Nancy Drew Diaries 8 – The Magician’s Secret

Carolyn Keene's The Magician's Secret, one of the Nancy Drew Diaries, is a mystery for 9 year olds that starts with a whole courthouse vanishing in front of a crowd.

What happens

Drake Lonestar is about the most famous magician there is. He's made the Eiffel Tower disappear. Now he's come to River Heights, and his next trick is the town's own courthouse.

Nancy has tickets. Ned was meant to come, but he's interning for her dad, who's defending a man accused of stealing millions in gems. The police found a mysterious locked box in his hotel room. And that box is sitting in an evidence locker in the courthouse basement.

You can probably guess what happens next.

Lonestar holds up a red silk scarf, and the courthouse is gone. Helicopters fly straight through the space where it stood. Then it's back, the crowd goes wild, and the box has vanished from the locker.

Nancy is the key witness, because Lonestar picked her to sit on the stage. Was that luck? It doesn't feel like it. He knew her surname before she'd told him (and he pulled a rose out of thin air for her, which Bess thinks is very charming).

Then the magician disappears too, and the police want answers.

Nancy tells the story herself, and the fun is watching her brain refuse to switch off. Lonestar asks her to just enjoy the show. She really does try! Anyone who has ever HAD to know how a trick works will get it.

George is just the same. She does her late-night research sitting in the bathroom so she won't wake Bess, convinced the audience was hypnotised. Bess, meanwhile, picks up a very useful clue just by chatting to the assistants about clothes.

The suspects are a colourful bunch. Lonestar's quiet, beefy bodyguard. Two assistants who won't say where they went after the last trick. A shouty prosecutor. A fashion designer who might have run out of money. Your reader can keep their own list.

It's a puzzle with lots of moving parts, and a few courtroom words (evidence, pretrial hearings) that might need a quick explanation. Nancy is old enough to drive and has a boyfriend, so it feels a touch older in places.

What to read next

If they enjoy a famous visitor turning River Heights upside down, Famous Mistakes is a good one to try next. Nancy helps Ned interview a big-name comedian before his show and finds his hotel room completely wrecked.