The Black Widow

Nancy Drew Files #28

by Carolyn Keene

While cruising to Rio de Janeiro on board the "Emerald Queen", Nancy becomes involved in a mystery concerning Mrs. Nina da Silva, whose late husband had been involved in an enormous emerald robbery.

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

150 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

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 In a few cases, outdated plots were completely rewritten.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

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first experience of a Nancy Drew novel, this is #28 in the spinoff Nancy Drew: Files series featuring a rather older Nancy (she's 18 here). The Black Widow was published in 1988, long after the original Carolyn Keene, Mildred Wirt Benson, had ceased contributing to the saga.

And, to be honest, I found the book rather fun. This is the kind of novel that's ideal to have with you if you get stuck in an airport or on a long bus journey . . . although you might have to invest in two or three from the series if that bus journey is of any significant duration, because the book's pretty short.

Nancy and her dad Carson go on a cruise that will take them to Rio in Carnival season, where they'll be met by Nancy's regular fella, Ned. Almost as soon as they board the cruise liner it becomes clear there's something awry. Fellow-passenger Nina da Silva, a widow but not the widow of the title, gets an anonymous gift of a box of chocs containing also (the box, not the chocs) a writhing mass of black widow spiders. (I can't remember if the Monty Python team included this flavor in their selection.) Nancy herself finds a spider-related puzzle pushed under her cabin door, then later a bouquet of flowers with a note suggesting these are for her funeral. Of course, Dad for the longest time is convinced there's a perfectly natural explanation for all this, especially since his real interest seems to veer toward romancing the lovely widow.

Meanwhile Nancy has romance-related hassles of her own, being caught up in rebuffing the attentions of a handsome young ship's officer who makes plain that his hopes go beyond the merely platonic. The name of this smooth-talking stinker is, I kid you not, Randy Wolfe.

Most of the chapters end in cliffhangers and appropriate exclamation marks, as Nancy is threatened in darkened rooms, gets trapped snooping in places she oughter not to be, has a knife put to her throat, discovers a motorcyclist riding at full-tilt down the street toward her -- all that sort of stuff. There's a bit of breathless hysteria about some of the writing -- we're not talking Anita Shreve here -- but that's not in any way out of place: very in place, in fact. The focus is less on mystery and detection -- the spider cypher is solved rather easily in the end, and in a sort of offhand manner -- and more on thrills and spills, with a cablecar finale that has its genuinely exciting moments.

So: More fun than I'd expected. In the unlikely but not inconceivable event that I decide to read further Nancy Drew tales, I see I have plenty to choose from, with 175 novels in the original Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series and 124 in this spinoff series. There's also a whole bundle of other, non-Nancy Drew novels by Mildred Wirt Benson on Project Gutenberg. And I have a biography of Mildred Wirt Benson somewhere on the shelves that I've been planning to read for years . . .

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/4

A case involving golf ball dad - Carson Drew! Ned was also a bit more tolerable than normal. Until the very end where he let his insecurities come to the forefront.

[Prerna · Rating 5 out of 5]

MY first nany drew book!!it was awsome!

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series delivers once again!

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Double Crossing is probably the better of the ND cruise ship mysteries but I enjoyed this one a lot. Set during Carnival in Rio.

-a spider filled box of chocolates
-a black widow in more ways than one
-so much emerald
-a really unbelievable cable car scene
-daddy/daughter mystery though Ned makes an appearance too
-Nancy gets electrocuted
-Published in 1989

[K.L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always think this will be better than it is!
On a cruise Nancy and Carson meet a *woman with a past* called Nina and Carson seems to be falling for her, basically ditching his daughter in the process. After Nancy discovers Black Widows (again writers, NOT deadly) and a strange map in Ninas cabin she decides to investigate. Carson uncharacteristically doesn't stick up for Nancy and tells to to back off and not be melodramatic... way to go dad!!!! Understandably hurt, Nancy investigates anyway!!
Really wish that Nina had actually been a Black Widow trying to bump Carson off for his money, but *sigh*

[Lulu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love this series, I've read a million of them.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for nostalgia reasons! I loved these books as a young teen. Having re read it now, I can remember why... but as a grown up I definitely didn’t find it nearly as exciting! Love returning to books from my children hood though!

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. This one was okay. I wasn’t too crazy about the mystery itself but I loved the setting. That was really fun and different. Other than that this wasn’t anything memorable but it wasn’t awful either.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m still loving this series!

[Brig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this Nancy Drew book. My kid didn’t like it as much. 3 Stars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

My recap/review (includes spoilers/cursing):

https://anchor.fm/nancy-drew-nickerso...

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is ridiculous. Nancy’s getting electrocuted. Ned’s on top of cable cars. And there was way to much talk about spiders {shudder}

[abbi · Rating 4 out of 5]

read with a wholesome, childlike gravitation and innocence

[Belle Adler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book, but there was one thing that really irked me. It mentions that Nancy 'is fluent in Spanish and French'.
Um....No.
There is no freaking way that this is possible - not even for the Great Nancy Drew. Fluency of a language takes years. The only way you could be fluent in THREE languages by the time you are EIGHTEEN is if you are somehow raised with those languages, exposed and immersed in them.
Which Nancy was NOT.
I know they put this in there to emphasize her genius, but I just feel like it's unfair and unrealistic. I love languages and at seventeen I have been studying them for years, yet I'm not close to being fluent in even just ONE besides my own, much less two.
Sorry, Nancy. Not buyin' it.

[Bookish Indulgenges with b00k r3vi3ws · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Brini Schaefer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carolyn Keene was actually the first author to get me into reading avidly. I found a few of her books in my elementary library and I was hooked. Now I own every one of her original books and half of Nancy Drew's files. I have to say back when I was little this book was amazing and I loved Nancy and her spirit and how she always got her man, and I can say without a doubt that to this day Nancy still makes me feel the way I did when I was little. :D

[Karisti Severt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an interesting Nancy Drew as it is the only book I have read so far that Nancy is at odds with her father. Carson's head is turned by a woman aboard their cruise but she's the victim of a mystery that Nancy is trying to solve. Carson and Nancy are against each other about her involvement in a case the victim doesn't want her to interfere in.

The stakes are high in this one risking Nancy's life several times.

[Nattie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nancy's skull must be awful thick, it took her so long to figure out the one thing that was obvious after not too long of a stretch, yet she was able to figure out some headache-inducing code like she had the mind of a genius. Go figure.

[V. Arrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh man. The title of this one promises a banger and it does not disappoint. A+ to the ghostwriter for this one. Black widow spiders in a chocolate box. A secret code. Stolen emeralds. Carnival in Rio. This book has everything.

[Megan]

Files #28

[Linda Fang · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Nancy Drew book. Absolutely loved it and really clever. Had me hooked to the series but stopped when I got confused with the different series of Nancy Drew and different authors.