''The Secret in the Old Attic'' is the twenty-first volume in the

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories The ''Nancy Drew Mystery Stories'' is the long-running "main" series of the ''Nancy Drew'' franchise, which was published under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. There are 175 novels — plus 34 revised stories — that were published between 1930 and ...

series. It was first published in 1944 under the pseudonym

Carolyn Keene Carolyn Keene is the pseudonym of the authors of the Nancy Drew mystery stories and The Dana Girls mystery stories, both produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. In addition, the Keene pen name is credited with the Nancy Drew spin-off, ''River ...

. The actual author was ghostwriter

Mildred Wirt Benson Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson (July 10, 1905 – May 28, 2002) was an American journalist and writer of children's books. She wrote some of the earliest Nancy Drew mysteries and created the detective's adventurous personality. Benson wrote under ...

Plot Summary- 1944 edition

Nancy searches for clues to missing music manuscripts written by the late soldier Philip March. March's daughter and his father, living together on the family estate, are rapidly running out of money, and believe some of Philip's music is being sold and played on the radio. Nancy goes to his estate, Pleasant Hedges, to investigate, with the assistance of her good friends, Bess and George. They search the estate, for clues, and also find valuable antiques that they sell for Mr. March so he can get some money in the meantime. Also, her father's client, Mr. Booker, solicits her aid in his investigation of a rival company, the Dight plant, which seems to be manufacturing silk cloth using his patented methods. And what is Bushy Trott, manic scientist, doing at the Dight plant? There is also a subplot in the original text in which Nancy is confused as to why Ned hasn't asked her out to a dance. It turns out that Diane Dight, daughter of the owner of the Dight plant, intercepts his communication asking Nancy out so that she can date Ned and another boy, also involved in the mystery, can date Nancy. At the end, Nancy is imprisoned in a room with a black widow spider, about to give her a deadly bite. But Ned and Effie Schnieder, the maid, rescue her just in time. Nancy and Ned figure out how they were tricked, and make up. Nancy continues trying to solve both mysteries, discovering hidden songs in the process. The resolution of both cases are quite climactic.

1970 revision

The revised version, still in print, is a condensed version of the original story, which has 20 chapters instead of 25. The story is largely similar to the original, with Mr. March looking for his son's songs that were composed but never published, so he can sell them for money to raise his granddaughter, Susan. Nancy helps find the missing music and another part introduces that Nancy goes to a factory that she thinks is copying a formula for silk. At the end Nancy, is about to be bitten by a black widow spider but she is saved by Ned Nickerson. The revised text does include Diane Dight, but does not have the romantic subplot of the original edition.

Artwork

Collectors of the series seem to greatly enjoy the original art by

Russell H. Tandy Russell Haviland Tandy (1891 – 1963) was an American illustrator, best known for his cover art for early editions of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series. Life and career Tandy was a friend of Edward Stratemeyer, whose Stratemeyer Syndicate crea ...

, which depicts Nancy among highly Gothic elements, by candlelight, in the old attic. In 1962, Rudy Nappi gave Nancy a modern flip hairstyle and changed the color to red, and altered her shirtwaist wrap dress to a generic red sailor-style dress for the cover art. In 1970, Nappi updated his art, employing a shadowy apple green color motif and Gothic elements, including the skeletal hand, to showcase Nancy, looking very much like Barbara Eden in a coatfront shift, with a candle. This cover plays heavily on the spooky elements popular during the "Dark Shadows" era.

Television

A reference to the book is made in the pilot episode of the ''

Nancy Drew Nancy Drew is a fictional character appearing in several mystery book series, movies, and a TV show as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwritten by a number of authors and published under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene. Crea ...

'' television series. Nancy searched through her family's attic to discover a bloody dress inside a trunk. The visual of Nancy opening the trunk to find the dress looks strikingly similar to the cover of the novel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Secret In The Old Attic, The Nancy Drew books 1944 American novels 1944 children's books 1970 American novels 1970 children's books Grosset & Dunlap books Children's mystery novels