Adventure

Nancy travels to Florida with her complete retinue of sidekicks to work on a case for her father. In typical Nancy Drew fashion, she manages to singlehandedly rescue the U. S. Space Program from a nefarious group of spies who are intent on blowing up Cape Kennedy with a truckload of explosive oranges.
If you think that plot sounds positively ludicrous, that's because it is. The Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion is one of the silliest and most illogical Nancy Drew stories I have ever read.

My review is of the 2003 printing of the 1969 edition of the story. From other reviews, I gather the original 1941 version is quite different and actually sounds much better. Anyone interested in the Moss-Covered Mansion should track down a copy of the 1941 story and avoid the moronic 1969 version like the plague. ( )

I hadn't read a Nancy Drew in decades, although Donna Parker was always my favorite teen read. And the original Gidget. This one is pure...whoa! what?! Apparently, there was a 1941 version of this book where Nancy and the gang look for a missing heiress. I read the 1971 version which involves explosive oranges being sent to the Nasa Space Complex. I had no idea that some of the Nancy Drew I read in the seventies might have been updated.

This 1971 version packs it all in with a space program, many Florida men, and a Tiger King/Carol Baskin mansion with animals. The action is packed--at one point the team is actually tear-gassed by villains posing as photographers. What?!

There are also some fun little 70s asides like the fact that the kids comb their hair before dinner and teens partied until 2:00 am.

This has to be my favorite 70s era passage though:

Smiling, Nancy remarked that she too would like to be an astronaut.
Ned grinned and said, "How about letting us boys go first? We'll tell you how it is."
With that, Nancy punched Ned hard in the stomach and said, "How about you tell me how THAT is."

I added that last sentence because if we are going to revise Nancy Drew, that felt right.


( )

An enjoyable adventure story connected to NASA and a spooky mansion. Plus, I've been to the Atlantic coast of Florida described in the book, and it is beautiful! ( )

I absolutely loved Nancy Drew growing up. This was a series I latched on to for dear life and never let go. Anytime my mom and I would go to antique stores, we'd peruse the Nancy Drews and add them to the collection (oftentimes my mom had to make deals with me on how many I could buy). So, while I don't remember the exact details of each and every one, the entire series was amazing and really fed my love for reading (especially novels full of suspense and mystery). Thank you, Carolyn Keene, for giving us an intelligent female character to fall in love with in Nancy Drew! ( )