Original 1934 book cover art.
The Clue of the Broken Locket is the eleventh volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. This was one of eight titles that had a plot change in the revisions by the Stratemeyer Syndicate.
Plot summary[]
1934[]
The plot primarily deals with the adoption of 18-month-old twins, and the reuniting of two families. Carson Drew handles an adoption for the wealthy show-business couple, Johnny and Kitty Blair. The Blairs invite Nancy and friend Bess Marvin to a celebration, where the Blairs and other guests are distracted by heavy drinking and smoking. Nancy manages to secure some articles found with the abandoned babies, clothing and the mysterious broken half of a locket. Nancy tries to aid the incompetent maid in caring for the children. The maid is fired as a result and, with her boyfriend, plants stolen jewelry in Nancy's car as revenge. Nancy tries to help the Blairs' butler Rodney, and a nurse, Ruth Brown, who it turns out are long-separated twins themselves. Nancy must discover the whereabouts of the twins' missing natural parents, encountering resistance from the spendthrift, and nearly bankrupt Blairs.
1965[]
Carson asks Nancy to deliver a cabin key to Cecily Curtis in Misty Lake, Maryland; the owner of the cabin has refused to set foot on the property, claiming the lake is haunted by a ship that went down at the turn of the century. With Bess and George, Nancy arrives at Misty Lake, and learns Cecily is there to find a family treasure pre-dating the Civil War. Cecily's only clue is half of a gold locket. Meanwhile, Nancy also discovers that Cecily's fiancé, pop star Niko Van Dyke, believes his record company may be cheating him out of royalty payments. Throw in a Cecily lookalike sneaking around, and the sinister Driscoll family at Pudding Stone Lodge, and Nancy has a puzzling case, with a thrilling conclusion.
Appearances[]
Characters[]
Characters appearing in this book include:
- Nancy Drew
- Bess Marvin
- George Fayne
- Carson Drew
- Original only
- Johnny Blair
- Kitty Blair
- Rodney
- Ruth Brown
- Sylvia McNeery
- Jay
- Janet
- Revised only
- Ned Nickerson
- Dave Evans
- Burt Eddleton
- Cecily Curtis
- Niko Van Dyke
- Karl Driscoll
- Vince Driscoll
- Susan
Locations[]
- Misty Lake, Maryland
- Misty Lake
- Pudding Stone Lodge
Background[]
Mildred Wirt returned to ghostwriting for the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, after having quit due to a pay dispute following The Clue in the Diary. This was also the first outline written by Edna Stratemeyer since Nancy's Mysterious Letter.
Artwork[]
The cover art for the original dust jacket is uncredited. Russell H. Tandy drew the frontispiece and original three internal illustrations for the volume in 1934. A facsimile of this edition is available from Applewood Books. In 1950, the cover art was modernized by Bill Gillies.
In 1962 the cover art was modernized again, by Rudy Nappi. Nappi inserted himself as an old man with a pipe on the cover. In 1965, when the story was revised, Nappi made another cover, in print today, showing a dark, sinister lake, with Nancy, Bess, and George discovering the title object while wading to a ruined boat.