Curse of the Arctic Star: 11/03/16

Curse of the Arctic Star by Carolyn Keene is the start of the relaunched Nancy Drew series, called the Nancy Drew diaries. It's set in the present with the same group of characters except that Nancy's now at college and her caseload is hers and hers alone, not her father tossing her bones.

In this first case, Nancy, George, and Bess have been invited by the Assistant Cruise Director of the Arctic Star, an Alaskan cruise ship. Someone's been making threats against the cruise and Becca wants the problem solved before anyone gets hurt.

Although a ship seems like a confined, closed set for a murder mystery, but cruise ships are like floating carnivals. Partially to set the scene to show how distracting a cruise can be, especially when one is staying in a luxury suite, but also to toss around a ton of red herrings, there's a lack of focus here. Nancy and friends spent most of their time playing tourist. The attacks that happen seem to come at random.

This first volume seems more dedicated to reestablishing characters than on being a mystery. The narrative is unfocused and sloppy in places.

Five stars

Comments (0)