Nancy Drew Case Files #22: Fatal Attraction (1988)

I'm sure I've mentioned Brenda Carlton before in another review. She's a “reporter” for the local paper, which means that her dad owns the paper and lets her write. While on vacation with Bess, George, and Ned, Nancy gets a letter sent via messenger that asks her to meet someone unknown person at an abandoned drive-in theater. She naturally goes and meets Mr. Carlton.

He explains to her that Brenda has a brand new boyfriend named Mike who's a guitarist. Mike is extremely shady about his past and doesn't seem like a good guy. They met while she was on vacation, and he then followed her back to River Heights. Mr. Carlton begs Nancy to check him out and make sure that Mike is good for Belinda.

This involves going to the club and seeing him play. Brenda gets way too suspicious and actually accuses Nancy of going after him for herself, which causes Nancy to point out that she doesn't need some rando when she has Ned waiting for her. Just as Brenda loosens up and tells her a little about Mike and how they met, this random guy with gray hair and a beard knocks into their table and spills Brenda's drink all over her.

Nancy convinces Mike that she has connections at Flair magazine and can get him in an upcoming issue. All she needs is a picture first. Mike poses for her, but someone then breaks in and steals the film and her camera. She has George take a picture of him, but the same dude with the gray hair and beard shows up. He practically tackles her to stop her from taking the picture.

After hearing that Brenda took Mike to an abandoned farm, she and Ned follow them. They think they see him attack her, but it turns out that they were just having a very passionate make out session. Ned smoothly lies that they went there a lot of in high school and were just recapturing some memories. Uh-huh, sure.

Nancy calls Dirk, this detective she worked with on another case. He suggests that she send him Mike's fingerprints and he'll run them through the system. She and the gals break into his hotel room but almost get caught by the gray haired guy. Brenda sees them and chases them in her car. She later leaves a message on Nancy's windshield in purple lipstick to stay away from Mike.

This all leads to Nancy discovering that the gray haired guy is actually Felix, a wanted criminal. She also learns that Mike has a long history of wooing women and taking off. After talking with the friend of another victim, she finds out that he'll romance a woman and ask her to leave town with him. His “friend” Felix will then call and tell the parents of their plans. Felix cons the parents into giving him money that he'll then use to “convince” Mike to leave town without the girl.

This all went fine until Darla. As Nancy learns, Darla was a victim in Florida who fell prey to his scam and then went missing before turning up dead. Nancy tries to talk to Chief Saunders, who is in charge of the case, but he basically tells her to go home and leave the investigation to the pros. She then meets with Darla's family and learns that she disappeared the same night that her dad paid off Mike. Chief Saunders comes to the house and tries to intimidate the dad and keep him from talking to her.

When Nancy is on her way home from that meeting, Felix attempts to push her off the road and actually causes her to crash into a cornfield. Saunders shows up and tries to play it off like it was an accident, but the farmer and owner of the field makes it clear that someone did it on purpose and that he saw both the driver and the car. Nancy's Mustang winds up in the shop, while she ends up in the hospital.

Chief Saunders shows up again and warns her off the case. He gets a little threaten-y until Ned shows up and then Dirk calls. The chief agrees to let her take the call but only if he can listen in also. Dirk tells her that the FBI has Felix on their most wanted list and that she needs to be careful. The chief mumbles a bunch before taking off. Nancy then convinces the doctor to let her go home.

As soon as she gets home, Mr. Carlton calls and demands to see her. It turns out that Felix called and told him Brenda and Mike were running away together. When he asked for a payout, Mr. Carlton exploded and told him all about the PI hired and how they would take him down. Nancy winces but agrees to find Brenda and stop her from doing something stupid.

Ned and Nancy head to the Carlton house and find that Brenda took off but only took her jewelry with her. Bess and go to hunt a few places for her, while Nancy and George head to other places. They eventually find Brenda and Mike hiding out at the abandoned farm. Brenda shows Mike the jewelry, but he freaks out because he told her to bring cash. He also says that they can trace her jewelry, which she finds really confusing.

Nancy tells George to go for help while she hides in the loft. Felix then shows up and goes crazy because he wants cash yo. Brenda keeps telling him to leave and begging Mike to say he loves her, but Felix laughs at her and pretty much lays it all out there for her about their plan. Nancy sneezes, and he threatens to burn the barn down unless she comes out.

It turns into a big thing with Felix basically admitting to everything. He explains that Chief Saunders got a cut of the money to look the other way and scare Nancy off. Felix also says that Darla still believed Mike was a good guy and was in love with him. She tried to follow them when they left town, so Felix killed her. Mike, surprisingly enough, was actually in love with Darla. He freaks out and attacks Felix, giving the two girls time to escape.

Though Brenda wants to stay and watch Felix beat the crap out of Mike, Nancy drags her away. The cops show up just in time to see the barn catch on fire while Mike comes out still beating the crap out of Felix while the place is in flames. Later, the gang gets the chance to hang out at the Carlton Mansion and enjoy a party Mr. Carlton arranged just for them. He shows up with a copy of Brenda's most recent article.

In her version of events, she went deep undercover and risked her life to bring down a wanted criminal. Ned points out that this is so not what happened, but Mr. Carlton just laughs and explains that he told his “star reporter” that she must be honest to work for his paper and basically grounded her until she wrote the real story. A random FBI agent shows up to thank Nancy and tell her he has Felix in custody. Felix likely won't ever get out, but Mike is facing some lesser charges. She and Ned then agree to make the most of their remaining vacation.

*They're all on vacation at the beginning of this book because Nancy is so tired from her last investigation. There are multiple mentions of what I assume is the last book and a bunch of other books too.

*I should point out that they are in a borrowed lake house too, which means no adult supervision for Ned and Nancy!

*In continuing with my trend of wondering what's up with these girls and why they're not in college, Bess mentions that she still gets an allowance from her parents. Say what now? They're all 18!! Why do their parents give them money??

*One of the girls Mike romanced was actually engaged at the time and left her fiance to run away with him. He must have one smooth tongue to convince a chick to leave her fiance in less than a week!

*At one point, Bess and George go running together in matching red shorts and sweatbands, which seems really odd.

*Since no book can't have a mention of Bess's weight, Nancy mentions how much Bess loves her new white bikini because it makes her look like she weighs five pounds less.

*Nancy doesn't know where to look for Brenda, so George suggests the campground. Look, I don't really know this chick but even I know she's not at a campground!

*Did anyone expect a totally different end result from Mr. Carlton? I totally thought he would side with his daughter and let her take all the credit while leaving Nancy out in the cold. Also, I really want to know what happened to Chief Saunders!!