Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew 20 – Treasure Trouble

Carolyn Keene's Treasure Trouble is a summer holiday mystery for 8 year olds about a pirate party, a missing chest of party favours and a lake monster nobody can quite pin down.

What happens

It's the first week of the summer holidays. George's mum is catering a pirate party at Barnacle Beach, and she's brought Nancy, Bess and George along to help. The party is for a pair of birthday twins, whose grandmother lives in a huge pink house with its own private beach.

Strangely, none of the invited children are coming. Nobody will say why. So the girls become the guests, and the party is on.

There's a party pirate called Captain Corky, his son Casey and a parrot called Crackers who squawks "This party stinks!" (somebody has clearly been teaching him). There's also Poppy, the twins' little cousin, who's cross about everything and covered in food stains.

The girls hide a chest of eye patches, beads and toy telescopes under some bushes for a treasure hunt. When the twins finally get there, it's gone.

Poppy slipped away during the blindfold water balloon game. Casey was spotted dragging something the size of a cool box to his boat. And then there's Lonny the Lake Lizard. According to the hotel owner, whatever Lonny wants, Lonny takes!

Bess is convinced it's Lonny. Nancy doesn't believe in monsters, not even when people at the hotel start showing round blurry photos. Then one night a shape rises out of the lake under the full moon, and everyone on the beach goes wild.

It's a lovely holiday read. A giant pink raft shaped like a phone, a fun park, a joke shop full of rubber noses and a fairground ride where the cages flip upside down. Bess hates upside-down rides more than anything (George flips it anyway).

Nancy also kicks herself for choosing the bushes as a hiding place, which is a nice touch. She's not a perfect detective here, and she wants to put it right.

If your reader likes a mystery with a monster in it that might or might not be real, this one's very satisfying.

What to read next

For another trip to the seaside, try Cape Mermaid Mystery. It takes the girls to an old inn by the sea, where a ten-year-old girl with a video camera films absolutely everything.