Nancy Drew Investigates

There's sailing, danger, excitement and mystery afoot as Nancy Drew investigates The Case of the Missing Anchor!

Each day during April (except Sundays), you'll find a new installment of Nancy's latest case serialized here on our blog. It's all part of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, where over a thousand bloggers have decided that it would be fun (or slightly insane) to write alphabet themed posts during the month.

Because I'll be essentially sharing a short story with you during April, you may want to read the posts in order staring with "A is for Anchor." However, I'll also be sharing random thoughts on the day's particular alphabet themed topic, so if you want to skip the story, you can scroll to the end of each day's blog post and find out more about anchors, boatyards, catamarans etc.

You can find an index to all of the posts and topics below. I'll update the links daily as new posts are published on the blog.

The Case of the Missing Anchor - Blog Post Index

A IS FOR ANCHOR
Where Nancy and her friends discover that a Rocna anchor has been stolen at the local marina.

B IS FOR BOATYARD
Where Nancy and her friends check out the boatyard and discover that there have been more thefts.

C IS FOR CATAMARAN
Where a suspicious man is questioned and Nancy discovers a clue.

D IS FOR DITCH BAG
Where Bess daydreams about boys during the discussion of ditch bags at the safety briefing.

E IS FOR EPIRB
Where Bess breaks down in tears and learns to be more careful about boat equipment.

F IS FOR FLARES
Where somebody tries to warn Nancy off and disaster is narrowly avoided.

G IS FOR GROUNDING
Where a white catamaran forces The Scarlet Slipper into shallow waters, grounding them in the process.

H IS FOR HAM RADIO
Where Nancy and her friends hear a distress call on the VHF.

I IS FOR ISLAND
Where another boat is almost rammed by the same white catamaran.

J IS FOR JETTY
Where Bess ties up the dinghy to the jetty and the gang meets the crew of Spider Sapphire.

K IS FOR KNOT
Where everyone agrees that Bess shouldn't be allowed to tie knots anymore.

L IS FOR LAZY JACKS
Where Nancy shows Bess how to hoist the mainsail and the race to Grande Isle gets underway.

M IS FOR MOORING
Where the girls overhear a suspicious conversation and George shows off her judo moves.

N IS FOR NAUTICAL MILES
Where Bess gets a tummy ache from eating too many hors d'oeuvres.

O IS FOR OLD SALT
Where George meets an adorable tortoiseshell kitten and Nancy questions Captain Gus.

P IS FOR PLANE
Where someone sabotages the dinghy and the girls almost don't make it back to The Scarlet Slipper.

Q IS FOR Q FLAG
Where Bess mistakes the Q flag for an old rag. Oops.

R IS FOR RAFT-UP
Where Ned and his college friends surprise Nancy and the girls.

S IS FOR SAILRITE
Where Bess redeems herself by repairing the Q flag.

T IS FOR TOE RAIL
Where Nancy sneaks aboard Party Palace to investigate.

U IS FOR UNDERWAY
Where Party Palace leaves the dock with Nancy onboard.

V IS FOR V-BERTH
Where Nancy hides in the v-berth and tries to figure out a way to get out of the jam she's gotten herself into.

W IS FOR WATCH 
Where Nancy finds a way to radio for help. But, will it arrive in time? Will Nancy find herself in a watery grave?

X IS FOR XEBEC
Where Nancy discovers more evidence and we all learn what a xebec is.

Y IS FOR Y-VALVE
Where Nancy discovers that not only are the crew of Party Palace involved in dodgy things, they're also dumping their waste overboard.

Z IS FOR ZODIAC
Where the mystery gets neatly wrapped up, Ned gives Nancy a chaste kiss and everyone applauds America's favorite teenage girl detective.

Who's Nancy Drew?

Now, some of you {gasp} may not be familiar with Nancy Drew. I know, it's shocking, but for those who haven't heard of Nancy Drew before, here's the scoop.

The original Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series was published between 1930 and 2003. During that time, there were 175 books written by a number of ghostwriters under the pen name of Carolyn Keene. A major revision took place in 1959 to update the series, remove racist stereotypes and shorten the books to be faster paced. This was the version of the series that I read when I was a girl, published between 1959 and 1979 with the trademark yellow spine.

There have been other Nancy Drew book series, such as Nancy Drew on Campus and the Nancy Drew Files, as well as TV series and movies, and Nancy and her friends have evolved over time. But, the Nancy you'll see during the A to Z Challenge is based on the books I read during my childhood. My Nancy is an 18 year old amateur sleuth, who lost her mother at a young age and lives with her father, a well-to-do attorney, and their housekeeper, Hannah Greun, in the town of River Heights. Nancy is resourceful, bright, independent, kindhearted, wholesome and always solves the case. She has a handsome boyfriend (Ned Nickerson), drives a blue convertible, wears fabulous clothes and never has a hair out of place.

During the Case of the Missing Anchor, you'll meet Nancy's two best friends - George Fayne and her cousin Bess Marvin. George is an athletic tomboy who is an expert in judo and doesn't easily frighten. Bess is more feminine in nature, tends to worry, flirts with all the boys she meets and constantly talks about food and shopping. Nancy's boyfriend, Ned, will make an appearance, along with Bess and George's boyfriends.

If you want to find out more about Nancy Drew you can check out Wikipedia, the Nancy Drew Sleuth website site and blog, this New Yorker article about Edward Stratemeyer, the creator of Nancy Drew, this article in The Atlantic about Nancy Drew ghostwriters, a recap of the Nancy Drew books in Country Living, and this hilarious take on the basic plot of the Nancy Drew mysteries.

The Case of the Slowly Sinking Ship

The Case of the Missing Anchor was inspired by some blog posts I did at the end of 2015 when I found a mysterious leak on our sailboat. If you missed the original Nancy Drew posts, you can check them out here:

The Case of the Slowly Sinking Ship, Part 1 - Where a leak is discovered aboard a sailboat and Nancy investigates the likely suspects.

The Case of the Slowly Sinking Ship, Part 2 - Where Nancy narrows down the list of suspects and her friend Bess worries about alligators in the marina.

The Case of the Slowly Sinking Ship, Part 3 - Where a new leak appears on Thanksgiving and Bess consoles herself with apple cobbler.

Nancy Drew is a Total Slacker - Where a mysterious beep is heard during the middle of the night and a new case is opened.

The Case of the Disappearing Cat - Where I start to turn everything into a Nancy Drew investigation, even when cat sitting. This post really has nothing to do with Nancy Drew, but if you like cute cat pictures, this might be right up your alley.