My girlfriend and I had a dose of nostalgia, and we decided to read some Nancy Drew novels. While I read a modest 5 Nancy Drew books as a child, my partner read as many as she could get her hands on, so this reading project has been interesting for the both of us. I come to the page with virgin eyes while she re-visits the tales that carried her through childhood with the seasoned lens of adulthood. In other words, a lot of "wtf really?" has been going on.

As far as THE MYSTERY OF THE TOLLING BELL's plot, Mrs. Chantrey, formerly a woman of beachside leisure, pours a sizeable chunk of her savings into a very bad investment, forcing her to open a tea-and-sandwhich shop in order to get by. She contacts Nancy's father, Mr. Drew, to see if she has any legal options to get her money back. Mr. Drew recruits our detective Nancy, her prim friend Bess, and her tomboy friend George to help cheer Mrs. Chantrey up, enticing them into a vacation by the seaside rife with a mysterious cave, ghost, and bell-ringing.

Reading this novel, I can see why children like Nancy Drew. The language is fairy tale simple and matter of fact. Lots of telling rather than showing, as writers say. The cast of characters is wide enough that everyone has someone to identify with, though Nancy is the true, fleshed out star. As promised, the mystery is a good one, taking lots of twists and turns. The perpetrators are obvious, so the book spends most of its time expanding on their dastardly scheme. There's lots of White People Get Upset That They Bought A Stupid Thing, which is fine stakes for a children's book.

While a child me would have swallowed this tale hook, line, and sinker, adult me was puzzled on several fronts. While Nancy Drew basically exists outside of time, I was given to understand that these books had been updated to modern sensibilities of treating all people like human beings. It could have been worse, I suppose, but the narrator did their job of narrating with a huge helping of xenophobia (lots of mistrust of foreigners), racism (the entire cast is WASP; the criminals use brownface to appear "exotic"), and misogyny (apparently only sex workers wear make up in the Drew universe). There was also some extremely tone deaf "ah, yes, let's go off to a remote location with a strange old man," AND THEN "he left us stranded in the remote location but we'll forgive him and keep acting like he's a good guy." Which is No. That would not happen in any decade.

I also wanted the narrator to dwell more on certain points. Ned Nickerson acts as the Muscle, which had me giggling and tender-hearted. Over the course of the story, a few dances happened, but all together they perhaps lasted 5 sentences. I realize, like, kids read this, but no hand holding? No looking into each other's eyes? No fuzzy, happy feelings in their hearts? Is Ned only there to be the Muscle and convince everyone that Nancy is straight? Conversely, there are points where Nancy is "deeply frightened" and yet acts not at all like a frightened person, what with all her limbs still working and her brain being still full of common sense.

What kept the book at 3 stars was the good mystery, the avoidance of YA cliche, and the tiny bits of queer subtext I picked up. Mrs. Chantrey, a widow, lives with fellow widow June Barber. The narrator embraces George with her tomboyish ways, letting her wear masculine clothes, punch criminals, and do some hard thinking without condemnation. As a parent, Mr. Drew is an asset to the investigation and respectful of his daughter instead of totally oblivious and useless. Nancy is the epitome of level-headed self-sufficiency, but doesn't shy away from calling on friends to help. She is allowed to be weak and strong, a full human being. These elements saved the novel and encouraged me to pick up one or two more of the series. Buckle up, folks.