The Nancy Drew Notebooks #57: The Carousel Mystery

Carson decides to take Bess, George, and Nancy to his clients' house for a holiday party. Mr. and Mrs. Gangi have twin daughters, Jo and Mia, and invited family and friends to their party. He tells the entire group that his grandfather had a special carousel horse built for the grounds but that it later went missing. The twins found the horse accidentally, and he wants to reveal it to everyone as a special celebration. Before he can though, the girls suddenly start screaming.

It turns out that Mr. Gangi wanted to let the kids play and try to grab the brass ring like carousel riders did in the good old days. Someone stole the brass ring though and left behind a note to leave the horses alone or face big trouble. It was signed TG, which are the initials of the owner's grandfather. Bess volunteers Nancy to solve the mystery, which the adults agree to for who knows why.

Nancy notices Brenda there, but Brenda refuses to explain why she didn't follow the screams like everyone else did or why she keeps writing in a little notebook. She also acts super haughty about how her dad knows all the important people in town and how he knows more people than Carson does. Jo and Mia convince Nancy that the thief is Brad, their cousin. Their only other suspect is the ghost of their dad's grandfather. When they go through Brad's bag though, he shows up and stops them.

After a sleepover with Bess and George, Nancy wakes to find an article in the paper by Brenda. Apparently, her dad gave her a column in his paper. They go to the ice cream shop to talk to her and find her eating six different sundaes to cover another article. She brags about how she's an awesome writer and starts to tell them how she knew stuff no one else did but stops. Realizing that they just wanted her help to solve the mystery, she screams at them that she'll solve it and write an article about it herself.

They then go back to the Gangi house and meet with Mia and Jo. All they find is that someone carved the initials TG in the bottom of each carousel horse and that each horse matches one of the 12 Days of Christmas verses. They also find a really old music box in the basement that plays the same song. When the music box starts playing on its own, they notice muddy footprints leading up to it and a TG left in mud next to the box.

While Bess distracts Brad, Nancy and George sneak around. They find a pair of his shoes covered in mud and a CD player with a copy of the 12 Days of Christmas inside. When confronted with the evidence, Brad claims those aren't his shoes and that lots of people have the same CD. Nancy gets all disappointed because she thought it was proof he set up the music box.

Nancy tells Carson what she learned and gets permission to do some internet research. She finds and article about how Thomas Gangi always put a secret compartment in his carousel horses, which helps her come up with an idea to catch the thief. She gets all the suspects together and tells them that her dad found the other brass ring that TG made. Nancy says she'll hide it in the house to keep it safe.

The girls then hide and catch Mia trying to run off with Nancy's backpack because she thought the ring was inside. It turns out that Mia didn't want her dad to fix up the horses because she knew he would donate the carousel to the local park. Since he would only give away a complete set, she stole the ring to make him keep the horses at their house. Mia winds up getting a lecture from her dad right before he donates the whole carousel to the park. Nancy gets the first ride on it with her friend and catches the brass ring, but we sadly don't learn what she gets for it.

*Jo and Mia are clearly Jessica and Elizabeth. One wears her hair pulled back in a ponytail, while the other wears purple barrettes with streamers.

*I like to think that adults in these books just humor Nancy most of the time. Who expects an eight-year-old kid to solve some big mystery?

*Brenda brags about how she's this great writer, which is why her dad gave her a column. Um, sure that's the reason. And, who the hell wants to read an article written by a kid in the third grade other than her parents?

*Nancy uses a program called “Kidsearch,” which allows kids to do a safe internet search. It's nice to know Carson pays attention :)