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The Clue In The Crossword Cipher (1967)

The Clue in the Crossword Cipher (1967)

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Author
Series
Rating
4.36 of 5 Votes: 5
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ISBN
0448095440 (ISBN13: 9780448095448)
Language
English
Publisher
grosset & dunlap

About book The Clue In The Crossword Cipher (1967)

Hello, old friend. This, hands down, was my favorite Nancy Drew book of all time when I started reading the series in the late 70's and the only copy I still have on my bookshelves. I am pretty sure it inspired my lifelong love of travel and exploration (no BS and not to be melodramatic, but really). Of course, when I was 11 or 12, I didn't realize how implausible and unrealistic ND's ability to travel so last minute to South America was, but that is the beauty of being a kid - your imagination knows no bounds. This is the closest ND comes to being James Bond-ish - placed in gorgeous scenic locations, fighting crime while solving mysteries. Almost getting sucked out of a plane? Implausible, really. But, when you are 11 or 12 it's all a believable part of the adventure.I wish I had re-read the book in 1996 before we went to Macchu Picchu, Cuzco and the Nasca lines, but I had forgotten about it sitting on my shelf. Because we were independent travelers and not on a tour, I traced many of the places she had been probably because somewhere in my subconscious the story was still there. It was only when my sister traveled to the region this year that I dusted off The Clue in the Crossword Cipher and re-read the whole book in one sitting. I looked up locations ND had been to such as Llao Llao Hotel in Patagonia, Temple of the Sun, Urubamba River, Parque Nacional Los Arrayanes, Foreign Office Building on trip advisor - still there with great reviews. Her itinerary withstood the test of time.My only question is how did the author come up with this story? She/he must have traveled to these locations to be able to write fairly realistically about them. Does anyone have the solution to that mystery?

The Nancy Drew mysteries are so innocent. In this one, Nancy and her friends travel to Peru to solve a 300-year-old mystery that has baffled generations. Nancy is hit in the head with a rock, and endures other dangers including almost being sucked out of the door of a plane. I find it interesting that Nancy and her friends have unlimited funds to fly here and there. Once Beth did mention that her funds were getting a bit low, but the Ponces said not to worry - they would foot the bill. This book had quite a bit of history in it and the girls travel to places of archaeological interest. But if these books were written in present day, they wouldn't be allowed to land a helicopter on the Nascan Lines let alone to set up camp and start digging. In the end, the mystery is solved, but this is the first time that Nancy has encountered drug smuggling - although I'm not sure how hard core quinine is; it definitely isn't cocaine or heroin. Not a bad read, if a bit dated and naive.

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The format presented here appears as a forerunner to the Dan Brown location chasing sequences mystery/clue books. I was personally disappointed in the fact that this wasn't a decoding experience in the sense of code-breaking, which I had associated with "cipher" in the title. Instead it was just a socially reactive chase sequence where adversaries raced and tried to prevent Nancy Drew from determining the meaning of a token object plaque. Naturally, the plaque was a shorthand emblem representing a golden horde.The book was published at around the same time that Erich von Daniken had become famous with his publication of "Chariots of the Gods". It obviously picks up on the Zazca Lines and pictographs, which are commonplace knowledge today, but were apparently not well known at all in the 60's. Machu Picchu was also apparently not well known. It's been a while since the 60's but I was thinking that archaeological wonders were not wholly unknown in the media of the time. I would have been about the same age as this Nancy Drew is portrayed in the late 60's, and I think that a lot of this culture and archaeology was fairly well known at the time. On the other hand, I know a lot of people who don't have a clue regarding topics like this, so redundantly introducing it to kids is probably a good idea.There was an obvious disregard for archaeological research processes. The main characters here get permission to go dig up the Nazca plateau with a single phone call, and apparently intended to do it as if it were an afternoon picnic.The only other take-away here was that a culture and society in Peru was sketched to present the fact that the US and Europe aren't the only seats of civilization.
—Joe White

This book has probably the greatest amount of WTFery to date.In this edition of The Nancy Travelogues, Nancy and B&G go to South America! To decode some old plaque. I was hoping for more of a treasure-in-plain-sight thing like with the NYT Crossword Puzzle, but no luck. Nancy dives into a creek to save the plaque, and takes a ride on a runaway ox. Nancy almost gets sucked out of a plane (at a high cruising altitude, the passenger door just falls off the fuselage! For some reason they fly all the way to Lima Peru from "The Argentine" and land safely). A guy hurls roofing material at her in an attempt to kill her and also throws a BOMB at her. And you know what? He's the head of a smuggling ring that smuggles (get this) QUININE in hollowed out fork handles. I'm waiting for the bad guy in the next book to be smuggling table salt. Anyway, it makes NO sense for him to try to kill/hurt Nancy. ALSO: Ned kisses Nancy. This is the first such contact I've ever read about.The girls find a wooden plaque *nailed to a tree* that reads: "Trees are man's good friends. Do not wound them."The fat-shaming of Bess hits new lows too, even with an alpaca fat-shaming her, and a guy saying, "Alpacas won't carry loads of over 100 lbs." No idea how heavy Bess is but I'm thinking at least 150-175, maybe more. Anyway, they find a box with gold monkeys or something in it. And they slightly vandalize the Nazca Lines.
—Melanie

After reading a total of 42 Nancy Drews, in addition to multiple Kay Tracys and Trixie Beldens during my middle school years, I believe (and I may be wrong since it was quite a while ago) that this was the last book I read. This one put me over the top. I remember feeling I'd finally reached my limit for this genera. This is not to detract from the book, which I'm sure was just as engaging as the rest of the series. I believe I'd just gotten bored with ol' Nancy. I believe I pretty much jumped from this to Jurassic Park...it was time to quit.
—Mindy

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