The Crooked Banister

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #48

by Carolyn Keene

Nancy, Bess and George explore a peculiar house with its fantastically crooked staircase. A bizarre serpent picture, an unpredictable robot, a broken bridge over flaming water and a hidden room with poisoned portraits are among the unusual discoveries found on this strange property. The missing owner, an elusive swindler, is wanted by the police. Nancy is determined to solve the mystery of the weird house and discover its secrets. This book is the original text. A revised text does not exist.

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens, Middle Grade, Classics, Juvenile

179 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

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 In a few cases, outdated plots were completely rewritten.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 Yelverton · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the oddest Nancy Drew books that you will ever read, but it still maintains its standard of excellence.

[Moonkiszt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nancy's #48 adventure combines a number of random highlights: weird architecture, the latest in robot technology (running off of cassette tapes), a castle with a moat that can be lit up on a moment's notice, a catalog of poisons parked in places where they can do the most damage - almost!, creative ways to hide cash (on paintings under poison paint), a bad guy with good family members, the Navaho nation, some biddable horses on the reservation, Ned & the boys, and a resounding resolution.

Liked it. . . .am on to #49!

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy read, very nostalgic, a smidge predictable with one of the characters, but honestly, it’s written for people muchhh younger than me, so I’ll cut my favorite childhood author and series some slack :))

[Melody · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mrs. Melody and her husband have recently been swindled by Rawley Bannister. He sold them some land which they later found out belonged to a Navajo reservation. They've hired Carson Drew to help get their money back so Nancy, Mr. Drew, and Mrs. Melody travel to Mountianville, Rawley Banisters hometown, to try to track him down. There Nancy, along with Bess, George, Ned, Burt, and Dave, explore Rawley's sinisterly strange (and dangerous) house.

- I was surprised how tame the illustration of Rawley Banisters house is. It's described as having slanted walls and grotesque geometric shaped bushes. It's almost as tho the illustrator didn't want to draw an ugly house. Although the picture does show slanted chimneys, a windowed turret, and protruding add-on's to the house, I still found it rather tame and not at all how I pictured it.

- After the motel fire Nancy discovers a long match outside her motel room. Instead of calling the fire inspectors, who are currently in the motel room investigating, to come see it she quietly takes it to use as evidence later. I hate when the stories have Nancy working against the authorities, almost as tho she sees them as competition.

- At one point Nancy gets a call from someone claiming to be Thomas Banister telling her to drop the case. Nancy quickly learns the caller was actually Rawley. Nancy is very unshook by the fact she just unknowingly spoke to the mysterious man she's searching for. Meanwhile I was tripping out about it!

- After doing some sleuthing at Rawley's house the group is just about to leave when a man comes walking up. It's Thomas Banister whom Mrs. Carrier is surprised to see because he has previously said he'd never step foot in Rawley's house. To this Nancy replies with "Everyone is allowed to change their mind, don't you think?". That seemed quite a bit snarky to me. In fact if George had been the one to say it I would think it was intended to be snarky!

You can read the rest of this review at VintageGirlsBooks.blogspot.com

[Katja Labonté · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars & 5/10 hearts. This was a VERY unique mystery. The Crooked Banister was crazy, and so was his mansion! What a sick person. The mystery really kept me intrigued and on my toes. I thought the ending was really good, for a Nancy Drew book! And I wish there was more about Singing Brook and the others....

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

Exciting and fun, as usual.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. You had me at dangerous robot, back of book!

[thewestchestarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Potentially the worst of the series. Featuring a robot and portraits plastered with poison, #48 drifts incongruously into sci-fi and away from the classic Drew formula of wholesome plausible eeriness. What's with a house surrounded by a burning moat? Was Thomas Banister also the medieval king of River Heights? Any how do you cross it on branches and palm fronds? Can't imagine that would work well for portly Bess. And what's with calling an electrician to re-head the decapitated robot? Do electricians get a lot of that kind of work? And why does the head come off so easily? And if you have a tape that tells the robot to go around knocking people out, does it know not to attack you? Or do you just turn it on and hope to outrun whomever your intended victim is? And why does Nancy buy the story of the final whereabouts of Thomas Banister which seem transparently fishy when she was so skeptical of Mead and his charity for the Native American children when that turned out to be a well-executed scam? And why did Banister leave all the money in the house if he was going on the lamb? And does anyone else feel like the cosmopolitan Carson Drew would be awkward and out-of-place on a horse in the Western U.S. desert? And how do we know that there weren't really only 2 Banister siblings and the other brother and Thomas are really just the same person with the sister in on the scam. Frankly, a jaded reading of the book suggests Bess wasn't the only one who got taken in this one.

In short, skip to #49.

[Darinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nancy solves another one!

[LobsterQuadrille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly an odd mystery for Nancy Drew, but memorable and sometimes quite eerie.

[V. Arrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yet again, Harriet Stratemeyer, I have to say: while I don't know how science works, I do know this is NOT how science works.

[Adele · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could give this negative stars, I would. There was a clear division between the good, attractive people and the bad, unattractive people. This simplistic attitude and writing was a feature of this entire novel which was additionally jam packed with far, far too many ideas and subplots. Kudos to Nancy for being calm and capable when faced with problems but the remaining characters were reduced to mere caricatures. The robot was unnecessary and underused and the ending was wrapped up too quickly and neatly.

Speaking of robots, apparently we now have to complete a captcha to prove we're not robots before posting our reviews. Are we really going to be replaced by robots and AI? This makes me sad.

[Jessica Petrovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars 💫💫💫

WHAT DID I JUST READ 😭😭🤣🤣🤣 This was BY FAR the kookiest mystery of the entire series. My flabbers are fully gasted.

To name just a few favorite moments: the creepy portraits covered in poison, Nancy and her dad single-handedly stopping a mob rush on land, and everything with the robot.

This is one story that absolutely needs a TV adaptation. The wacky designed house alone is begging for a visual depiction.

Honestly, this was kind of a five star read lol. The weird factor, along with some far too loosely connected plots, took it down a few stars. 🤖

[Ruby Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whoooooooooo! Go Nancy Drew! One of my favorites so far! I love how the cover and the guy in the story, *looks back and forth from the man to the actual stair and back to the book*. I just loved this one. Nothing else apart of it!!!

RECOMMENDED FOR EVERYONE, from 5 years old to 120 or however old the oldest person is. ANYONE can read this one and enjoy it.

[Linnea]

Tiesittekö, että kääntyvän kirjahyllyn pystyy tunnistamaan vain sen luokse kävelemällä? Ja että porraskaiteesta sahatusta palasta voi päätellä vuoden tarkkuudella, milloin se on sahattu irti?

Nämä eivät ole edes parhaita kohtia Neiti Etsivä ja robotissa. Upean sekava mysteeri, joka ei itse asiassa varsinaisesti edes selvinnyt tässä kirjassa.

[Krysta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has to be one of the weirdest Nancy Drew mysteries. Poisoned paintings? A burning moat? A deadly robot? If only Nancy would go back to investigating haunted attics.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was certainly more unique and interested than the other ones I have read.

[Katherine Macy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now I remember why I always preferred the video games to the books. Not terrible, and I can see how these novels were ahead of their time, but man, they're pretty dated.

[Brandon Rozo · Rating 3 out of 5]

he blew up :/

[Whitney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one's a real doozy. Most of the mystery is about a large house owned by an eccentric scammer. Nancy begins investigating the man, Mr. Bannister, because he has taken people's money for supposedly good causes, but instead he has kept the money and has hidden it somewhere inside his huge, modern, dangerous mansion-style house.

His house has a moat surrounding it, and sometimes the liquid goes up into flames! And also sometimes the bridge folds itself up and passersby beware! This can be seen below of the picture of Nancy and Ned nearly falling to their doom. (Thus far in my Nancy reading, this is their most intimate moment I have ever seen depicted. *cue the sultry saxophone music*)



Once Nancy and her pals gain entrance to the home, they spend a lot of time fumbling around with a robot, who operates via "tapes" that can be inserted inside it. More than half of the tapes trigger the robot to attempt to kill people. The remaining tapes provide clues to where the treasure is hidden inside the house. I'm trying to understand why this "crooked" man named Banister would install such an item in his home. If he comes through the door, himself, the robot will either kill him or give him useless information that he already knows.

But nevermind. This is a Nancy book. And we readers learn at the end of the book that Mr. Bannister is already dead anyway. He died far away, in circumstances totally unrelated to his robot.

For the majority of this book, I would give the full star count. But I can't figure out why a side plot takes place—Nancy and her father visit an "Indian" reservation, and search out a boy named "Tom Sleepy Deer Smith." Supposedly the kid has received some money via mail, to support his school and future, but no, he has received no money and wasn't even aware that a fund had been started for him. It was another SCHEME devised by the DEAD Mr. Bannister.

But of course, Nancy solves all the mysteries and finds the hoard of money. Oh lawdy, and does she ever find the money. The paper money is hidden in PAINTINGS, beneath POISONED paint!!! Nancy and her friends risk death to get the stuff cleaned off!

So many ridiculous near-death challenges. It's a solid wild ride in Nancy's world

[LuAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always find this an enjoyable book to read, whether I am 15, 35 or...uh, er...whatever! The strange house, strange notes, strange robot, strange antagonist are fun. Nancy, her chums, their special friends, her father, their clients--the gang's all here!--sleuthing at the crooked house is satisfying. Carson and Nancy's quick flight to Arizona, horse ride across the desert and Nancy's feat of bravery there...well, you have to have a little travel thrown in these later books, and when you are as wealthy as the Drews and billing your clients, why not?! The cover is one of the oddest thing about the book!

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A conman, an ugly house, a sinister robot named Robby and a moat the catches on fire! Who could resist?!
Mr. Drew even joins in the fun and someone is poisoned!
I liked this one. Nancy even flies to Arizona to an Indian reservation. Of course, it ties into the mystery and Carson Drew is very charming. Ha ha.
Spoilers:
The only thing I didn’t like was the offscreen death of Rawley. Dude leaves his house full of mine, but somehow grabs enough cash to buy a speedboat and then ur explodes?!
I call foul. I think he faked his death. It seemed a bit out of character

[Rachel Coyne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one felt more gutted than the others. Did the original 1920's version contain a robot? Interesting villain, but never fleshed out.

[Esra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars for an abrupt, lackluster ending in which the antagonist was not captured.

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Completely racist and dehumanizing depictions of Native Americans. In 2021, skip this one for any young readers you might be buying for.

[David Allen Hines · Rating 2 out of 5]

I grew up collecting and reading the Hardy Boys and late in life decided to revisit and complete my collection. Then, finding the books now less common and the paperbacks all out of print, I delved into assembling a complete collection of Nancy Drew also and have enjoyed reading them. Now both the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew vary widely in quality: they were written by different people across many decades of societal change. But I have to say after reading this book which looked so promising, surely ranks among the absolute worst tales of either Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys!

I thought the cover and title looked interesting; this is one of the later hardcovers, written and published in the early 1970s. A crooked banister, an eerie looking robot? And the book does start out strong, it is about a swindle put forth by a man who has vanished who lived in a bizarre unique house. But then it goes down down down! First is the idiotic robot that talks, moves, falls over, and points, all based on some kind of magnetic "tapes" that is ludicrous technology even for the early 1970s! "Judy" from the "Jetsons" was more realistic! It doesn't help when Nancy and her friends give the robot a nickname! But it gets worse. There is an episode in an Indian village that even for the era of the 1960s and 1970s is an offensive parody of how native Americans live, act, and talk, I know I was a child in the 70s and no one still thought "Indians" acted like that even then it would have been offensive! Even dumber, at one point Nancy and her friends find old time 1000 dollar bills hidden behind black paint on portraits. Somehow these are guarded by poison nails! It is never explained how exactly poisoned nails are attached to the flat surface of a painting in a way that would hide the money or not be so obvious to be easily avoidable! Even worse, in the end the criminal is never confronted unlike in any other Hardy or Nancy tale; his boat simply explodes for no reason!

I have read over 200 Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books and while of course they are stories for young children and many are surreal or obsolete, given this book is only about 50 years old and is one of the more recent hardcovers, it's just simply awful! It's hard to get angry at a series I've come to love, but really, this one is worth reading perhaps simply because it is such a bad story!

[Suzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mr. Drew is representing a client that was unwittingly sold land on Native American land. Mr. Rawley Banister, the swindler, has skipped town while out on bail due to another crime. It is up to Nancy and her friends to find him.

This was a weird story. First of all, the word “weird” is used so many times. I get it. It was the 70’s. Let’s move on. Now, Nancy is supposed to find Mr. Banister, who so charmingly calls himself “The Crooked Banister”. Yet, she is focused more on investigating his house. Maybe I missed something?

To be fair, Mr. Banister’s house seems to be as eccentric as the man himself. There is a robot that is programmed to do various things and sometimes he makes trouble for Nancy, Bess, and George. The decorations are strange, a moat surrounding the home catches fire, and one of the banisters is crooked. Is that a clue or just a nod to the man’s nickname?

The boys, Ned, Burt, and Dave, pop in for a bit to help the girls. Nothing extremely dangerous happens though that requires the boy’s to do some rescuing. In this story, they’re merely helpful hands. It was nice.

I will say, the conclusion did leave me scratching my head. It just wound up so quickly. At one point, Nancy realizes that Mr. Rawley was working with an accomplice in his schemes. And it is this accomplice that has been making trouble. They catch him fairly easily in the end. And Mr. Rawley’s whereabouts? Oh yeah, turns out he died elsewhere while using an assumed name! That tidbit of information was told in passing btw. Seems like a cop-out. An easy way to tie up all loose ends. 

Anyway, I did enjoy this mystery. Sort of. It was really strange. Super farfetched even for a Nancy Drew story. The 70’s vibes are pretty apparent in the language though haha. And the introduction of a mechanical robot was… interesting. Even if the way it functioned was confusing to me. That stuff just went over my head.

[Sahifa · Rating 1 out of 5]

scanning the many volumes in the twelve-foot-wide bookcase, she commented, “Rawley must have been a great reader.” “He was,” his sister agreed. “But he leaned toward bizarre subjects.”

Yes and I agree to that ! Maybe this book too was written in order to fullfill Rowley's Bizarre interests.
The book-cover did give away a sort of warning to me but I thought the title to be promising and hence started reading the book. I was at a folly! This is definitely one of the failures of Nancy Drew Franchise.
This is 48th edition in Nancy Drew series and my 44th and as I had previously mentioned the later editions tend to lack the charm of original Nancy Drew mysteries. However I didnt expect it to be this bad.
After reading this book what I observed was that the authors of the Nancy Drew were stuck with a challenge to continue the Nancy Drew series with the same charm of the originals but to also think and add new plots in order to avoid repetitions and monotony. There confusion is plainly depicted in this book.
The book is written in 1971 and I am reading it in 2018 so I must be bit lenient in scrutanizing the robotic stuff added to the book. Nevertheless, I am not just disapppointed but also appalled by the writers. There was no need at all to turn a cozy mystery into a science fiction just for the sake of making it look a bit innovative. I really have no idea that weather the readers of 1970's bought this crazy scientific stuff or not. In 2018, the entire idea of the robot running with a tape is really preposterous.
This book really failed to stand the test of time.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was written in the 70s and isn't a rewrite. There's this guy they're looking for who is a con man and they go to this house he built that was made at all sorts of random and weird angles and has a randomly zigzagging staircase and banister.
Oh yeah, there's also a robot there. And everyone is like "Oh a robot. Neat." At one point they call a local electrician to come and fix it. It runs on tapes. This is the sort of nonsense I want more of.
The house is full of traps. At one point they find pictures of the guy's family members with their faces blacked out and under the paint is 1000 bills, but also tiny poison needles and by the way, the paint is also poison.
It's comical how much of Nancy's early "detective work" is stumbling into things by accident and then being told how brilliant of a detective she is.
The weakest parts of the book mostly involve a side plot about a con man taking fake donations for an "Indian Reservation" which is full of stereotypes. It adds nothing to the main story and is haphazardly tied to it. But Nancy Drew stories love having multiple cases that end up being related, no matter how awkward it may be.
The ending is also weak. It ends abruptly and fairly unsatisfactorily, but that also seems common with these old Nancy Drews.

[Ashley K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was quite a ride. For example, here's what goes down JUST in chapter 1 (of 20): On page one, we learn that a villain named Rawley Banister (LOL) has swindled a Mr. and Mrs. Melody. He lives in a fantastic, castle-like house with a moat that allegedly catches on fire (side note, this was pre-EPA). Banister, also known as George Ryder, sold the Melodys some land that turned out to be on an Indian reservation. Carson, Nancy, and Mrs. Melody go to the Banister home, which is described as “kooky”, but Banister doesn’t answer the door, so they have to leave. They check into a motel and learn that Banister has jumped bail, but they meet with his sister, a Mrs. Carrier. She knows nothing about her brother’s whereabouts, and meanwhile, someone sets fire to their motel rooms, destroying the deed and other paperwork they need to prove their case against Banister.
Yup, that was just one chapter-- we don't meet the sinister robot until chapter 2!
This one doesn't pass the woke test by any stretch. Actual quote, from Chapter 17, which is perhaps forebodingly called Indian Powwow: “Sleepy Deer spoke up. “Maybe we have a rain dance soon, so that Rain God send rain to make the corn grow.” All the yikes.
All in all, this book was so bizarre it read like a fever dream.