When Nancy is asked by a good friend to investigate her aunt’s haunted mansion, Nancy wants to help, yet she’s too worried about the threat to her father to commit. He’s involved in a legal arrangement which has made some people unhappy. After Mr. Drew (which is how he’s always referred in the book) assures Nancy that she needn’t worry, she heads off to stay at the mansion. She soon learns that strange things are really happening there, and that the threat to her father has taken a dangerous twist.

The Hidden Staircase is the second installment in Carolyn Keene’s popular series, and I remember reading this novel when I was a youngster. Although I’d forgotten many of the details, the ending is as satisfying as it was over forty years ago, which is partly what makes these books safe, comfort reads. You always know what you’ll get with Nancy Drew.

Nancy’s bravery, independence, compassion, and resourcefulness still makes her a good role model for girls, although the language is somewhat antiquated by today’s standards. A couple of points had me laughing, though. One was the way Nancy gently extracts confessions from criminals in about two minutes, despite police efforts to get the villains to talk. The other is when she asks a notary public to come to the mansion right away and he shows up in five minutes. Even when originally written, I think these events would have stretched credibility; yet they don’t detract from the overall enjoyment of the book.