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Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #65
Mystery of the Winged Lion
While on vacation in Venice, Nancy and her entourage help clear her friends of smuggling charges and come to the aid of a local duchess whose nephew has been kidnapped.
206 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
About the author
Carolyn Keene
1,068 books3,941 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 In a few cases, outdated plots were completely rewritten.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
June 29, 2016
Classic Nancy Drew is at it again! I love when her friends are along for the ride. The setting is phenomenal and the mystery is intriguing, as per usual, but this time Nancy has to get the boys out of trouble too! Call me what you will, but I enjoy turning things upside down a little bit every now and then. Ned, Burt, and Dave have been arrested in Italy and it's up to Nancy, Bess, and George to get them out.
August 6, 2021
Neiti Etsivä ja ystävät Italiassa. Oli jotain kidnappauksia ja kanaaleissa uiskentelua ja sen sellaista.
September 1, 2020
This was a different mystery than we usually get from Nancy Drew for two reasons. The first is that a good chunk of the story is told from Ned, Burt, and Dave's perspective. I don't think we've seen so much of them before and I enjoyed the change up. The other may just be a personal observation, but it felt like Nancy did very little of her usual mystery solving. So much of the story was taken up first by Nancy trying to get the boys out of jail and then the boys trying to find the kidnapped girls, that it felt like the rest of the mystery pretty easily unraveled in the last pages. As I was nearing the I was surprised to feel like the story was not yet over, but it all wraps up. It's not necessarily a negative, but it certainly felt different to me.
August 8, 2019
It’s summer so time for me to read all the Nancy Drew books I can get my hands on! This particular book made me think back to going to Venice 10 years ago, where a can of Coca-cola cost $7 and we ate dinner at an Asian restaurant, for some odd reason. But on my trips there where no mysteries and count on Nancy to find one!
March 8, 2026
It’s always cool when Nancy goes to a cool location to solve a mystery and it was also unique for there to be a little continuity with the previous one. That said, the mystery was a little dry. There wasn’t much action and this book didn’t feel as campy as Nancy Drew books normally do. I don’t mind a little more realism but this was just a little boring. Location made it 3 stars though.
August 16, 2019
While many of the later ND books are shallow and don't thrill me, this one actually has a good plot and mystery, and I really enjoyed the read!
April 30, 2022
it was Hexcellent love reading all her books and more 🧡💕💞🦉
Read
July 29, 2022My favorite cozy mystery series
Read
February 3, 2023I found it very intresting and I advise you to read it as it is a very thrilling book.
February 11, 2019
Read with my daughter over several weeks.
July 31, 2023
For this and all my other book reviews, visit www.bargain-sleuth.com
Mystery of the Winged Lion is one of the few of the 175 Nancy Drew Mysteries that does not have a Kindle version, so I had to go to my collection to read the book. I like to choose the Wanderer Books versions because the volumes from this period had great interior artwork. I never read this book as a child and only read it in 2015 when I first tried getting through the series. I liked, but didn’t love the story.
Nancy, Bess and George are in Venice on vacation, despite the fact that they know no Italian and have to rely on someone to translate everything. This is one of those books that relies upon another language, but at least it’s translated, unlike some books I’ve read where one is left to guess what the foreign language translates to.
The young women were supposed to be surprised by Ned, Burt and Dave; however, the boys were detained at the airport after a search of Ned’s luggage revealed a glass statue that had been reported stolen. The girls find out about the boys’ incarceration and try to get them out. The police are very unforgiving in this book, and they don’t have any belief that Nancy is a detective, even an amateur one. They diss and dismiss the girls, but have no fear, the boys are due to be released later the next day.
Meanwhile, Nancy meets a duchess whose nephew was kidnapped and asks for her help because she doesn’t want to involve the police for negative publicity. First Nancy and George, then Bess, are kidnapped and held captive for a while until they are moved to another place, which turns out to be a church.
The boys get out of jail and the next third of the book is the boys running around oblivious to the fact that the girls are in trouble. When they finally catch on to the fact that the girls just didn’t blow them off, quite a bit of the story has gone by. I felt like I was reading a Hardy Boys story +1 because of how heavily the guys were featured. This was a weird book because of it, with Nancy, Bess, and George tied up for a big portion of the story.
I won’t say this is a horrible book because I do enjoy the travelogue adventures and you get a feel of what Venice is like with the gondolas and waterways. This is a good, albeit unusual book, but not great. However, I love the internal illustrations of these Wanderer books, and this is from the era when I read the books. On to #66!
Mystery of the Winged Lion is one of the few of the 175 Nancy Drew Mysteries that does not have a Kindle version, so I had to go to my collection to read the book. I like to choose the Wanderer Books versions because the volumes from this period had great interior artwork. I never read this book as a child and only read it in 2015 when I first tried getting through the series. I liked, but didn’t love the story.
Nancy, Bess and George are in Venice on vacation, despite the fact that they know no Italian and have to rely on someone to translate everything. This is one of those books that relies upon another language, but at least it’s translated, unlike some books I’ve read where one is left to guess what the foreign language translates to.
The young women were supposed to be surprised by Ned, Burt and Dave; however, the boys were detained at the airport after a search of Ned’s luggage revealed a glass statue that had been reported stolen. The girls find out about the boys’ incarceration and try to get them out. The police are very unforgiving in this book, and they don’t have any belief that Nancy is a detective, even an amateur one. They diss and dismiss the girls, but have no fear, the boys are due to be released later the next day.
Meanwhile, Nancy meets a duchess whose nephew was kidnapped and asks for her help because she doesn’t want to involve the police for negative publicity. First Nancy and George, then Bess, are kidnapped and held captive for a while until they are moved to another place, which turns out to be a church.
The boys get out of jail and the next third of the book is the boys running around oblivious to the fact that the girls are in trouble. When they finally catch on to the fact that the girls just didn’t blow them off, quite a bit of the story has gone by. I felt like I was reading a Hardy Boys story +1 because of how heavily the guys were featured. This was a weird book because of it, with Nancy, Bess, and George tied up for a big portion of the story.
I won’t say this is a horrible book because I do enjoy the travelogue adventures and you get a feel of what Venice is like with the gondolas and waterways. This is a good, albeit unusual book, but not great. However, I love the internal illustrations of these Wanderer books, and this is from the era when I read the books. On to #66!
September 9, 2020
Nancy and co go to Venice and encounter a mystery -a kidnapped glass designer leaves only a note with a winged lions as a clue. Nancy and the girls are kidnapped. The boys have adventures searching for them and Carson even makes an appearance at the end. The whole gang is there. The mystery itself is a little lacking but the setting of Venice is nice.
June 19, 2009
Nancy vacations in Venice and gets trapped in a mystery
October 12, 2010
That was a nice one! My copy had 6 pages missing from chapter 4, yet I managed to get along with the story.
September 18, 2013
Loved this one!
May 10, 2015
Definitely a bad choice for my first Nancy Drew book. I should read the earlier ones where she was more active. Still, I love things set in Venice.
January 8, 2015
such a great book.
April 25, 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