What do you think?
Rate this book
Nancy Drew Files #41
Something to Hide
Something to Hide (Nancy Drew Files Case #41) (Paperback) by Carolyn Keene
152 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1989
8 people are currently reading
327 people want to read
About the author
Carolyn Keene
952 books3,834 followersCarolyn Keene is a writer pen name that was used by many different people- both men and women- over the years. The company that was the creator of the Nancy Drew series, the Stratemeyer Syndicate, hired a variety of writers. For Nancy Drew, the writers used the pseudonym Carolyn Keene to assure anonymity of the creator.
Edna and Harriet Stratemeyer inherited the company from their father Edward Stratemeyer. Edna contributed 10 plot outlines before passing the reins to her sister Harriet. It was Mildred Benson (aka: Mildred A. Wirt), who breathed such a feisty spirit into Nancy's character. Mildred wrote 23 of the original 30 Nancy Drew Mystery Stories®, including the first three. It was her characterization that helped make Nancy an instant hit. The Stratemeyer Syndicate's devotion to the series over the years under the reins of Harriet Stratemeyer Adams helped to keep the series alive and on store shelves for each succeeding generation of girls and boys. In 1959, Harriet, along with several writers, began a 25-year project to revise the earlier Carolyn Keene novels. The Nancy Drew books were condensed, racial stereotypes were removed, and the language was updated. In a few cases, outdated plots were completely rewritten.
Other writers of Nancy Drew volumes include Harriet herself, she wrote most of the series after Mildred quit writing for the Syndicate and in 1959 began a revision of the first 34 texts. The role of the writer of "Carolyn Keene" passed temporarily to Walter Karig who wrote three novels during the Great Depression. Also contributing to Nancy Drew's prolific existence were Leslie McFarlane, James Duncan Lawrence, Nancy Axelrod, Priscilla Doll, Charles Strong, Alma Sasse, Wilhelmina Rankin, George Waller Jr., and Margaret Scherf.
Edna and Harriet Stratemeyer inherited the company from their father Edward Stratemeyer. Edna contributed 10 plot outlines before passing the reins to her sister Harriet. It was Mildred Benson (aka: Mildred A. Wirt), who breathed such a feisty spirit into Nancy's character. Mildred wrote 23 of the original 30 Nancy Drew Mystery Stories®, including the first three. It was her characterization that helped make Nancy an instant hit. The Stratemeyer Syndicate's devotion to the series over the years under the reins of Harriet Stratemeyer Adams helped to keep the series alive and on store shelves for each succeeding generation of girls and boys. In 1959, Harriet, along with several writers, began a 25-year project to revise the earlier Carolyn Keene novels. The Nancy Drew books were condensed, racial stereotypes were removed, and the language was updated. In a few cases, outdated plots were completely rewritten.
Other writers of Nancy Drew volumes include Harriet herself, she wrote most of the series after Mildred quit writing for the Syndicate and in 1959 began a revision of the first 34 texts. The role of the writer of "Carolyn Keene" passed temporarily to Walter Karig who wrote three novels during the Great Depression. Also contributing to Nancy Drew's prolific existence were Leslie McFarlane, James Duncan Lawrence, Nancy Axelrod, Priscilla Doll, Charles Strong, Alma Sasse, Wilhelmina Rankin, George Waller Jr., and Margaret Scherf.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 30, 2025
Good, except for the part where it took Nancy a little too long to realize something that I knew right away.
October 20, 2021
Ahhh the first Nancy Drew Files I've read since the 80s! Really great to revisit this series again. The gorgeous cover (by famed Sweet Valley High artist James Mathewuse) is much better than the book though 😅🎃
The culprit is pretty obvious and you know who it is before Nancy does. Of course there's a big showdown at the end though and even with her hands and ankles bound, Nancy beats him up LIKE THE TOTAL BAD ASS SHE IS. 💪
Wish it all could've been SPOOKIER though, à la the cover. The book does culminate in a Halloween costume party but like, Nancy doesn't wear that cool outfit on the cover....she's in a Scarecrow costume which admittedly would be pretty dumb as a cover shot. 😅
Howeverr, in the book Ned and Nancy go out to see their favorite band and she gets bonus points for her FABULOUS concert-going outfit...a leopard print minidress with matching stockings. RAWRR!!! 🐾
The culprit is pretty obvious and you know who it is before Nancy does. Of course there's a big showdown at the end though and even with her hands and ankles bound, Nancy beats him up LIKE THE TOTAL BAD ASS SHE IS. 💪
Wish it all could've been SPOOKIER though, à la the cover. The book does culminate in a Halloween costume party but like, Nancy doesn't wear that cool outfit on the cover....she's in a Scarecrow costume which admittedly would be pretty dumb as a cover shot. 😅
Howeverr, in the book Ned and Nancy go out to see their favorite band and she gets bonus points for her FABULOUS concert-going outfit...a leopard print minidress with matching stockings. RAWRR!!! 🐾
May 5, 2019
Title: Something To Hide
Author: Carolyn Keene
Series: Nancy Drew Files, 41
Format: ebook
Length: N/A
Rating: 3 stars
Synopsis:
Ned and some of his Emerson College classmates are running a marketing project at the local mall, and Nancy has been enlisted to help. But fun turns to trouble when samples of the test product--a complexion cream--are laced with poison, causing some serious reactions.
Mini-review:
I don't know if it's because of the ghost writer for this part of the series or if it's being an adult now or something, but this was not enjoyable. It was painstakingly predictable, the characters were undeveloped and those that we know from previous books were almost strangers, (Chief McGinnis not knowing Ned, despite working with him before; Nancy having to explain who Bess is to Chief McGinnis; George barely being in the book despite the fact that she's in town, etc.) It felt like the ghost writer had never read the original series or the earlier books of this series, which you need to do in order to understand what you're writing.
Fan-cast
Nancy Drew - Katherine McNamara
Ned Nickerson - Ansel Elgort
Bess Marvin - Abigail Breslin
George Fayne - Brianna Hildebrand
Chief McGinnis - Vincent D'Onofrio
Hannah - Mary Steenburgen
Marcia Grafton - Ellie Gall
Justin Dodd - Jacob Batalon
Heather Tompkins - Katherine Langford
Brad Chanin - Hart Denton
Author: Carolyn Keene
Series: Nancy Drew Files, 41
Format: ebook
Length: N/A
Rating: 3 stars
Synopsis:
Ned and some of his Emerson College classmates are running a marketing project at the local mall, and Nancy has been enlisted to help. But fun turns to trouble when samples of the test product--a complexion cream--are laced with poison, causing some serious reactions.
Mini-review:
I don't know if it's because of the ghost writer for this part of the series or if it's being an adult now or something, but this was not enjoyable. It was painstakingly predictable, the characters were undeveloped and those that we know from previous books were almost strangers, (Chief McGinnis not knowing Ned, despite working with him before; Nancy having to explain who Bess is to Chief McGinnis; George barely being in the book despite the fact that she's in town, etc.) It felt like the ghost writer had never read the original series or the earlier books of this series, which you need to do in order to understand what you're writing.
Fan-cast
Nancy Drew - Katherine McNamara
Ned Nickerson - Ansel Elgort
Bess Marvin - Abigail Breslin
George Fayne - Brianna Hildebrand
Chief McGinnis - Vincent D'Onofrio
Hannah - Mary Steenburgen
Marcia Grafton - Ellie Gall
Justin Dodd - Jacob Batalon
Heather Tompkins - Katherine Langford
Brad Chanin - Hart Denton
October 29, 2022
I’ve read many of the original Nancy Drew mysteries but this was my first time reading one in the Nancy Drew Files series! It was a fast paced and spooky fun read for Halloween, and I look forward to reading more in this series!
August 6, 2016
This one was excellent. I would give it 5 stars, but once again Nancy Drew has done something that caused me to downgrade the story.
I am convinced that Nancy is legally brain dead. Some of the things she does just doesn't make sense. She willingly goes outside with the baddie...alone. She had plans to tell this person that she was on to them, so she leaves a costume party with plenty of witnesses because she would like to reveal what she knows in private.
Wouldn't you WANT to out the baddie around as many people as possible?
As I said, Nancy is brain dead. She gets clunked over the head with a heavy object in nearly every book, and blacks out, so I am sure some damage has been done.
I am convinced that Nancy is legally brain dead. Some of the things she does just doesn't make sense. She willingly goes outside with the baddie...alone. She had plans to tell this person that she was on to them, so she leaves a costume party with plenty of witnesses because she would like to reveal what she knows in private.
Wouldn't you WANT to out the baddie around as many people as possible?
As I said, Nancy is brain dead. She gets clunked over the head with a heavy object in nearly every book, and blacks out, so I am sure some damage has been done.
October 20, 2017
Nothing too out there with this one. Ned's on a school-sanctioned break from Emerson College to do market research on a skin cream in River Heights. Things go predictably awry, and Nancy steps in to solve the mystery. There were some very nice moments between Ned and Nancy, we get to see Nancy be jealous but also trust Ned not to respond to another woman's overtures, and George is my favorite because she's her usual, lovely, affable self. I continue to secretly be Bess in another life (which is probably why I like George so much).
Nice mystery, with some actual stakes, although not terribly high ones. I did think it was a little silly Nancy didn't figure out who the culprit was as soon as she found the source of the poison, but I'll handwave it since she was also distracted by Bess, Ned, and the upcoming Halloween party at that point.
Nice mystery, with some actual stakes, although not terribly high ones. I did think it was a little silly Nancy didn't figure out who the culprit was as soon as she found the source of the poison, but I'll handwave it since she was also distracted by Bess, Ned, and the upcoming Halloween party at that point.
May 1, 2022
A couple of weeks ago I started to miss being a kid (not for the first time). I was feeling nostalgic about being a kid and the excitement of going to visit my grandparents and reading Nancy Drew books. Though I never read Nancy Drew books in their old house so I’m not sure why the two memories mushed together, but whatever. So I looked up the books and remembered this cover and that I liked it, probably because it takes place during Halloween and I love Halloween books. Now I wish I had saved all my Nancy Drew books from when I was a teen. I think they were all sold at garage sales darn it. Thank goodness for Amazon and the library.
February 28, 2023
3 stars. A Halloween read which was fun. I liked the mystery even though I knew who it was immediately. This was still entertaining though.
March 2, 2023
Once I saw the cover I wish I had waited until Halloween to read it, but oh well. ILL waits for no one.
August 16, 2024
Halloween? Arsenic? Super 1980s?! This book was MADE for me!
April 10, 2019
I read Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys throughout my school and college days.
Nancy Drew is an amateur detective who solves crimes with occasional help from her best friends, Bess and George and, her boyfriend Ned. She also has occasional help from her father Carson Drew who runs a private law practice. From finding stolen goods to missing persons and solving mysterious happenings, Nancy is a force of nature.
Until I discovered that Carolyn Keene is a pen name for a whole bunch of ghostwriters, I used to feel confused about the slight differences in each character from books to book over the many series of Nancy Drew mysteries. I like the character of Nancy best in the original books written by Mildred Wirt Benson where Nancy is truly a character to root for – an independent and street smart girl with a penchant for trouble.
Nancy Drew is an amateur detective who solves crimes with occasional help from her best friends, Bess and George and, her boyfriend Ned. She also has occasional help from her father Carson Drew who runs a private law practice. From finding stolen goods to missing persons and solving mysterious happenings, Nancy is a force of nature.
Until I discovered that Carolyn Keene is a pen name for a whole bunch of ghostwriters, I used to feel confused about the slight differences in each character from books to book over the many series of Nancy Drew mysteries. I like the character of Nancy best in the original books written by Mildred Wirt Benson where Nancy is truly a character to root for – an independent and street smart girl with a penchant for trouble.
June 30, 2017
Another very good ND book! This is one of the very few books that Nancy's not in any danger in every chapter and it was a nice change. The romance in this book was actually interesting, and Nancy being annoyed by another girl was pretty amusing. I also liked how badass Nancy was at the end! The only problem I had with this book was how obvious the culprit was and also the solution halfway through the book. Overall, a good suspenseful mystery and I give it 4 stars.
May 4, 2013
Nancy at work again
July 3, 2011
great book...i never expected Brad to be the culprit behind the poisoning ...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 22, 2015
I dearly love this book...it is so good...
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews