Nancy Drew Diaries 9 – The Clue at Black Creek Farm

Carolyn Keene's The Clue at Black Creek Farm is a Nancy Drew mystery for 9 year olds about someone who seems set on ruining a small organic farm.

What happens

It starts at a dinner. Sam Heyworth gave up being a big-city lawyer to grow vegetables, and his farm is putting on a feast to win new customers. He makes a heartfelt speech about safe, local food. Then his pregnant daughter-in-law Julie staggers out of the kitchen and collapses.

It looks like food poisoning. The dinner is cancelled, and Sam's dream might go under with it.

Nancy isn't convinced it's an accident. The bug on the salads comes from cows, and Sam has no cows (just a coop of chickens on the far side of the farm). So how did it get there?

Then she visits the farm. The greenhouse has been smashed, the plants ripped apart, and someone has scrawled KILL THE FARM! in the dirt on the floor. Sam is almost relieved. At least now he knows he isn't imagining it.

There are lots of people to think about. Jack, Sam's grumpy son, who reckons his dad has no business farming. Holly, the bubbly organiser who helped get the food ready. A bigger farm down the road that Sam once had a row with. A farmhand who looks very nervous when Nancy turns up.

It's all in Nancy's own voice, and she's lovely company. She's kind and stubborn and quite sure there's more going on than anyone thinks. Ned keeps telling her the simplest answer is usually the right one. (He's also eating everything in sight while he revises for exams!)

Bess and George bicker about organic food from the very first page, which is very funny if your house has a pair who argue about everything.

It's worth knowing what happens at that dinner before you hand it over. Julie is eight months pregnant. She faints, is sick on the floor and goes off to hospital in an ambulance. She's soon home and feeling much better. Sam's speech also mentions a young woman who died after eating bagged salad, the case that made him quit the law.

For a child who worries about getting ill, or who has a baby on the way at home, that might be a lot. For one who loves a proper puzzle, it's a gripping start.

What to read next

For another case where someone is quietly sabotaging things behind the scenes, try The Stolen Show. Nancy goes to a dog show in snowy Quebec City and finds a prize sheepdog drugged in her crate.