Vintage Mysteries Rock: Nancy Drew's "The Mystery at Lilac Inn" by Carolyn Keene

It wouldn't be a true month of mystery without including one the most well-known and beloved mystery book series, Nancy Drew Mystery Series. I grew up reading my Dad's collection of the Hardy Boys series, but we also loved the Nancy Drew Mystery Series. My late paternal grandmother loved giving us books for Christmas and often she would include some awesome vintage books as well.  When I decided to feature mysteries in March, I told my sister (super cool librarian chick) that I really wanted to include a Nancy Drew book.  She lives in a city with an awesome Goodwill so I asked her to go scope out their book section to see if they had any copies from the series.  As luck would have it, they totally had two! She purchased both and sent them my way last week.

I've decided to share my musings on "The Mystery at Lilac Inn" by Carolyn Keene. This is book four in the mystery series. It was a fun read with a great plot and legit suspense as they solved the mystery at hand.

It's been a long time since I read a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys mystery so I decided to look up some of the history to refresh my memory.  I actually learned some new fun facts! The Nancy Drew Mystery Series was created to be a female counterpart to the Hardy Boys. The original creator was  Edward Stratemeyer, a successful publisher. The author Carolyn Keene was actually a pseudonym for a collective group of authors including Edward Stratemeyer's daughter, Harriet Adams.  The books were first published in the 1930s and have since been reprinted multiple times over the years.

I, along with generations of female readers, enjoy the strong character and willpower of Nancy Drew.  She may dress pretty and act prim and proper when necessary, but she has a brain and she uses it to solve each of her mysteries.  In terms of the era in which these books were published, that was something out of the ordinary for female fictional characters. As a result, many women were inspired to blaze their own trails and make a name for themselves because of Nancy Drew's example.

In The Mystery at Lilac Inn, Nancy is presented with a list of suspicious events that continue to occur at her friend's Inn.  One of the main events is several sightings of a ghost woman who looks very similar to Nancy Drew.  One event after another finally leads them to the root of the mystery and I will admit, it wasn't the person I thought it would be. For me that is the true sign of a good mystery. As I mentioned in last week's review, I love it when I'm left guessing until the last few chapters. A good author isn't going to give away the suspect half-way through because then the reader doesn't have to finish the book.

I finished this book quite quickly because the story flowed really well and it was short compared to the other books I've been reading.  It was a great book to read and reminded me why I thoroughly enjoyed both Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys as a youth.

This book would be a really fun book to read with the little humans in your life who may need some extra practice with chapter books. When I announced I was reading this book on my social media platforms, many of my friends and family shared that they had either read these as kids or read them to their own children when they were younger. The author does a great job at describing scenes and events so it's a book that a person can easily get lost in reading silently or aloud.

My recommended reading group is all ages! As previously mentioned, it's great for kids through adults and is just a good, clean mystery.  There is still a solid dose of suspense, but it doesn't get crazy gory or scary. It's fantastic.

The moral of the story: Nothing beats a classic, vintage mystery.

Happy reading, my amazing, geeky lovelies!
-R

Other Nancy Drew Mysteries

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