Nancy Drew Notebooks #28: Thrill on the Hill (1999)

River Heights got 10 inches of snow, which means that school is closed for the day. Nancy meets up with George and Bess to go sledding and run into their friend Molly who has a way cooler sled than any of them. They do a few runs and then run into another friend named Rebecca. She's mad because her brother ruined his sled, their mom made them share hers, and he took off with it. They agree to let her share with them.

Todd, the brother, shows up when it's time to leave. He gives her back her sled and tells her it's her turn before leaving. She's mad because he made her drag it all the way there and now she has to take it home. Rebecca wants to stay but can't because she has to help her mom shovel their sidewalk. Some high school kids come out too, and one nearly knocks Bess down.

The girls decide to get some hot chocolate from Hilda's Hot Chocolate and take a short break. It tastes like crap, and when George goes to see if she has any marshmallows, the woman is gone. When they go back, they find that someone took Molly's sled. They follow the tracks it made to a small clearing that is right next to where the hot chocolate van was, which makes them suspect Hilda.

Someone hits Nancy in the back of the head with a snowball, but it's just a bunch of guys from their school. She adds them to her mental suspect list before deciding to check out the hot chocolate van. Since Hilda's not there, she and Molly sneak inside. They don't find the sled, but the woman does come back. It takes them way too long to get out without her seeing.

She then goes to see Rebecca and tell her what happened. Rebecca suspects that Todd stole it because she saw him hiding out in the garage. Though Nancy wants to check it out, she refuses because her garage is haunted. Nancy points out that Todd probably chose the garage because she thought it was haunted and would never go inside. All they find is a bunch of the parts from his old sled, which he tried to fix, and some glowing red eyes. The eyes belong to a raccoon who made all the noises that made Rebecca think there was a ghost.

Nancy and Molly walk around town to put up signs about her missing sled and see this girl Laura shoveling snow. She built a snowman and put earmuffs on it that look just like the ones Molly left with her sled. Laura is also the little sister of Sam, one of the high school kids who was sledding. She gives Molly back her earmuffs and lets them talk to her brother. They find him with Angela, another high school kid.

To make a long story short, Angela borrowed her sled to beat him in a race down the hill. When she went to give it back, the girls were gone. She gets it out of her trunk and gives it back. Molly then gives Nancy her top secret snow cream recipe as a reward for solving the case of the missing sled. Nancy and the girls make up a batch and have it for dessert that night. She then writes down the recipe in her mystery notebook for posterity.

*Nancy and Bess have classic wood sleds with metal runners, but George uses a blue plastic saucer sled.

*Nancy doesn't like that Hilda takes her money and doesn't say thank you. Excuse me? You should say thank you for her making your hot chocolate, not the other way around!

*She gets so hungry after sledding all day that she has two bowls of homemade tomato soup and a turkey sandwich. I swear that they must keep Hannah chained up in their kitchen to cook all the time.

*The snow cream recipe says to mix heavy cream until whipped, add in vanilla and powdered sugar until smooth, fold in fresh snow, and then freeze. It doesn't really sound that yummy to me, but it does make we wonder if this is what Claudia made in that BSC blizzard book.