Looking at the cover of the most recent Nancy Drew book my daughter and I read, my first impression was that the cover art made Nancy look like she was drugged out. After reading the story, it’s quite appropriate as Nancy winds up in danger multiple times and both she and her father are drugged.

The story begins with Nancy and her two friends, cousins Bess Marvin and George Fayne, headed toward the coastal city of Candleton. Nancy’s father, noted attorney Carson Drew, has asked for his daughter’s help in a mystery involving a close friend, Mrs. Chantrey, who was swindled out of a large sum of money.

As the three girls travel there, they encounter a woman selling cosmetics and perfume from a cart. Bess is intrigued and buys the Mon Coeur products, only to find out that the products for sale are quite inferior to those used in the demonstrations. Of course, Mon Couer is the name of the company Mrs. Chantrey bought stock in as part of the swindle perpetrated on her.

Upon their arrival in Candleton, the three girls find Mrs. Chantrey quite swamped at the tea room she owns. The girls do offer to help, but before that occurs, they find themselves immersed in another mystery. The cove that Candleton sits on is the home to a mysterious ghost who comes out to warn people away from a cave where a bell tolls and then water rushes out and drowns those who are too close. The girls explore the cave and don’t move fast enough to avoid the rushing water which nearly drowns all three of them.

Meanwhile, Nancy’s father hasn’t arrived in Candleton. Nancy is concerned about his lack of contact. When a call finally does arrive, it seems just as mysterious and cryptic as everything else that’s going on.

Can Nancy and her friends help Carson Drew track down the swindlers? Can Nancy find the mystery behind the rushing water and the bell? Is the mysterious A.H. a friend or foe?

Like most of the Nancy Drew stories, all of the storylines do eventually come together. At this point, that’s no real surprise if you’ve been a faithful reader of the series. It’s gotten so that my twelve-year-old had a good chunk of the story figured out before the end of the second chapter. I know these were published under the tight watch of the Strathmeyer Syndicate and ghost-written by Mildred Wirt Benson under the pseudonym “Carolyn Keene”. This devotion to their same successful formula makes Mystery of the Tolling Bell fairly predictable in the plot area.

What’s makes this story a bit different are the different characters who come in and out of the story. There’s an attempt to bring in characters who aren’t clearly on Nancy’s side or her foe, which is refreshing. Usually, it’s pretty obvious who the reader is supposed to like or dislike.

That’s not to say the characters have a tremendous amount of depth. Most of them are there simply to resolve the storyline of Nancy solving the mystery, and there is little else for them to do outside of their interactions with Nancy. The version I read was the 1973 re-write. The only difference between this and the original version published in 1946 is the length, so I suspect a lot of the characters’ depth was lost to editing. In addition, there are times when the pacing is way off. Some periods of time are detailed quite a bit while others are glossed over rather quickly.

Mystery of the Tolling Bell did provide an interesting read. I was surprised that how Nancy got to the result both my daughter and I predicted wasn’t quite as cut and dried as I expected. In general, it was interesting. My daughter liked it and said it was one she would go back to and read again (she also stated she would like to check out the original version). There’s nothing offensive in it for anyone to be alarmed at.

Mystery of the Tolling Bell is a fun, easy read that has a few shortcomings but nothing that would prevent anyone from reading it or allowing their 9 to 12 year old daughter to read it. Some of the ideas might be dated compared to our modern time, but that didn’t seem to bother my daughter at all.

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