Nancy Drew Diaries 7 – The Phantom of Nantucket

Carolyn Keene's The Phantom of Nantucket is a Nancy Drew mystery for 9 year olds that turns a seaside long weekend into a hunt for a stolen museum treasure.

What happens

Nancy, Bess and George have come to Nantucket for beaches and ice cream. Bess's family friend Jenna has invited them. She's an intern at the island's nautical museum, and she's about to open her very first exhibition.

It's a big deal. Jenna has worked out why a whaling ship called the Eleanore Sharpe sank in 1860, fifteen miles from shore, while the whole town watched. If the opening goes well, she might land her dream job.

Then the new banner goes up outside the museum. Someone has painted LIAR across it in dripping red letters. Inside, the case that should hold the star of the show, the ship's figurehead, is empty.

The lock isn't broken, so whoever took it had a key. Only five people do. Nancy is meant to be on holiday (Bess has ordered her to relax). That doesn't last long!

There are plenty of people to wonder about. A grumpy fellow intern who thinks Jenna only got the job because of her parents. An ex-boyfriend with a temper. Islanders who'd rather the old story stayed a story. Who wants Jenna to fail this badly?

Nancy tells it herself, so you hear every hunch, including the ones she talks herself out of. Bess and George are great fun beside her. Bess is the softie who can't look at a whaling painting without welling up. George would rather be on her tablet, and she's very honest about being starving.

The island is half the fun. Cobbled streets, a foghorn that Bess mistakes for a ghost, and a fog so thick that nobody can get off Nantucket until morning. It's a cosy sort of creepy.

Nancy has a boyfriend back home, so it feels a little older in places. Nothing here is scarier than a nasty word on a banner, though.

What to read next

If your reader likes a mystery with some real history behind it, this one's a treat. For another case about a missing work of art, try The Vanishing Statue, where a Roman statue disappears from a River Heights gallery and someone leaves a note calling it fake.