linney

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic mystery

The coincidences that occur around Nancy that lead her to solve this case would bother me if the book was meant for adults or even teens. But I often have to remind myself that the books are written for kids, and with that in mind, the elements that don’t seem connected at first might create an exciting story for the target audience. The plot of this book didn’t seem as bloated as the previous couple in the series did, but I was still annoyed by the “Nancy is the best at everything she does” aspect that I suppose I’ll just have to get used to. Whatever reason the writers had to think that was the role model kids needed at the time these were written, I’m sure it won’t be toned down at any point in the series. Linney does a great job bringing Nancy to life, and I’m looking forward to continuing.

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Book Review: The Mystery of the Blue Train

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The Mystery of the Blue Train
Hercule Poirot #6
 by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

I know I haven’t been the biggest fan of this series so far, but this one felt even messier and a bit more convoluted to me. Lots of red herrings and potential suspects are trotted out, there are conversations that amount to nothing, and in the end, the solution is a lot simpler than all of that set-up made it seem like it would be. I actually found the story interesting when the different characters are being introduced and I’m trying to guess who is going to be found dead and who would be the culprit. But the second half or so seemed to slow way down, and that’s where the filler came in. 

What’s funny to me is that while I was listening to this audiobook (narrated very well by Hugh Fraser), I decided that here is where I would end my attempts to go through this series. But afterward, I decided to keep going for now. I think I’m still hoping something will suddenly click and I’ll see what everyone else sees in these books. We’ll see.

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Book Review: The Secret of Shadow Ranch

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The Secret of Shadow Ranch
Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #5
by Carolyn Keene
read by Laura Linney

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic mystery

This book was the first in the series to bring up major ND video game memories for me. The game takes different turns, but the legend of the outlaw whose phantom horse is showing up and wreaking havoc are in the game. There’s a sub-plot in the book regarding a kidnapped man that I didn’t see a reason for—supposedly his kidnappers let him drawing pictures and then sold them in town. It ended up being a way to help Nancy and her friends begin to find answers to the main mystery, but it seemed pretty sloppy to me.

This series has already showcased Nancy as great at everything she does, but this book takes it a step further, when Nancy and her friends win every activity during a town festival. I suppose that during this time period, it seemed best to show the good guys as the best at everything, but it would certainly have been more realistic and taught kids more about real life if Nancy was 2nd-best now and then.

For a second time, a bloated plot was my biggest issue with the book. Linney still does a great job bringing Nancy to life, but I hope to enjoy the next one more.

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Book Review: Kristy’s Great Idea

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Kristy’s Great Idea
The Baby-Sitters Club #1
by Ann M. Martin

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic

For complete transparency, I’ll say up front that I read a lot of this series when I was a kid/pre-teen. And at the time, my name was the same as the founder of the BSC (with the first name spelled slightly different). Nostalgia will hugely affect my reviews for this series, and I have no plans to try to be objective.

I enjoyed diving into the first book in the series and witnessing the birth of the Baby-Sitters Club anew. I struggle to actually envision these pre-teens as 12-year-olds though. My daughter is 14, and I can’t imagine her talking and acting like these characters do 2 years ago. Maybe that’s a difference in time periods, or maybe it was Martin’s attempt to make the plot plausible. On the other hand, Kristy acts very immature with her mom and mom’s boyfriend/fiancé, while most of the maturity is related to the girls’ babysitting abilities and experience, a nuance that might actually make sense after all. I look forward to the evolution of the club, which starts in this book and I know will continue in future books as the girls add more protocols and members.

I remember doing a small-scale version of this with my friend (we lived in the country, so it definitely didn’t work quite as well, but I did get one summer-long job out of it). I don’t remember if it was inspired by the series, though I can’t imagine it wouldn’t have influenced us to some degree, but I can say that I was not nearly as professional as these girls. I checked out the e-book on a whim while waiting until I had time to pick up a book I had on hold at the library, and I was sad that the e-book doesn’t have the distinct handwriting of the club members. I’ll definitely get physical copies as much as possible as I continue through the series. I don’t know how far I’ll get before stopping—maybe once I am past the books that I would have read due to outgrowing the books, or maybe further. Whether or not this book will translate well to kids and pre-teens now, I couldn’t say. My guess is no, but maybe if your kids are interested in reading about a somewhat simpler time (it’s so weird to say that about my own childhood period, but it really is true—and I have now realized that this book came out 40 years ago, and now I feel really old) they’ll enjoy this book.

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Book Review: The Big Four

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The Big Four
Hercule Poirot #5
 by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

In some ways, it seems like this story would have been better suited to a different protagonist. The grand crime syndicate spanning continents is bigger than anything I’ve seen so far in Poirot books. That being said, though I can see that this isn’t a favorite of many other readers, I found myself intrigued by the connections throughout the book. It still felt like it went on a little long, with some minor crimes being thrown in that I don’t think were strictly necessary. The climax and sections leading up to it are, again, pretty grand and dramatic for this series, but since I’m not a Poirot purist, I enjoyed it. Hugh Fraser continues to be a great narrator, so I hope to be able to continue to listen to him going forward.

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