Nancy Drew Hidden Staircase Review and book report (:

By ashley anne c.
FOR READING BOOK COVER THING.

Summary:

In the beginning of Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, Nancy recieves a phone call from her friend, Helen Corning. Although Helen is 3 years older than Nancy, the two are still very close friends. Helen informs Nancy of the strange happenings at Twin Elms where Helen's Great Aunt and Great Grandmother live. After Helen's call ended, Nancy thought intently about the unusual occurrences at Helen's Folks' place. Nancy was wondering whether or not to accept the mystery Helen had invited her to solve. Her thought process was interrupted by a knock on the door. Hannah Gruen, Nancy and her father's maid and like a second mother figure to Nancy, offered to answer the door. When Hannah answered the door, a man named Nathan Gomber stood at the door. He had come to inform Nancy that her father was in grave danger and that for his best intrest, Nancy should not leave her father's side at all!

In the middle of Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, Nancy Drew's father , after much convincing, finally got Nancy to believe that he was going to be okay and that nobody fromt eh railroad would hurt him. Apparently a man named Willie Wharton had signed a piece of paper that stated his land sold to the railroad company for them to construct their railroad further. The certificate was never notarized and he has denied his signature ever since he wanted to hold out for more money. Nancy's father was in the middle of this because he was a lawyer and was certain that Wharton's signature was indeed authentic. Nancy gets her father's okay to solve the mystery at Twin Elms as her father leaves to Chicago to look for Willie Wharton. After being at Twin Elms for a while, Nancy discovers several secret openings and listening posts used in the past for the master to spy on his slaves. Nancy also receives news that her father has been abducted by 3 men on his way to come and see her. She now has more on her plate than before!

In the end of Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, Nancy decides to take a peak inside the house across the street that was built by the exact same architect that built Twin Elms. It was the exact same layout as Twin Elms and she knew there must be a way to get in from the other house because there have been no found entrances in Twin Elms that lead to the outside, or any other house for that matter. Nancy takes a look in the first bedroom of the house across the street and notices it has a closet. Nancy remembers that houses built back in the Colonial Times hardly ever had closets and that they were an extreme luxury. She knew there had to be a meaning for this closet and sure enough, she found a door on the floor of the closet. When she opened it, she found a staircase that led down to a big underground tunnel. As Nancy and Helen walked through the tunnel, there came a fork in the road. A man's voice came from behind them and when she turned around, the man fit the exact description of the man who had kidnaped her father. The man was actually Willie Wharton! He was so upset by the whole entire thing that without asking, he spilled the beans on every detail in the clever scheme. Apparently Nathan Gomber had been wanting Willie to deny his signature until he got a higher offer on his property. Willie had indeed brought Mr.Drew to the house across the street from Twin Elms, but Nathan Gomber forced him to leave the rest to him. Willie did not know where Nancy's father was, but he felt so awful about the whole entire thing that he helped her tell the police everything that had happened truthfully and when they caught Nathan Gomber, he didn't deny anything. He went to jail and Twin Elms was restored to normal! Nancy had also found her father drugged and laying in the cellar of the house across the street from Twin Elms. They were so happy to see each other and Helen and her family were happy to have there home back to normal!

Review

My review of the book Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase is indeed a positive one! This book would indeed attract to both young and old readers that truly appreciate the classics! Although the book might have been better off if it were a bit more thrilling, it was still over-all a fun book to read. The plot was a bit predictable, but still a very cute mystery! It is the first of my readings in the Nancy Drew series, and this book will indeed keep me reading the rest of 'em!

HIGHLIGHT OF THE BOOK!!! (:

The most exciting part of the book for me was when Nancy and Helen found the secret tunnel in the closet of the house across the street from Twin Elms. When Nancy had first opened the trap, she had fallen through the door, down the flight of steps, and onto the floor of the tunnel. Helen's automatic response was to freak out and ask very many questions, mostly consisting of the classic question, "Are you okay?!?" Nancy was fine, but she had just become very close to solving the mystery of Twin Elms. As Nancy and Helen walked down the underground tunnel, they came to a fork in the walk way, on one side, there was a stair case leading up to what seemed to be a different house. On the other side, it was to dark to tell. Nancy and Helen heard a man's voice come from behind them. The man admitted, quite openly, to being Willie Wharton. He told Nancy and Helen everything that he knew about the mystery Nancy was solving. He was the one who was causing all the ruckus in Twin Elms and he was fine admitting it. He had also been the one who kidnapped Nancy's father, Mr.Drew, but knew nothing about where he was now. The stair case Nancy and Helen had found actually led up to Twin Elms' attic and they used it to get to Helen's Great Grandmother and Aunt. Nancy and Helen and Willie Wharton told them the whole story and called the police to arrest Nathan Gomber for stealing pieces of jewelery from Twin Elms. And that, in my opinion, was the highlight of this story.

Chapter One: Nancy receives the invitation from Helen, via phone call, to solve the mystery of Twin Elms where Helen's Great Grandmother and Great Aunt live and also a visit from a man named Nathan Gomber to warn nacny that her father is in grave, grave danger.

Chapter Two: Helen and Aunt Rosemary, Helen's great Aunt, come to visit Nancy in person and see whether or not Nancy has accepted the much wanted solved mystery of Twin Elms. Nancy's father, Mr.Drew, arrives home at six o'clock and Nancy informs him of the visitor, Nathan Gomber and the fact that Mr.Drew is indeed in great danger.

Chapter Three: Helen confesses to Nancy that she is getting married to a man named Jim Archer and that he had proposed to Helen the night before. Nancy and Helen arrive to Helen's great Grandmother's estate only to find that a necklace has been stolen and no sign of a theif has been found through out the house!

Chapter Four: While Nancy, Helen, Aunt Rosemary and Mrs.Turnbull, Helen's great grandmother, finish lunch, Nancy hears a mysterious noise from the second story. She ran upstairs to find that someone had turned the radio on in Mrs.Turnbull's bedroom! not a sing of the ghost was anywhere in the entire house! Nor was there any secret openings anyone knew about!

Chapter Five: Nathan Gomber arrives at Mrs.Turnbull's estate wanting to buy it! He has been wanting to buy the estate for some time now but Mrs.Turnbull simply will not sell it! Also, as Nancy and everyone stood in the parlor discussing Nathan's terrible manners when all of a sudden the chandelier started to sway! Once again, Nancy ran up to the 2 story to find not a trace of any intruder being in the house at all.

Chapter Six: Nancy decided to see how the chandelier could have started to sway. she went up stairs and stood exactly above the chandelier and shifted her weight from side to side to see if she could get the chandelier to sway like before. Sure enough, it did work. But she had to wait to find that out after Helen's scream startled everyone! Helen had went into the kitchen after hearing a mysterious noise and peered out the window to a find a hideous gorilla face peering back at her!

Chapter Seven: A mysterious violin started to play, but as usual, not a sight of any life upstairs. They all called the police and ordered that a guard be sent out right away! Sure enough, the body guard showed up and at night while everyone was sleeping, an owl had found its way into the house. Not an entrance was open, not even the fireplace shutter!

Chapter Eight: Nancy and Helen search all of the outbuildings for a way into the house, but not a single one has a secret opening! Helen did fall through the floor, but the floor had just rotted out from under her and there was no secret entrance there at all. Nancy receives a letter at her own home that says her father has been unavoidable detained and will not arrive Wednesday when he was supposed to.

Chapter Nine: Nancy, Helen, Aunt Rosemary, and Mrs.Turnbull all try on some costumes and dance while Mrs.Turnbull plays a beautiful song on an old spinet that sits in the corner. Also, the guard had caught someone sneaking around the grounds, but it was not the ghost, turns out he was just walking home from a friends house because his wife had the car out shopping.

Chapter Ten: Nancy and Helen stay up all night and watch the house. Helen ran to the door and yelled "THIEF!!" because she saw the couch move! They also notice missing food out of the pantry and fridge!

Chapter Eleven: More food had been stolen from Twin Elms and Nancy also found that the letter that had supposedly been from her father was a hoax and Mr.Drew had not really sent them a letter at all!

Chapter Twelve: Nancy found a small, grass-overgrown hillock that looked like it had been an old aqueduct. unfortunately, what Nancy thought to have been a secret passage ti the house, was really only what it seemed.

Chapter Thirteen: She found one of the men that helped abduct her father and chased him until he got in his car and drove away. Also, when Nancy was on the phone with Hannah, the roof ceiling had fallen down on top of her!

Chapter Fourteen: Mrs.Turnbull had seen a man in her house that she had no idea who he was and had nearly had a heart attack, yet, she refuses to leave her home!

Chapter Fifteen: Nancy found a hidden passage in an old china cabinet, but it didn't lead anywhere but behind the wall og the kitchen. It was for the slave's Master's to listen to their conversations.

Chapter Sixteen: After much threatening, Nathan Gomber finally got Mrs.Turnbull to sell Twin Elms to him.

Chapter seventeen: Nancy finds a door in the ceiling of the attic that leads to the roof, but it has not been used in a very long time.

Chapter Eighteen: The police arrest Samuel Greenman, one of the men who was a partner in crime when it came to abducting Mr.Drew.

Chapter Nineteen: Nancy gets the keys to the house across the street so she can look for hidden doorways and passages. Nancy and Helen find a staircase in the bedroom in which corresponds to Mrs.Turnbull's.

Chapter Twenty: Willie Wharton followed Nancy and Helen down the staircase. Willie confessed everything to Nancy and Helen that he knew about the kidnapping and ghosting and it turns out, Willie was actually the ghost! Willie also confessed to the notary that the signature on the bill of sale was indeed actually his. In the dungeon of the duplicate of Twin Elms, Nancy found a padlocked door. They opened it and inside the dungeon was none other than Mr.Drew! Shortly after the reunion, The police caught Nathan Gomber snooping around outside of the house. Nancy was so pleased to discover she had solved The Mystery of the Hidden Staircase.