The Hidden Staircase - Zachary Frey

[Zachary]

As a person who enjoys to read a mystery novel here and there, The Hidden Staircase is a great little mystery story for all ages. Written by Carolyn Keene, the main character is Nancy Drew, a young detective who likes to solve mysteries. After her dad, a lawyer, goes to find a man to prove that said man's signature is that on a contract for a train company, Nancy gets a phone call, saying that the Twin Elm's Manor is haunted, and there have been tings missing from the place. Nancy takes the case, and her friend Helen accompany's her. Helen is slightly older than Nancy, but the two have become great friends. After arriving at the manor,Nancy and Helen are introduced to Aunt Rosemary and Miss Flora, the owners of the estate. They claim that things are being stolen, and the shadows are moving. Nancy and Helen go to inspect the house, and find no hidden entrance at all. However, the "ghost" gives quite a few scares, such as putting a owl inside the house, and using a gorilla mask to scare Helen. His final act of horror was collapsing the roof on Nancy and Helen. After doing some more sleuthing, Nancy finds out that her father has gone missing, and she suspects that the ghost has something to do with it. The novel ends with Nancy catching the man that her dad was looking for, who turned out to be the ghost, to try and get Miss Flora and Aunt Rosemary to leave. Nancy and Helen find her dad in a secret part in the secret staircase. I think that the theme of this book is to never give up, even if the clues aren't right in front of you.

Overall, i enjoyed this book. I give it a four stars out of five. It's a great read, and everyone can enjoy it, young and old. However, some of the vocabulary I didn't understand, and I think since they were targeting younger readers, they should make the vocab a little simpler. And I didn't really learn much from the book, as i intended for it to be a nice, calm read. And I remember as a kid this series of books, and I never got to read this particular one. But I'm glad that I did now. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I believe that others, may you be 5 or 50, should take some time off, and enjoy a good Nancy Drew mystery.