Nancy Freakin' Drew

Hobby investigator, girl detective, and heroine of my most treasured series as a child. Nancy’s flanked by friends who firmly know their place as side characters, her winsome beta boyfriend Ned, and a hell of a baby-blue Mustang convertible. She zips around town solving crimes with a pocketbook and survives a lot of blows to the skull in the process. Aspiration at its finest! Drewheads, assemble!

A few years ago, I came across a stack of the signature yellow-spined books at my favorite used bookstore. Should I crack one open to see if magic was still tucked inside — but risk razing my childhood memories if it wasn’t? I thought about it, and I took it to the checkout.

So how was it? Reader, I could have married her. Nancy is as capacious, as intrepid, and even more aggressively competent than I remembered. I recommend the early books, even if boyfriend Ned and sidekicks Bess and George don’t exist yet in our gal detective’s universe. We know we came here — only came here — for Nancy.

(Excerpted from a little post I wrote for a friend's excellent Substack.)