(Psst, minor spoilers might be present in this post!! You've been warned!)
Who doesn't love a good mystery? I know I do! And when I think of mysteries I think of Nancy Drew. If you're not familiar with the name(which would honestly be a shame) Nancy Drew is a young teenage girl who loves to solve, can you guess it? Mysteries! Written by many ghost writers, but for the sake of all of them, we can call them Carolyn Keene, gives us an amazing adventure with super cool teen detective Nancy Drew! From her very first case, Secret of the Old Clock, to The Secret of Shadow Ranch, to one of my huge favorites Case of the Artful Crime, Nancy Drew is literally everywhere inspiring both female and males around the globe.
One day almost 17 years ago(Psst, December 23rd, 1998!), an amazing PC game hit our stores shelves. Secrets Can Kill, Her Interactive's very first Nancy Drew PC point and click adventure game! This game is still one of my all time favorites(both the original and remastered alike!) and I get chills just thinking about this game. A student named Jake Rogers was pushed down a flight of stairs one day at the Paseo Del Mar High School and was killed. Nancy Drew was called by her Aunt Eloise to check out the case since the police were stumped and was immediately directed to the charming and flirtatious Daryl Gray. Nancy went on to meet three students who were her only suspects to find out just who killed Jake. Was it Connie Watson, one of the most toughest ladies at the school? Or maybe it was Hal Tanaka, the Japanese foreign exchange student? Let's not forget the number one football hunk, Hector "Hulk" Sanchez! Gathering clues and solving various puzzles, Nancy was able to figure out just who killed Jake before her own life could be taken.(And thank God she survived because this leads us to HER's next mystery...)
Have you ever wanted to go to New York City? Well pack your bags because you're going with Nancy Drew! In this case, Stay Tuned For Danger, it's up to you as Nancy Drew to figure out who is sending a famous soap opera star, Rick Arlen, disturbing death threats! Poisoned chocolates, notes with cut out magazine letters, someone even sabotaged the teleprompter! Oh and did I mention something took a hack saw and sabotaged a klieg light to fall on Rick?! Who has been doing this?! Well luck for us, we're presented with some suspects! Could it have been the Networks president Millie Strathorn? She sure likes to hang out in that prop room a lot! Or could it have been Lillian Weiss, the networks director? It could have been the networks producer, William Pappas! Or maybe it was Nancy's friend Mattie Jensen, Rick's co-star. Could she have been getting jealous of Rick and started sending Rick those nasty notes and chocolates? Well whoever it is, Nancy Drew is sure to crack this case wide open and solve the mystery!!
*KnockKnockKnock* What was that? *Screeech* Did you hear that? *Swooosh* Where did that wind come from?
Do you like a good haunting mystery? Well if you dive into Nancy Drew: Message In A Haunted Mansion, you can solve the case of the frightening and ghostly bumps in the night! You as Nancy Drew travels to San Francisco, California where you help a friend of Hanna Gruen renovate a house to turn it into a Bed and Breakfast! The owner of the house, Rose Green, is excited to have you on board to help with all the renovation work! But when Nancy meets Rose's friend, Abby, she learns that the mansion is haunted. By ghosts!! Has the spirit of Lizzie Applegate come back to seek her lost lover, El Diablo? Does the power of the Phoenix hold the answers to what could be hiding in the mansion? Maybe the handyman, Charles "Charlie" Murphy knows what's been going on with all these so called accidents? Or could the antique dealer, Louis Chandler, know about what's been going on and maybe even the house's history? Whatever the case may be, Nancy Drew is sure to find out who is behind all these "accidents"!
Want to enjoy a nice winter ski vacation? Well you can and in a castle no doubt! Nancy Drew travels to snowy Wisconsin to put her mysteries to the side and enjoy a nice cup of cocoa next to the blazing fire! But of course the vacation doesn't last for long. Nancy soon finds out that the castles historic library has been vandalized! The room is off limits according to that cranky caretaker, Dexter Egan. There's also a rumor going on that one of the other guests at the hotel, Professor Beatrice Hotchkiss, had her room robbed! Could the vandal and the robbery be linked? You also meet a fellow down to earth guest, journalist Lisa Ostrum, along with the good looking ski instructor extraordinaire, Jaques Brunais! Could one of these people be behind what happened in the library? Will the clues of Marie Antoinette hold the answers to this mystery?
Do you like movies? Who doesn't? You as Nancy Drew can go to St. Louis, Missouri, and attend a premiere showing, Vanishing Destiny! But when Nancy's friend, Maya, goes into the dressing room of the movies star, Brady Armstrong, Nancy finds herself in a kidnapping case! Vanishing like Harry Houdini himself, Maya's life is one the line because if Nancy doesn't find her in just three days, the theater is going to be demolished! With the help of theater activist Nicholas "Nick" Falcone, Nancy works hard to stop the demolition in its tracks in order to find Maya before they're both thrown down in a blaze of glory! The police are absolutely no help, but thankfully Nancy finds a good friend in Joseph Hughes, the theater's caretaker. With his support, it's easier for Nancy to keep a strong hold and not stop until Maya is found safe and sound! Of course there are those types of suspects who are of no help unless it suits their own needs, like Simone Mueller. Could one of these suspects be behind the kidnapping? Nancy soon finds out that the kidnapper means big business when they reveal themselves through an electronic voice disguise device and sends Nancy the most creepiest messages ever! Will Nancy be able to find Maya in time? She only has three days to find her lost friend. I don't know about you, but I have high hopes Nancy Drew will solve the case before the seventy two hours is up and everything comes crumbling to the ground!
You can find these four games(Stay Tuned For Danger is sadly discontinued) plus twenty eight games directly on HER's site, http://www.herinteractive.com! Trust me, these will not disappoint you!
While you're there, make sure to check out the Amateur Sleuth Blog written by Little Jackalope! She even posts weekend puzzles you can solve every Friday!!
Next week, I'll briefly dive into Nancy Drew's Secret of the Scarlet Hand, Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, The Haunted Carousel, Danger on Deception Island and The Secret of Shadow Ranch!
Until then!
-K
