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Ranko

Ranko

  • member since October 27 2007

Reviews

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Displaying 1-10 of 1798 reviews
  • The Clue in the Diary
    • Rated 4 stars

    “The story is about a man who has made his money basically by cheating other people out of their patents. The guy's house blows up and burns down, and no trace of the guy can be found. Meanwhile, one guy who is an inventor but was cheated by the man has a wife and daughter who are poverty-stricken.

    Nancy is at the house soon after it explodes and finds a diary written in Swedish. From that point on she's involved in the mystery, trying to find out why the house exploded, what happened to the man who cheated others, and trying to find a way to help the inventor, his wife and child. It's another of the greed-oriented stories and rather good.”

    Ranko wrote this review 2 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Haunted Bridge
    • Rated 4 stars

    “This story concerns Nancy's playing in a golf tournament at a place which includes a bridge that is supposedly haunted. The story also involves a gang of jewel thieves, a burned-down mansion and a woman who has avoided the man she was to marry since she's afraid he will think she set the fire herself.

    There's also an utterly obnoxious full-of-himself guy who cheats at golf and a scarecrow who's probably smarter than the guy.

    Nancy not only gets to solve a mystery but she gets to help a romance re-blossom. Another decent book in the series.

    The original text, 1937, is pretty much the same as the revised 1972 text.”

    Ranko wrote this review 2 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • Smile and Say Murder
    • Rated 2 stars

    “This is the fourth book in the Nancy Drew Files series. The story is about a magazine named Flash. One of the co-owners asks Nancy for help as she thinks the other co-owner, Mick, is trying to kill her. Nancy becomes an intern at the place and quickly finds out that almost all the workers there hate Yvonne, the person who asked Nancy for help.

    Nancy is suspicious of David, a person who is being paid by a group that wants to buy out the magazine (another example of corporate greed at work). Ned eventually is brought in to also work there. The question becomes who is trying to kill who and how. Nancy, Ned and a female worker there are almost burned to a crisp.

    Unfortunately, a good part of the book deals with Nancy being jealous about Ned, although she take a quite an uncompromising position on a vacation he wanted to take with her. Her detective work came first, and Ned second.

    The story also makes little sense in its main premise, and that is the person who called Nancy in to investigate possible attempts against her life made a rather dumb move. It would have been much better suited to her purposes not to bring anyone in at all, especially someone who has a background in solving various crimes and mysteries. In that case, the book doesn't make a whole lot of sense.”

    Ranko wrote this review 3 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • Out of Control
    • Rated 3 stars

    “The book is about a sexual assault by three boys in a high school on one girl, although the majority of the book is told from the viewpoint of one of the boys, Rollo. Rollo has a sister named Kara who has Down's Syndrome. Rollo himself does not have that, but he's not what would be termed an intellectual giant by any means.

    One of the other boys is basically just plain mean, and the third doesn't have much said about him at all.

    It's obvious that the three boys have very bad attitudes as far as girls go, and they can easily be termed bullies. What is the most interesting is that, after the assault, the school principal basically attempts to cover everything up in order to avoid bad public relations for the school. The boys are given a two-week suspension and that's it. No police involvement, no expulsion, no banning from extra-curricular activities.

    The principal even successes that the girl go into self-study or go to another school in his attempts to bury what happened.

    Rollo even basically becomes a stalker on the girl that the group had assaulted and somehow (utterly unrealistically, in my opinion) actually is able to talk to the girl later and they sort of get along.

    There is even sort of an attempt to 'blame the victim' used by the administration, and the principal tries to get the girl to go into self-study or transfer to another school in an effort to cover everything up. There are a number of girls that admit the same type of thing had happened to them.

    Not a happy story at all.”

    Ranko wrote this review 3 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Secret of Shadow Ranch
    • Rated 4 stars

    “ This is the 1993 printing of The Secret of Shadow Ranch. In this case Nancy, Bess and George go to a place called Shadow Ranch. The ranch is in financial difficulty and someone, or some people, have been doing what they can to close the ranch down. This includes various acts of sabotage and a horse that appears to glow (but only appears at night.)

    Nancy and the others meet a girl whose father has been missing of six months. They also meet a number of suspicious guys but the potential list of suspected troublemakers diminishes over time.

    There's the ghost horse, a sabotaged windmill and water pump, bad weather, an attempt to kill Nancy by catching her in a rockslide, art work, a dog, an abandoned cliff dwelling, a hidden treasure, a hidden room and a variety of other things that keep Nancy and the others busy trying to solve the mysteries of the treasure and who else is after it.

    Another good Nancy Drew adventure.
    ”

    Ranko wrote this review 8 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Secret of the Wooden Lady
    • Rated 4 stars

    “This is a review of the 27th book in the Nancy Drew Mystery series, and refers to the 1967 revised text.

    Nancy's father is called to try to clear up the ownership of a boat so a Captain Easterly can buy it. It's a very difficult problem, though, and, meanwhile, strange things have been happening on the boat. Someone has been going through the boat, trashing the rooms, looking for something.

    Nancy works with Bess and George and, for a short time, with Ned and his friends, to try to find out who is doing this and what they are after. There are at least three suspects, one of whom is dangerous and ultra-nasty. Nancy is knocked out, Bess' house is invaded by the thief, and the three girls all end up on a ship drifting out to sea.

    There's also pirates, a 'woman left behind' theme, and a poisonous lizard thrown into the mix. It all makes for a very good mystery.”

    Ranko wrote this review 12 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • Sleepover Sleuths
    • Rated 4 stars

    “This is the first book in the Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew series. Nancy is 8 and in the third grade along with George and Bess. Bess loves gadgets, although she's quite interested in food and is fearful of various things.

    Nancy has a puppy named Chocolate Chip. Her mother died when she was 3.

    A girl named Deidre is having a sleepover at her house and the girls who attend are to bring their City Girls doll with them. Deidre is also rather self-centered. She manages to get a very rare City Girl doll and showing it to the other girls is the real reason behind her sleepover.

    The doll ends up disappearing and Nancy, George and Bess try to find out who took the doll. They look for clues and find some, and talk to anyone they think might have taken the doll. Finally they are able to locate the doll and return it, and then decide to form a mystery-solving club and come up with the name Clue Crew.”

    Ranko wrote this review 12 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Chinese New Year Mystery (Nancy Drew Notebooks)
    • Rated 4 stars

    “This is the 39th book in the Nancy Drew Notebooks series. Nancy is 8 and is in the third grade along with George and Bess. There are also a couple of Oriental students in the class, one of whom is Mari Cheng. The class has been studying Chinese culture for a month and they are going to have a parade using a student-made dragon.

    The class Nancy is in makes a dragon's head for the costume and, in true mystery fashion, the head disappears. There are a number of suspects including a student that is made since he wasn't chosen to carry the head in the parade, a girl that says the Chinese New Year concept is stupid, and some girls from another class that are angry since their class didn't get to make the dragon head.

    Nancy visits the homes of the suspects and the homes of the two Orientals in class. One of the families has a very nasty cousin named Vincent who is a total obnoxious brat.

    'Pudding Pie' is Mr. Drew's special name for Nancy.

    Nancy, George and Bess gather clues to the disappearance and are able to solve the crime and the entire school enjoys the parade.

    It's a pretty good book for younger readers although, in this day and age with proficiency tests going to all levels of schools, I don't see where an elementary school could devote a full month to the study of anyone's culture.”

    Ranko wrote this review 12 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion
    • Rated 4 stars

    “This is the 18th book in the Nancy Drew series, and the one I'm reviewing here is the 1971 text revision of a 1941 original book. Elsewhere I have done a direct comparison between the two texts.

    This book revolves around NASA and an up-coming Apollo moon shot. It also involves coded personal ads, some very nasty housekeepers, wild animals like leopards, a crooked realtor, saboteurs, Ned and two of his friends, arson and foreign intrigue. Quite a handful for one volume but it works.

    The story is well done (although it's obvious from the first time the reader encounters the caretakers that they are part of what is going on). It's also obvious that the Drews are financially well-off as they already have one house but are going to buy another one in Florida.”

    Ranko wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • Secrets Can Kill
    • Rated 4 stars

    “This is the first book in the Nancy Drew Files series. Nancy has graduated from high school. She's developed a reputation with the local police as someone that can help them and they have her go undercover at a high school where there has been a series of locker break-ins and some video equipment stolen.

    The book says Nancy's mother died when she was still a baby which doesn't agree with The Secret of the Old Clock, 1930 printing, which has Nancy's mother dying when she was 10, or the revised text of the same book which says, with Nancy 18, that her mother died “many years ago.”

    Anyhow, Nancy gets a videotape warning her not to become involved in what is going on at the school.

    She drives a red mustang at the time. She's given a student contact at the school, a Darryl Gray, and quickly runs into the school nasty boy, Jake Webb. There's also a girl jealous of Nancy's relation to Darryl which gets slightly heated, showing Nancy is more than willing to kiss another boy even though she still has her boyfriend Ned.

    Someone tampers with the brakes on Nancy's car and it ends up toast. Things get stranger when a student is murdered and Nancy finds wire-cutters in his locker. There's also a nasty female reporter character and even international intrigue involved in the story.

    It's a good first book for the series. ”

    Ranko wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink )
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