Nancy Drew 25: The Ghost of Blackwood Hall by Carolyn KeeneMy rating: 0 of 5 stars
The Ghost of the Blackwood Hall is a thrilling story, featuring one of the creepiest plots among all titles of the Nancy Drew-Carolyn Keene 64-title series.
As an elderly woman Mrs. Putney, reaches out to Nancy through a friend of her father; she seems somewhat anxious and perplexed. Guided by some superstitious trance that her late husband’s spirit is communicating messages to her, Mrs. Putney seems to be experiencing mysterious occurrences including the theft of her priced jewels & failing to remember the details of certain recent events.
Engulfed in the spell of her superstitions, she almost fires Nancy as her detective; not just once but multiple times. On the other side, Nancy, along with her friends, discovers that not just Mrs. Putney, but several other young girls like Lola & Nellie are involved in this dangerous & cultish trap. These girls appear to be acting crazy; handing out telegrams with their hard-earned cash & money over selected walnut trees in a forest. Again, they seem to be taken advantage of, through their respective vulnerabilities & superstitions.
The hunt for the mystery causes Nancy and her friends to take a trip to the colourful city of New Orleans; which also brings them to their first encounter with a nosy woman, who is also revealed to be a big piece of the mystery’s puzzle.
Meanwhile, in the same forest, a remote & isolated houseblock mansion named Blackwood Hall is discovered. The location, as it reveals to the young detective crew, is being used for something fishy. Some strange events are being carried out in this mansion. Nancy & her crew are welcomed here repeatedly with things like luminous flashes of neon green light, magic witchcraft wands, a ghostly figure playing music on an organ pipe, an invisible intruder, unconsciousness-inducing smoke flames, and what not!
Even her father too is not spared. His car is stolen and sneaked away to some isolated place as he’s inspecting the details of the place along with Nancy’s boyfriend Ned.
Nancy doesn’t just not give up on the mystery, but also, makes these hypnotized girls come out of their trance-like superstitions; also preventing the elderly woman, at the last moment, to hand over all her wealth & documents to these unknown fake séance-carriers…
Packed with intriguingly scenic descriptions of spooky-chilling seances & classic cult control tactics; suspenseful tales of trance-induction, psychological influence & hypnotism, the novel is certainly not to be missed if you’re a fan of the Nancy Drew detective series!
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