Review: The Clue in the Crumbling Wall

The Clue in the Crumbling Wall by Carolyn Keene
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

One part historical romance blended with equal part adventure, this mystery is not only interesting to read, but also very immersive with respect to its plot’s imagery detailing.

Driven by one of her client’s pleas, Nancy puts her foot into an old estate known by the name of Heath Castle. Though utterly magnificient, this English-style castle appears to her to be in a terrible condition; a consequence of caretaker’s carelessness, abandonment and neglect. Everywhere she steps, she discovers nothing but cracked plasters, crumbling towers, tangled webs of vines and overgrown weeds. But apparently, the greatest clues to the mystery too are concealed inside these mud-soaked moss-dipped fragmenting old castle’s walls. Nancy must find these clues as quick as possible because otherwise, this castle, as well as the entire inheritance connected to it, will go to false charity – in the hands of greedy men already having their eyes keenly set on it.

The castle, currently, is being governed (mis-governed) under the order of a deceitful lawyer. He, too, has his eyes tucked to the treasures hidden in the estate. And to swallow them up before anyone else can reach them, he is causing silent havocs in the castle by sending his men to secretly blast explosions in some wall or the other, to loosen the brickholds of some or the other tower, to ransack one chamber after the other. Nancy even notices him selling a few pieces of the stolen treasure at a jeweler’s shop, who is a dear friend of the young detective and tells it all to her.

In addition to these clues, she must also quicken her search for the missing dancer, to whom this castle belongs, as a part of her late husband’s inheritance. The dancer’s lover had sworn this to her, before a mysterious event separated them all of a sudden. Seemingly, this dancer, who was also a famous celebrity in the early days, went somewhere and disappeared strangely, never appearing or seen again by her family or her husband either. No one knows what might or could have happened to her. The best most information that Nancy has, is a young-age photograph of this woman dancer. Rest is left on her to decipher on her own. Adding to her difficulty, even Nancy’s boyfriend Ned is not available to her as a support in her sleuthing. Unlike other mysteries when he’d rush out to assist her, this time, he & his crew is in South America instead.

But as always, her two besties are there, as well as a jaunty friend named Salty. Salty is a former sailor, now a door-to-door clam seller. With his prior knowledge related to shells, pearls & dyes, he helps the detective crew navigate a doddering pearl button factory located inside the castle estate. There is also a little snippet outlining the crafting process of a pearl button. Interesting!

A series of little discoveries, at first unfolds a tale of sweet romance. The castle’s royal had hidden several precious gifts in various secret parts of the castle for his lover, the missing woman dancer. And then, some secrets hidden inside the walls of the castle, to discover which, she has to risk getting trapped, breathless, in one of the castle’s chambers.

By the climax of the mystery, a good amount of panic & anxiety engulfs Nancy. As soon as she’s about to reach the end of her search for the missing dancer, she finds that the dancer has been kidnapped. But as soon as she finds her, the various pieces of the puzzling mystery too, start to come together in her brain.

Various treasures are discovered. One-of-a-kind pearls, royal jewels, a freshwater spring, an old leatherbound photograph diary, a scientific formula for making dyes from whelk shells, and some bottles containing the purple dye samples that the dancer’s late husband was experimenting to create.

She gifts the elderly dancer a surprise of a stunning pearl jewellery set which her late lover had hidden inside the castle, just for her. And also shows her a cindrella-like shoe impression which her lover had carved on one of the high-towering walls of the castle, as a memento of their love.

Since the major chunk of this mystery revolves around just the same location & setting, therefore, the novel could have easily become boring to read, passing a few number of chapters. Howsoever, it doesn’t. Descriptions are quite juicy, fresh and gripping. All in all, this mystery is a sweet and refreshing read; and also one of the well-penned novels among the entire Nancy-Carolyn series!


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