Review of Nancy Drew #62 "The Kachina Doll Mystery"

When I was young, I adored the Nancy Drew mysteries. I even started reading Nancy Drew Files as a teenager, but the poor writing and my ability guess who the villain was about two pages in is what got me to start reading Agatha Christie.

When lockdown started, I wanted comfort, and I just happened to have bought The Secret of the Old Clock at a thrift store. I was curious how they would stand up to memory.

I forgot how cool Nancy was! Bess is my second favorite. Although Ned is creepier and annoying now that I'm older. I was able to find the rest via my library's e-books. It's been a lot of fun, although the higher the number, the lower the quality, I think.

Anyway, I'm all the way up to #62 (although I couldn't get The Swami Ring). It's been interesting reading these books from 50+ years ago with 2020 eyes.

I wrote a review for GoodReads about the latest book and I'm quite pleased with it. So here it is!

Spoilers! 

More like "The mystery Nancy only solves because she followed a kachina ghost around.” Seriously. Nancy was only able to solve the doll mystery because the kachina ghost kept showing her clues! She did little actual detective work.
I looked up "kachina" and it is defined as "one of the deified ancestral spirits believed among the Hopi and other Pueblo Indians to visit the pueblos at intervals" (thanks Merriam Webster!). 

So this kachina appears to Nancy and points to one spot on a mural. It's a pencil. Waaaaaait, kachinas didn't use pencils. Low and behold... there’s a box behind it! Later, the kachina spirit literally leads her to the painting of where the treasure is buried. Nancy did diddly squat.

Which brings up another issue. Wouldn’t the kachina actually go to the Native Americans living in the dang house?! Like Maria, the housekeeper who has been living there for a long time?

Nope gonna go with the white girl who’s been here a day.

I also want to point out that Old Jake’s idea to paint the clues leading to the treasure would have been for naught if the bad guys had burned down the house as he wrote that he feared they would. You need a backup plan, Jake. A nonflammable one.
The other mystery Nancy actually solved with little Nguyen was totes adorable and I liked it. Especially because Nguyen has to save her white butt at the end. More Nguyen and his pinto Cochise, please. Maybe the kachina should have been talking to him.