The Bungelow Mystery by Carolyn Keene

Nancy Drew is traveling by boat with a friend, Helen, to visit a friend in a resort town across the lake from her home when she gets caught in a storm. Her boat is about to sink when they are saved by another young woman, Laura.  Nancy finds out that Laura, who is 17, is a recent orphan and is in town to meet her new guardians, but her guardians don't seem to be the caring family friends she was expecting.  At the same time Nancy's father is investigating some stocks and bonds missing from the local bank.  Could Laura's new guardians be mixed up in the bank crime?  Nancy is determined to find out.

How long has it been since you read a Nancy Drew?  I didn't read a lot as a child, and I had only read the first two as an adult, maybe 20 years ago.  There is something comforting and charming in their simplicity and predictability.  The recording I listened to has cheesy background music between chapters, and melodramatic musical inserts at tense moments in the plot.  It almost made me laugh out loud. The book was first written in 1930, and it is interesting how many times I thought to myself that the biggest difference between now and then is the advent of cellphones and instant communication. (192 p, 1930)