Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew 32 – Cape Mermaid Mystery

Cape Mermaid Mystery by Carolyn Keene is a seaside detective story for 8 year olds about a haunting that doesn't quite add up.

What happens

Nancy Drew is eight here, not the teenager you might be picturing, and this is number thirty-two in the Clue Crew books.

She's off to the coast for a week with her dad, her best friends Bess and George, and Hannah the housekeeper. They're staying at the Mermaid Inn, a big blue Victorian place with purple shutters and a gold mermaid on the roof.

Their hosts have two daughters. Amanda is six and answers the door in a swimming costume, a tutu and one flip-flop. Tessie is ten and films absolutely everything on a video camera, reporting in a serious voice like a news presenter.

That first evening there are noises overhead. A soft crash, footsteps, something being dragged. Up in the attic the torch beam finds two words written in the dust.

HELP ME.

The ghost of Rowena Ellison, says Tessie, delighted. An artist who was born in the town about a hundred years ago, and who has apparently been leaving messages all over it.

Nancy isn't so sure. She notices the H is smudged. She notices a second staircase at the far end of the attic that goes down to the kitchen. She finds out the family leave the doors unlocked until ten at night.

What's lovely about these is that your reader gets every clue exactly when Nancy gets it, and she writes each one down. The suspects are all in plain sight and there's no violence anywhere near it, just a lot of noticing.

It's also quietly funny. The librarian's ghost stories collapse the moment anyone asks a sensible question about them (one of the girls counts the letters in the anagram and finds it isn't one). The museum director goes red and stomps off, which is either bad temper or something else, and Nancy files it away.

One small thing. It's very American, so there's a boardwalk, a candy shoppe and a lot of talk about vacation. Nothing a reader will trip over, but expect a question about what a fall festival is.

What to read next

Your reader can also pick these up in any order, which helps. If this one goes down well, The Pumpkin Patch Puzzle puts the same three girls in the middle of a River Heights autumn festival, where somebody smashes the plans for the pumpkin decorating contest.