The Nancy Drew Files #40: Shadow of a Doubt (1989)

Carson takes the whole crew out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate the end of a big case. While getting ready, Nancy answers a call from someone who hangs up after hearing her voice. She tells them that she received multiple calls like that in the past. Carson blows it off but then some random dude shows up with a package. It has a picture of a dude inside with a threatening note on the bottom.

It turns out that several years ago, Carson worked on an embezzlement case. He defended this guy Allard who was accused of stealing from the bank he worked for with the help of a partner named Gleason. Carson got Allard off, but Gleason was found guilty and sentenced to hail time. Gleason recently got out, which was right around when someone started threatening Carson. He begs Nancy to stay out of it, which lasts for one whole page.

Nancy decides it wouldn't hurt to look into things and calls the chief to get Gleason's new address. She heads over and finds a bunch of cops outside the apartment. One especially hot young cop falls over himself and tells her how someone named Gleason jumped out of his apartment window and killed himself. She then goes up the fire escape to check out his place, runs into a bunch of cops, and just grabs a random notebook before fleeing.

When she gets outside, she runs right into Kate and Chris, Gleason's kids. Kate seems particularly pissed at Nancy after learning that she's Caron's daughter and points out that her dad wouldn't have gone to jail if it weren't for him. They calm down long enough to tell her that they believe their dad was innocent, that the court found him guilty of creating a computer program to steal the money, and that no one ever recovered the lost money.

Nancy then goes to see Allard who still works for a bank and agrees to help her because he believes Gleason was innocent. She then meets with the head of the bank, Nicodemus. He not only lets her search through the bank's records, but he tells this secretary named Cheryl to help her. Cheryl seems lost and confused, pointing out that she just started a few weeks ago. She then shows up at the Drew house to tell Nancy that Gleason asked her for information and that she gave him some computer files.

Not completely trusting some random chick who seems to have way too much information, Nancy hops in her car and follows Cheryl who goes right to Gleason's old apartment. She sneaks inside and hears the woman fighting with Chris, and when she bursts in, he has his hands around her throat. It turns out that they're actually a couple and have been for a long time. Chris storms off, while Cheryl confesses that she gave computer files to Gleason and then deleted the files permanently because he asked her for a favor.

Word comes down that the DA plans to prosecute Carson for obstruction of justice and that the DA wants to reopen the case. Nancy meets with the DA who reveals that he doesn't actually want to charge Carson and that they aren't sure yet if they want to open the case back up. She also tracks down Kate and tells her that her dad had some evidence and that he supposedly gave it to her brother.

While working together, Nancy and Kate somehow realize that Gleason had a secret safety deposit box with the evidence hidden inside. They go to check it out and find the box empty, so they head back to her house. That's where they find both Allard and Nicodemus with Chris and Carson.

It turns out that the two of them were actually behind the embezzlement and that they created a fake computer program to frame Gleason. Cheryl accidentally found the program and gave it to Gleason, but because she deleted the files, he was the only one with proof of his innocence, so they killed him. Also, Chris has apparently been helping them because they convinced him that they could clear his dad's name.

Allard tells Chris to tie them up and then set the house on fire, and he conveniently brought gasoline and matches with him. Nancy begs him to do the right thing, and he hesitates just long enough for her to run over and kick the gun that Nicodemus was holding on them out of his hands. Allard and Carson start fighting, but Chris finally grows a pair and helps out. They subdue the two men and call the cops. In the end, Carson tells Nancy that she really could have gotten hurt and that he worries about her but that it's okay because she's persistent. And then they all laugh...

*Hannah goes all out for dinner at the beginning and wears a new red silk dress and gets her hair done. I really want to know why she and Carson never hooked up! They made her much younger in these books than she originally was, and he even comments on how the waiter was making eyes at her...

*Nancy is all disappointed when the phone rings and no one is there because she thought it might be Ned. Bess just rolls her eyes and tells her not to worry because he can't stay away from her for very long.

*Neither of the two men who were guilty in the end were mentioned as suspects in the very beginning...

*This may be the most modern we've seen Nancy looking on a cover from this series! She's usually in either really dated pastel or really dated neon colors.

*I'd like to point out that no one knocked her out in this book and that she didn't even look twice at a guy who was not Ned.

*Someone dies try to kill her though and chases her car. The person drives her off the road and towards a cluster of trees, so Nancy totally jumps out the door and rolls to safety while her Mustang goes boom.

 

*Can we all agree that Chris is a really terrible boyfriend? Cheryl says that he's just stressed a lot and worried about his dad. Stress does not make a man scream at you repeatedly and try to strangle you. He literally had both hands wrapped around her neck when Nancy found them and had her pinned against the wall!