Mystery Train: A Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys Super Mystery by Carolyn Keene
Okay, no Women’s History Month can be complete without a little talk about the world’s greatest girl detective: Nancy Drew. There’s a lot to be said for and against Nancy Drew and as anybody who reads my blog knows, I have a penchant towards The Hardy Boys, but you’ve got to love the daring young girl detective. Yes, she gets kidnapped in almost every book and somehow manages to get the bad guys to tell her all their secrets before escaping, and yes, she’s a little bossy and annoying, but she showed girls if they have a “can do” attitude they can do anything.
The Nancy Drew series actually started in mind of a man, but since it was genuinely written by women in the beginning, I figured it counted. Edward Stratemeyer was the man behind the curtain in this case. He was born in the 1860s and grew up to become the premier brainchild behind every book you’ve ever heard of. Not joking, we’re talking Tom Swift, the Bobbsey Twins, The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, etc. etc. He rose swiftly from a no account writer to the owner of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, an entry in Who’s Who in America, and the man behind over 100 series. Now, he didn’t write all these, usually he hired people to write them for him. So, Nancy Drew was actually written by a woman, and the original woman was Mildred Wirt Benson (aka Carolyn Keene). Benson (pictured above) authored twenty-three of the Nancy Drew books before it was passed on to other women (who kept the name Carolyn Keene). Benson wanted a character who wasn’t just your normal female, she wanted a role model– somebody daring, outgoing, and comfortable in a world of intrigue and drama, but still wholly female. By 1938, 8 years after its original release, Nancy Drew was selling double the amount of the Hardy Boys books. Flash to today and you have a series that has been around for almost 80 years and is still going strong.
So, in honor of all the Carolyn Keene’s, I read Mystery Train which is actually a Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew mystery, but since it’s written by Carolyn Keene, it totally counts. In this story, Nancy Drew is invited to ride a train from Chicago to San Francisco as it follows the journey of the infamous Comstock Diamond when it was stolen fifteen years before. The “best minds in the mystery field” are all invited to help solve the case for a grand prize of $25,000 as they ride … dum dum dum… The Mystery Train. Of course, as usual, things don’t go according to plan and it’s not just some fun group activity, there’s kidnap and sabotage onboard.
Frankly, you have to love a good Nancy Drew mystery. There’s murder and mayhem and with the introduction of the Hardy Boys you get to watch Nancy flirt with Frank even though they both have significant others. As usual, Nancy is pretty kick-butt and manages to save the day. She’s everything Benson wanted in her young heroine, not afraid to do anything and constantly getting into mischief, even to this day. I don’t really think the story is the important part though in this case, I’ve read more Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books than I can count and they’re all pretty standard, it’s the idea that with the help of Nancy Drew, girls got to come into their own. Benson managed to create a role model that’s lasted through the decades, the kind of girl that when you read about her you kind of wish you could be that cool.
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