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Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #75
The Emerald-Eyed Cat Mystery
Carson Drew asks Nancy to help an old friend, Jules Johnson. A ship carrying a valuable load of cargo for Johnson's textile company sank near Colombia. Nancy finds herself on a hacienda in Colombia, where with the help of two friends, she tries to unravel the mysterious connection between the sunken ships and the strange events at the hacienda.
161 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
8 people are currently reading
1219 people want to read
About the author
Carolyn Keene
948 books3,854 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 In a few cases, outdated plots were completely rewritten.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.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
March 5, 2018
Nancy Drew is consulted by her father about a ship that has disappeared near the Colombian coast. She jumps into the investigation and ends up being kidnapped and shipped off to Colombia. She also makes it back with a couple of locals, no questions asked about visas and passports and absolutely no immigration problems in either country! Wow, it must be nice to be Nancy Drew!
In this one, Nancy solves a mystery and catches a gang of thieves, helps a pair of young lovers, and rescues an old woman from the clutches of evil. While reading this book, I found myself in completely unfamiliar surroundings. Bess and George are not even mentioned, Nancy's dad takes a backseat, Hannah Gruen is mentioned once. Ned might as well have not existed in her life. There was far too much action and very little mental processing and discussions. But mostly, I constantly got the feeling that this was not Nancy's world at all. And I turned out to be right. This is Nancy Drew in the Hardy Boys' world.
The Emerald-Eyed Cat Mystery was originally written as a Hardy Boys novel, and then, for reasons unknown, was rewritten as a Nancy Drew novel. I am confused as to why anyone thought this would be a good idea. It wasn't. It didn't feel right, and hence, I didn't enjoy it. Yeah, I'm making too much fuss over a silly ND book, but everything should be in its right place, and Nancy just wasn't in this one.
In this one, Nancy solves a mystery and catches a gang of thieves, helps a pair of young lovers, and rescues an old woman from the clutches of evil. While reading this book, I found myself in completely unfamiliar surroundings. Bess and George are not even mentioned, Nancy's dad takes a backseat, Hannah Gruen is mentioned once. Ned might as well have not existed in her life. There was far too much action and very little mental processing and discussions. But mostly, I constantly got the feeling that this was not Nancy's world at all. And I turned out to be right. This is Nancy Drew in the Hardy Boys' world.
The Emerald-Eyed Cat Mystery was originally written as a Hardy Boys novel, and then, for reasons unknown, was rewritten as a Nancy Drew novel. I am confused as to why anyone thought this would be a good idea. It wasn't. It didn't feel right, and hence, I didn't enjoy it. Yeah, I'm making too much fuss over a silly ND book, but everything should be in its right place, and Nancy just wasn't in this one.
November 30, 2015
Another fun Nancy Drew mystery. However, it beats me why Carson Drew would send his 'amateur sleuth' daughter off to solve a mystery involving dangerous men!
Along the way she gets kidnapped, held hostage multiple times, threatened and nearly starved. I'm thinking if this book was written in this day and age it would be a big no-no.
Also, the emerald-eyed cat really didn't have anything to do with the mystery as far as I could tell. Sure, a real and statue one was in the story and the real one 'saved' Nancy, but maybe a better title for this story would be would be 'Mystery of the Crumbling Hacienda' or 'The Secrets of the Overseer' or even 'The Tale of the Traumatized Aunty' or something. But what do I know? I'm a reader, not an author. ;)
Still, it was pretty good!
Along the way she gets kidnapped, held hostage multiple times, threatened and nearly starved. I'm thinking if this book was written in this day and age it would be a big no-no.
Also, the emerald-eyed cat really didn't have anything to do with the mystery as far as I could tell. Sure, a real and statue one was in the story and the real one 'saved' Nancy, but maybe a better title for this story would be would be 'Mystery of the Crumbling Hacienda' or 'The Secrets of the Overseer' or even 'The Tale of the Traumatized Aunty' or something. But what do I know? I'm a reader, not an author. ;)
Still, it was pretty good!
May 18, 2024
there is one thing that confused me was why this book was named the Emerald-Eyed Cat Mystery when the cat itself didn't actually play that big a part or have a huge meaning to the plot!!
the book was average to me but i liked the atmosphere of it and the characters too and i cant deny that i also enjoyed the adventure but i felt a little bored in many chapters, with some events being repeated.
#VERDICT: ( 6.8/10 )
the book was average to me but i liked the atmosphere of it and the characters too and i cant deny that i also enjoyed the adventure but i felt a little bored in many chapters, with some events being repeated.
#VERDICT: ( 6.8/10 )
July 18, 2022
The Emerald-Eyed Cat Mystery is a Nancy Drew mystery featuring sunken ships, mysterious mansions with hidden passages and creepy rooms, greedy villains and emerald-eyed cats. Nancy ends up tangled up in a mystery in Columbia and meets new friends with whom she ends up solving the case.
I read this book because I remembered having really enjoyed it as a child. I had no memory of the actual plot other than that Nancy was held captive in a dark room and that there were black cats with green eyes. Going back to this book was a lot of fun and gave me nostalgic feels. As a story it is nothing special - it's your average young-reader mystery with very black-and-white characters, constant danger and shenanigans, and young people who aren't particularly looked after by their parents - I mean, why would Mr Drew encourage his daughter, who is only 18, to go on all these missions when she always ends up in danger? But these are things that only bother you when you are an adult - as a kid, I didn't even consider this a weird thing.
Since this book is quite old, there are some unfortunately old-fashioned things, like some slightly racist depictions of ethnicities and all that which did made me sigh and roll my eyes a little bit. But having made my peace with that and accepted this book as a product of its time, I did have a good time reading it.
One thing that also confused me was why this book was named the Emerald-Eyed Cat Mystery when the cat iself didn't actually play that big a part or have a huge meaning to the plot? Strange.
I read this book because I remembered having really enjoyed it as a child. I had no memory of the actual plot other than that Nancy was held captive in a dark room and that there were black cats with green eyes. Going back to this book was a lot of fun and gave me nostalgic feels. As a story it is nothing special - it's your average young-reader mystery with very black-and-white characters, constant danger and shenanigans, and young people who aren't particularly looked after by their parents - I mean, why would Mr Drew encourage his daughter, who is only 18, to go on all these missions when she always ends up in danger? But these are things that only bother you when you are an adult - as a kid, I didn't even consider this a weird thing.
Since this book is quite old, there are some unfortunately old-fashioned things, like some slightly racist depictions of ethnicities and all that which did made me sigh and roll my eyes a little bit. But having made my peace with that and accepted this book as a product of its time, I did have a good time reading it.
One thing that also confused me was why this book was named the Emerald-Eyed Cat Mystery when the cat iself didn't actually play that big a part or have a huge meaning to the plot? Strange.
March 15, 2025
This should really be titled Nancy Drew and the Deus Ex Machina Cat Mystery or Nancy Drew and the Mystery of How Everyone Survived Multiple Head Wounds.
January 26, 2016
Every so often I like to read a Nancy Drew book that is not from the original classic 56 Nancy Drew Mystery Stories. I have to say that I did not enjoy this book very much. This mystery obviously was on the heels of the popular movie "Romancing the Stone" with liberties and ideas taken from that movie. For example: Nancy is kidnapped and taken to Cartagena, Colombia. Nancy is held prisoner in a fortress-like hacienda. There is some conspiracy going on and everyone involved, even the trusted ones, seem to be connected with the bad guys. The only element possibly missing from this mystery is the "stone". Oh, I guess the emerald-eyed cat statue is supposed to be "stone".
It was bad enough that there was some obvious borrowing of ideas from the movie. But the writing was just poor. There really was very little plot and just a lot of hiding and escaping from the kidnappers. Nancy got hit over the head several times. You'd think she would have a concussion or suffer some brain damage by how often she is knocked out.
There was little to no editing on this book. A good copy editor would have caught the mistakes such as "was quite" instead of "was quiet", "here" instead of "hear". Then there were paragraphs that were just duplicated. Awful!
The 3-star rating I am giving this book is really quite generous. The only reason for that is because I was very interested in learning about the cargo missing from the ships. That quickly fell flat and went nowhere. I do keep some of the Nancy Drew books after I've read them. This one I will donate to this year's annual Children's Hospital book donation program at work.
It was bad enough that there was some obvious borrowing of ideas from the movie. But the writing was just poor. There really was very little plot and just a lot of hiding and escaping from the kidnappers. Nancy got hit over the head several times. You'd think she would have a concussion or suffer some brain damage by how often she is knocked out.
There was little to no editing on this book. A good copy editor would have caught the mistakes such as "was quite" instead of "was quiet", "here" instead of "hear". Then there were paragraphs that were just duplicated. Awful!
The 3-star rating I am giving this book is really quite generous. The only reason for that is because I was very interested in learning about the cargo missing from the ships. That quickly fell flat and went nowhere. I do keep some of the Nancy Drew books after I've read them. This one I will donate to this year's annual Children's Hospital book donation program at work.
February 13, 2021
Nancy is investigating missing cargo from sunken freighter ships, when she's kidnapped and taken to Colombia. Whilst prisoner on a hacienda, she encounters Elena whose Aunt is being manipulated by the hacienda manager. Nancy suspects het kidnapping is linked to the goings on at the hacienda..... of course she's correct!
Most of this story is spent with Nancy trying to escape, occasionally aided by an Emerald-Eyed Cat, the likeness of which is cast in gold and jewels and is a family treasure. There's not much mystery solving - mostly adventures in secret passages with candles. Nancy handily always carries matches! Maro the cat was the hero of the story!
Most of this story is spent with Nancy trying to escape, occasionally aided by an Emerald-Eyed Cat, the likeness of which is cast in gold and jewels and is a family treasure. There's not much mystery solving - mostly adventures in secret passages with candles. Nancy handily always carries matches! Maro the cat was the hero of the story!
April 2, 2018
My timing couldn't have been better, reading this book to coincide with Mystery Week on GR. I was doing some spring cleaning last week and found many of my old Nancy Drew books and tonnes of other mysteries from when I was younger including some Murder, She Wrote books, some Father Brown and Inspector Morse (everyone should watch Endeavour that follows young Inspector Morse, it's magnificent). Nostalgia galore! This week has much more nostalgia in store but I'll get to that later. As for the book, the blurb says it all. Nancy on the trail of a deadly mystery is kidnapped to Colombia and finds herself in a hacienda that seems right out of a telenovela (more nostalgia as I loved, nay adored, telenovelas as a kid). She must solve the mysteries of the sunken ships, the missing cargo, the hidden treasure and the captive Señora, rip-roaring stuff. It was a thrill ride all round and a wonderful nostalgic read.
In other nostalgic news, I loved reading Ready Player One last year and it's Easter eggs, once again perfect timing, were a nostalgic overload that nearly made me keel over in glee. Well, I'm going to watch the film this week. I love Steven Spielberg and I know I'll experience pure cinematic magic. So yay!
In other nostalgic news, I loved reading Ready Player One last year and it's Easter eggs, once again perfect timing, were a nostalgic overload that nearly made me keel over in glee. Well, I'm going to watch the film this week. I love Steven Spielberg and I know I'll experience pure cinematic magic. So yay!
April 2, 2021
This is my second favorite of the Nancy Drew Wanderer books (second only to Captive Witness!). The mystery is engaging and suspenseful the whole way through. Nancy must work solo for a lot of the book, and the villains are dangerous and scary. She is stranded in Columbia, so she must avoid the police, which usually help her. Sure, people have brought up points about immigration and passports and everything, but this book was written for kids! And in the 80's, at that. Even if the author didn't check off every box, they did a good job. I do not understand adults who criticize children's books.
I enjoyed this book entirely. It is well-written, and the plot and scenery are interesting. It isn't everyone's style, but definitely mine.
I enjoyed this book entirely. It is well-written, and the plot and scenery are interesting. It isn't everyone's style, but definitely mine.
Read
July 11, 2022Nancy spends a great deal of time hiding out in a Colombian Hacienda, moving out through secret tunnels, stealing food and not initially sure if the people who rescued her the airplane she woke up in after being kidnapped. No Ned, Bess or George. Very action packed, almost thrilling! One review says this was originally written as a Hardy Boys book, which would explain the reference to Nancy trying to get back to Bayport - the hometown of the Hardy Boys!
July 16, 2023
I had to read this for nostalgia! Nancy Drew was a favorite when I was a young girl. So when I saw this in a book sale, I picked it up. True to form there were hidden passageways, helpful friends and animals along with a mystery that kept you reading. An easy quick read that brought me back to my early reading days, I loved it!
November 8, 2018
Nostalgia made me do it. It was a nice read but the story felt a little all over the place. Also found very glaring errors in the book. But it was nice to read a Nancy Drew after decades.
Read
December 9, 2019This is a placeholder on GR for a book I’m reading for book club. The book is written by an acquaintance and I don’t want that particular book showing up in my GR list for her to figure out who I am in GR.
August 14, 2019
It's been so long since I read any Nancy Drew books, and I'm not sure if I have just forgotten how they were, or if this seemed a bit... off. It didn't remind me of any of the books I read as a kid.
Since this is a children's mystery book, it is very predictable. It seemed all over the place and very unbelievable at points, but I did still find it fun to get back to this world. I hope that the next Nancy Drew books I read are a bit better than this one.
Since this is a children's mystery book, it is very predictable. It seemed all over the place and very unbelievable at points, but I did still find it fun to get back to this world. I hope that the next Nancy Drew books I read are a bit better than this one.
January 25, 2010
A Colombian hacienda mystery for Nancy Drew
February 10, 2012
"Predictable" was my one-word description in grade 7.
March 21, 2013
Don't remember much but I like Nancy and the mysteries.
April 26, 2017
My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews