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The Whispering Statue (Her Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, 14) by Carolyn Keene
Reader Reviews A Rather Dull "Mystery", July 6, 2003 Reviewer: jtthiel from Nova Scotia, Canada This review concerns the original 1937 edition as well as the revised 1970 edition, which tells a story completely different from the original. In the original version, Nancy, Bess and George are going to the coastal town of Seacliff with Mr. Drew who has business there. Before leaving, Nancy meets a woman who tells her about a statue of a whispering woman which is on the grounds of an abandoned estate near Seacliff. The woman tells Nancy that Nancy resembles the statue. Also, on the train to Seacliff, Nancy meets a woman who she fears is going to be swindled by a man she just met on the train. Nancy tries to help the woman, but she basically tells Nancy to mind her own business. Nancy being Nancy, decides to try to help the woman anyway. As well, Nancy gets her stupid dog, Togo, who is a complete nuisance throughout the book. In the revised edition, Nancy is asked for help from a woman who suspects that she is being swindled by a man she commissioned to sell some rare old books for her. She believes that the man is only giving her a small fraction of what he is actually getting for the books. In order to investigate, Nancy, Bess and George travel to Waterford where Nancy uses the alias Debbie Lynbrook and gets a job in the bookstore of the suspected swindler. There is also a side mystery concerning a stolen whispering statue. Personally, I didn't find either version very good. The original edition is the better written of the two (no surprise there), but it didn't have much of a mystery and only the last few chapters were that interesting. I found the whole Debbie Lynbrook thing in the revised edition rather neat and different, but for whatever reason the mystery never really grabbed in this version. Neither book is really that bad, but they are not ones that I'd highly recommend.
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