The Riddle of the Ruby Gazelle

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #135

by Carolyn Keene

While helping raise money for a Brooklyn park, Nancy must track down the kidnapper who has abducted a performing band's lead singer and discovers a hidden motive buried deep in the city's past.

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Crime, Childrens, Fiction, Classics, Mystery Thriller

160 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Carolyn 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 In a few cases, outdated plots were completely rewritten.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.

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library)]

I had fun with this mystery.

[Neha]

Still charming, a decade on!

[SR]

THIS WAS HARDCORE. Nancy did not become "asskicking" until the books were horribly blatantly ghostwritten, but I loved them then.

[Maxyne.D]

Une enquête sympathique!
On retrouve Alice, Bess et Marion directement à New-York pour visite auprès de leur amie Zoé. Cette dernière aide pour une oeuvre de charité visant à sauver un parc au coeur de Brooklyn! Mais lorsque le chanteur du groupe de rock qui anime le gala de charité disparaît, Alice mène l'enquête.
Beaucoup de suspects, pas mal d'action... On ne voit pas le livre passer!
Je recommande! :-)

[Serena]

My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.

[LuAnn]

Just an ok "digest" as these paperback Nancy Drew Mysteries Stories are called. Neither the mystery nor the setting grabbed me and the suspects were obnoxious.

[N.K.]

Good because Nancy isn’t dead in it.

[Shipra Upadhyay]

Read a Nancy Drew novel after 15+ years. Wanted to see what I used to love so much about it. The rating is by the 12-year old me.

[Melmo2610]

Another interesting case for Nancy and her friends in New York City. Good read.

[Anna Shiverdecker]

Fun, but I did predict most everything.

[Rachel Brand]

This one was no where as near as good as the old Nancy Drew books, which were written in the 1940s. In all the Nancy Drew books I read, Nancy always helped her father out with a law case, and each chapter ended on a dramatic climax. This book had very few climaxes, and no mention of Nancy's dad. Not to mention the fact that Nancy went to New York - not somewhere exotic like France or South America as per 99 Steps and Brass Bound Trunk - and because of this, the book read like a guidebook for NYC! And lastly - it was so easy to work out who was the "baddie"! That should not happen in a Nancy Drew mystery.

[Sabrina Diaz]

This book is an okay book, its not so good and not so bad I say. This book is about how a girl named Nancy and her friend Zoe are raise money to save a local park so they have a fund-raiser and they get a group to come and sing but crime takes place in which the main lead singer is kidnapped and things from there on seem out of place.

[Prami{reader and dreamer}]

3 stars

[NyxShadow]

http://www.nyx-shadow.com/2015/01/ali...

[Renee]

Ava