David Allen Hines's Reviews > The Haunted Bridge

I've been reading a bunch of Nancy Drew books, and this is the first one I've had mixed feelings about. Even the title doesn't really comport with the adventure. There is no "haunted" bridge-- early in the book the "ghost" is revealed to be nothing more than an old scarecrow and that detail has little import in the rest of the book. After crossing the dilapidated "haunted" bridge Nancy finds an old brass box full of jewels and that ties her into a jewel thievery case of her father's. Meanwhile Nancy is golfing in a tournament and is persistently annoyed by an obnoxious braggard. She also comes into contact with a young woman whose nearby home burned down and it turns out is tied into the stash of jewels and thievery ring. The actual jewel mystery is a good one, but I found the several chapters of golfing that have nothing to do with the story to be a worthless and annoying distraction. Parts of the story have not aged well also. Nancy loses a golf ball signed by an evidently once well known golfer who is unknown to me, and there are several references to the old-time "Social Register" that would puzzle any young readers today. This book is also a modernized version of a much older and longer story and in some places it seems like the editing and modernization missed some things. I actually am intrigued enough that I want to find a copy of the original book of The Haunted Bridge which I suspect will be a much better story than this edition. All in all two words describe this book-- unfocused and uneven-- and its the first Nancy book I have read that I wasn't completely satisfied with.