Clue in the Ancient Disguise
Series: Nancy Drew 69
Reviewed date: 2010 Sep 13
206 pages
This is the second Nancy Drew book I've read, and it's the second time Nancy Drew has been run off the road by a red automobile. In The Mystery at Lilac Inn it was a red panel truck; this time, it's a big red car. I wonder if this is a regular occurrence?
Never mind. In Clue in the Ancient Disguise, Nancy Drew helps a French inventor track down the meaning of a letter sent to his late father by Louise Duval, a rich citizen of River Heights. The letter drops hints but is vague enough to be indecipherable.
Nancy investigates, but quickly finds herself being trailed and accosted by a swarthy-looking foreigner, run off the road by a big red car with no driver, attacked by a knight wearing a full set of medieval armor, and oh, her car gets sabotaged.
Everything is connected, of course. It turns out that the Frenchman, Pierre Michaud, is related to the Duval family: his ancestress Yvette Duval was first married to the Comte d'Auvergne. She fled France during the Revolution, leaving her son in the care of the Michaud family. Later she married Paul Duval, and the family ended up in River Heights. It turns out that Pierre Michaud is distantly related to the American Duvals. More, Pierre is the rightful Comte d'Auvergne! The imposter Comte d'Auvergne was the one who had been causing all the trouble for Nancy and for Pierre. He too had discovered that Pierre was the rightful heir, but was unwilling to give up the life of luxury afforded to a French nobleman.
It's an OK book, but the mass-produced books of the Stratemeyer Syndicate don't really offer anything of interest to an adult reader.