Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #139: The Secret of Candlelight Inn (1997)

Bess, the same Bess who hates getting dirty, passed all the requirements to train a seeing eye dog and needs Nancy to go with her to the old Candlelight Inn to pick up her new puppy. The women who owned the inn inherited it from her family and ran it as a hotel before turning it into a private home. Before she died, she changed her will to leave the contents to her granddaughter and the property to Guiding Eyes, a nonprofit that trains seeing eye dogs.

The girls arrive in time to see Bess's neighbor Amber running wild with her brother Devon and his girlfriend Marisa. Marisa is the granddaughter of the former owner and a blind woman herself with a seeing eye dog named Misty. She gives Bess a sewing machine that her grandmother owned and refuses to take any money for it. Bess picks up Casey, her new guide dog in training, and agrees to let Amber help her work with the dog.

Before they can leave, Marisa gets a phone call from her friend Erik. He was arrested after trying to use two counterfeit twenty dollar bills. Nancy calls her dad who meets the whole group at the station. Erik claims he is completely innocent and would never steal, but Nancy is a little suspicious because he's supposedly poor but has new designer clothing on.

Between her dad and some research she does at the library, Nancy learns that there was a counterfeiting ring operating out of River Heights 25 years ago. Two men were busted with thousands of dollars in a truck on their way to Chicago and served time. The police doubted that either men actually made the money but they never named any names.

It doesn't take long before someone starts going after Marisa. The someone leaves a threatening voice message on her computer, breaks into her apartment and goes through her stuff while she's asleep, and even follows her around. When a second break in happens, she temporarily moves in with Bess while her parents are on vacation in Florida. The very first night, someone gets inside and steals her dog.

Bess finds this strange because there is no evidence of forced entry. When Amber comes over, Bess notices her clothing is coated in dog hair and wonders if Amber took the dog because she wanted one so bad. The girls help Marisa get around without her dog and try to keep the surprise party that Erik planned for her birthday a big secret.

We find out that Erik and Devon do not get along. Erik dated Marisa until she broke up with him, and Devon isn't happy that they're still close. Devon also doesn't like that Marisa turned down his proposal because she doesn't feel ready to get married. Devon turns up at Bess's house with the dog and confesses that he stole it because he wanted Marisa to need him more. He used the key her parents gave his parents for emergencies. Marisa tells him that she needs some time and sends him home.

The leader of the nonprofit finally tells Marisa that they aren't sure they want the house. It will cost way too much money to fix up. She suggests using the cash on one of their other properties, but Marisa tells her that her grandmother wouldn't want that and that they can't go against her will. The girls also go out to dinner, leave Marisa alone at the table, and come back to find that someone sprinkled broken glass all over her plate.

Nancy finds out that Marisa's mother and grandmother stopped talking at some point in the past and that the woman's mother was an artist. The police believe that someone with an art background made the template for the counterfeit bills, which makes Nancy wonder if her new friend's mom was the one behind the original case. They then find thousands of fake bills hidden inside a room in the house.

Marisa confesses to Nancy that she hates surprise parties and absolutely does not want one but worries that Erik planner her one anyway. When they get back to Bess's house, they find a completely different surprise. Erik is there waiting with a loaded gun, which he points at them. Nancy almost knocks it out of his hands before he knocks her down and ties her up.

Since this is Nancy, she fights back, manages to get untied, and attacks him at the same top that Marisa's dog does. They then tie him up and move him to another room. While this is all going on though, he confesses everything to him. He met Marisa's grandmother while doing volunteer work and later became her paid helper. Since she was also blind, he figured she wouldn't notice if he stole from her, but she did and fired him. He found a note she left behind for Marisa in Braille and spent weeks trying to decipher it, only to learn that it was a coded message about where she hid a fortune.

Erik also learned that she was the one behind the old counterfeit ring when she paid him in fake bills. He planned on telling the police that she had fake money hidden in her home but she passed away before that could happen. Marisa realizes that the note is about an old secretary/desk that was left behind. The two girls find a hidden draw and discover $1,000 in antique bills hidden inside.

It turns out that the money is worth more than $80,000 to collectors. Marisa takes half and donates the other half to the organization on the promise that it will use the money to fix up the old inn and turn it into a training center for future guide dogs. She and Devon get back together. Bess, realizing that caring for a future guide dog is way too much work, hands Casey over to Amber.

*Casey pees all over Nancy's shoe the first time they meet. Bess gets all embarrassed but Nancy acts pretty cool.

*So, I'm pretty sure that if someone leaves a house behind in a will for an organization to use as a training center that the organization can't just sell it and use the money for something else, which is what the nonprofit suggests.

*Amber's parents won't let her have a puppy because they think it's too much work, but then relent and let her take in Casey at the end because she did so much work with the dog. That “work” is like her taking the dog for a few walks and playing with it sometimes, which is not at all like actually owning a dog.

*Also, I'm pretty sure Amber will be heartbroken when she has to give the dog up. How can you expect a little kid to do something like that?

*In this book, the dogs spend 15 months with their trainers before going to a forever home. Didn't the BSC only have that dog living with Kristy for like a month?

*Marisa's mom apparently found out what her mom did and walked away from her without another word. The poor old lady sent her dozens of letters over the years that she always sent back unopened. That kind of made me sad. Yes she was a counterfeiter, but it's not like she killed someone!

*The cops eventually let Erik off at the beginning because they realize the bills were made 25 years ago. You'd think that's something they could figure out on the spot.

*While I get that counterfeiting is wrong, this book is kind of ridiculous. The cops literally show up, arrest Erik, and take him to the station in cuffs when he uses two bills. Bess later turns a fake bill in at the bank and almost winds up cuffed and arrested by a security guard.

*Bess clearly has no idea how to train a guide dog and should not have gotten a spot in the program. She buys Casey like 10 new toys and stocks up on all these new treats for her, which kind of violates the rules.