Nancy Drew Diaries 12 – The Sign in the Smoke

Carolyn Keene's The Sign in the Smoke is the twelfth Nancy Drew Diaries book, a summer camp mystery for 9 year olds with a ghost story at its heart.

What happens

Nancy fancies a summer off from mysteries. Maybe she'll take up knitting! Bess has a better idea. Why not spend a week as counsellors at a camp by a lake?

The camp is the old Camp Larksong, where Bess went as a girl. It shut suddenly five years ago and has just been done up and reopened. On the drive there George mentions an old headline she found online about a "tragedy" there (and the article itself has vanished).

At the very first campfire another counsellor, Bella, tells everyone what she says really happened. On the last night of camp, the story goes, a counsellor drowned one of her own campers in the lake. And the place has been haunted ever since.

George thinks that's nonsense. Then something wails outside the cabin in the middle of the night. And during the swimming tests something grabs Nancy's ankle and pulls her under. She's sure she saw a human shape in the murky water. Nobody believes her. Is it a ghost, a prank or something worse?

So much for a quiet summer!

The camp is a brilliant place for a mystery. There's bug juice and spaghetti, campfire songs, bunk beds and first aid practice on dummies. Then the counsellors-in-training arrive. Nancy gets bubbly Maya, who can't stop saying how excited she is. George's helper carries a notebook and loves asking people questions, so Nancy jokes she's a Mini-Nancy.

Nancy tells it all herself, and she's honest about how jumpy she gets in the dark woods. That makes her very good company. Has your reader been to camp, or are they nervous about going? There's lots here they'll recognise.

It's worth knowing that drowning comes up a lot. Bella's story is about a child drowned on purpose, and Nancy imagines what it would feel like to be held underwater on a dark walk to the lake. Then she really is pulled under. If you've got a reader who's nervous around water, this might be one to save for later. A child who loves a spooky campfire tale will be hooked.

What to read next

For another outdoorsy trip with the three friends, Secret at Mystic Lake sends them off on a three-day bike tour around a lake park, tents and all, for George's birthday.