The Ghost of Blackwood Hall (1948)

It was fun going back to one of the old Nancy Drew mysteries, which I adored when I was 8 and 9. I can't say for sure I read this one then but it's likely given the publication date. They were largely written by Mildred Benson, arguably the "real" Carolyn Keene, responsible for ghostwriting the first 23 books in the series under the Keene pen name and basically setting the whole tone. The regularity of the chapters and the cliffhangers do not work on me the same way anymore (how could they?) and thus it wasn't as enthralling. But lots of small things were nice to see again: a general wholesomeness, a quicksand episode, the copious "Tom Swifties"—people don't just "say" things, they urge and cajole and chuckle them. I was more intrigued now by Bess and George, who are cousins and Nancy's friends. All the principals are that perfect age of 18. More cynical now, I see bolts of signifiers in the cousins. Bess is frilly and feminine and George is boyish and impetuous. Bess has blonde hair, George is dark. For her part, Nancy has a boyfriend named Ned, but it's an anodyne relationship. He's mainly there for the muscle. I also liked the ghost story side of this short novel, though it's apparent from the start that Nancy and her crew keep their feet on the ground about seances and such things. The bad guys, of course, are bunco artists who are exposed in the end. They always are in Nancy Drew mysteries. Still, Benson / Keene blatantly works on having it both ways, with scenes where a ghost appears to be playing an organ and other shamelessly spooky things happen. One interesting data point is that when I was introduced to Nancy Drew mysteries they were in a public library in Vermillion, South Dakota, where my family stayed for the summer in 1963 while my Dad was taking classes at the college. When we were back home and I was visiting the Minneapolis Public Library again, I saw they did not carry them. The librarian acted funny when I asked about them. It might be my first experience with genre bias. On the other hand, the Minneapolis library was loaded up on science fiction and horror anthologies, which were at least as good.

In case the library is closed due to pandemic.