It’s horse girl time, everybody! The next Nancy game, Secret of Shadow Ranch, was based on one of the classic, early Nancy books, The Secret at Shadow Ranch (yes, the original title is different by exactly one preposition). The original Shadow Ranch book was published in 1931 and was later part of the ’60s overhaul of the books to make them more modern (i.e. have ’60s racism instead of ’30s racism). The two books are actually very different, plot-wise, and the game is largely based on the reworked ’60s plot instead of the original. Still, in the interest of completion — and for history nerds, i.e. me — we’ll start with the original, 1931 version.
The book opens with Bess and George trying to convince Nancy to visit the strange, foreign land of Tucson, Arizona. This book is their first appearance in the series, by the way; they have unceremoniously replaced Nancy’s ex-best friend, Helen Corning, who doesn’t get so much as a mention from Nancy here. Maybe if Helen had a cool, exotic Western ranch she could offer up as a vacation destination for Nancy, but alas, all Helen had was a weird emo friend who spent all day in her nightgown, doing absolutely nothing to help us solve her mystery. Anyway, Bess and George’s uncle (one “Richard Rawley of Chicago”, or “Uncle Dick”), has just been given ownership of a place called Shadow Ranch, as payment for a debt. I suppose this makes sense, as one wouldn’t have much cash to pay off debts in 1931. Of course, this book doesn’t ever actually acknowledge the crushing depression that affected the entire country for over a decade, but jokes aside, I don’t mind it — now that I’m old enough to look back on historical events that occurred in my lifetime, it doesn’t seem weird to me that the Nancy games never alluded to, like, the War on Terror or the Great Recession. I don’t know, I always thought of the games as belonging to some kind of vague present day that was just far enough removed from any big real-world events that they wouldn’t have to be referred to, so maybe that’s how people in the ’30s thought of these books. It’s too bad both my grandmothers have passed away, or I could ask them (that’s the kind of burning question I’m sure they would’ve wanted me to care about).
Anyway. Not having time to check the ranch out himself, Uncle Dick is sending his wife (“Aunt Nell”) on his behalf, and she’s bringing along one “Alice Regor”, who’s Bess and George’s half-cousin twice removed on their great-aunt’s side or something, whatever, it’s not important. George bemoans how ladylike and pretty Alice is, unlike her homely, tomboyish self. Nancy’s like, “I thought you didn’t mind being a tomboy because you genuinely don’t really like girly stuff?” and George is like, “Yeah, but I have to at least pretend to want to be feminine because it’s 1931.” The book notes that Bess and George are in fact quite pretty, but they can’t hold a candle to Nancy Drew, whose face is more “interesting” than either of theirs and immediately attracts all the attention in a room. I feel like that’s not a good thing for a detective, but you know, God forbid Nancy be upstaged by her lessers.
Bess and George tell Nancy that Alice’s father disappeared when she was a child and she’s very sensitive about it, so they shouldn’t bring the subject up. Nancy’s like, “Why are you telling me this, I would never be insensitive about someone’s missing and/or dead family members.”
Carson Drew rocks in and tells Nancy she can go, as long as she stays away from any mysteries. George cackles that there are no mysteries at Shadow Ranch — “The only queer thing about that place is how it’s managed to hold together with such a lazy foreman to look after it.” Hee. Get fucked, Dave.
(Weirdly, this book refers to Bess as “Elizabeth” for the entirety of the first chapter, then drops it and calls her “Bess” for the rest of the book.)
Having agreed to go, Nancy plunges into an “orgy of feverish preparation.” Er…yeah. The Clue Crew then sets off for Arizona, and some rando at the train station (a friend of Carson’s?) tells Nancy not to “vamp” any cowboys. Also…yeah.
Then the book realizes it’s time for exposition, and tells us that Nancy’s dad is a lawyer and her mother died when she was young. Nancy just recently got into solving mysteries on her own, when she solved “‘The Secret of the Old Clock’, as is recounted in the first volume of this series.” Her adventures then continued with her most recent case, “The Mystery at Lilac Inn.” Order them from your latest Sears catalog!
They meet up with Aunt Nell and Alice to transfer trains; Bess and George remind Nancy once again not to bring up Alice’s missing father. Hee. They totally have Nancy’s number. Aunt Nell tells them that Uncle Dick didn’t want them to wait for a later train transfer, and George’s response is: “And how!” George said slangily. What? I don’t know. (ETA: Apparently, “And how!” meaning “I agree!” might have come into popularity in the 1920s-30s, making it indeed modern slang at the time this book was written — according to this Reddit comment, anyway; I couldn’t find any solid sources myself on this. I mean, I did find a website written in Comic Sans claiming this was late ’20s slang, but I don’t know how legit it was.)
On the train, Nancy meets some guy, who immediately attracts her attention because she can tell he has a tragic look in his eyes or whatever. He introduces himself as Ross Rogers, and he coincidentally lives in the nearest town to Shadow Ranch, where he runs a bookstore. Nancy is intrigued by him, but doesn’t ask too many questions, as she “was naturally interested in people, yet she was never prying.” HA! AHAHAHA. Good one, book.
(Can you guys guess what tragic mystery he might be hiding? I bet you can.)
Ross is then seated with the Clue Crew for dinner (it sounds like the seating is assigned, before you start thinking this is too weird), and Nancy notes that he doesn’t talk much about himself. She later tells the Clue Crew that she finds him intriguing, to which George says, “I thought he was sort of stupid.” Hee. Not untrue, but that was so unnecessary. Bess concurs, and Nancy’s like, “But, but, the sad look I totally saw in his eyes!” Alice also backs Nancy up, having decided that she “like[s] him a lot” after talking to him for like five minutes. Bess and George then proceed to tease Nancy over her “interest” in Ross. They’re talking about a forty-five year old man, by the way.
The Clue Crew eventually arrive in Arizona, whereupon Aunt Nell frets about getting freckles at her advanced age. How very early-mid-20th century of her. Anyway, upon arriving, they’re dismayed to see that there’s not much of a train station or a town anywhere around. Ross Rogers helps them move their trunks into the station and everyone warms to him a bit more, but he then bails without further ceremony. They’re eventually picked up by one “George Miller”, who turns out to be the aforementioned lazy foreman. (I will hereafter refer to him as “Foreman George” to avoid confusion with Clue Crew George.) He gets super offended by George having a boy’s name — in a lot of the early books, George’s name really was just “George”, instead of being short for “Georgia” — and is a bit cagey, but seems nice enough otherwise. He tells the Clue Crew that the ranch horses are “jest waitin’ for some purty gals to ride ’em!” Indeed.
The Clue Crew is charmed by Shadow Ranch upon arrival (Nancy describes it as “the most picturesque ranch imaginable”, even if it’s not “in apple-pie order”), though Bess is disappointed that none of the cowboys are young and hot. RIP to the Dave girls and the Tex girls, and…I guess there are probably Shorty girls, somewhere out there. (You can’t fix him, just so you know.) Also, Nancy quite likes Foreman George’s wife, and decides “Hubby isn’t so bad either, though as a foreman he’ll never set the world on fire.” First of all, if I never have to read Nancy Drew using the word “hubby” again, I’ll be happy. Also, are we implying there are foremen who are setting the world on fire via superior ranch management?
Despite being set up as being lazy and bad at his job, Foreman George is actually pretty helpful towards the Clue Crew for most of this book and is the closest thing to a useful authority figure they have. He first teaches them to ride before they’re allowed to go out; naturally, Nancy tosses her hair all like, “Oh, I can ride a little” then she gets on horseback and all the seasoned cowboys are falling over themselves to tell her how awesome she is. George and Alice pick up riding well enough, but of course Bess doesn’t because LOL Bess…well, actually, this book doesn’t have any “Bess fat” jokes! She is, however, generally bumbling and incompetent.
After an undetermined amount of time, Foreman George says the Clue Crew can ride out on their own. They decide to go on a picnic up the mountain and take one of the ranch hands, Jack, to guide them. Naturally a massive storm rolls in and they have to ford a river and Bess nearly drowns because she can’t control her horse because LOL Bess incompetent.
They have to take shelter at some random shack halfway up the mountain, where an unfriendly old woman (“Martha Frank”) lives with her young charge (“Lucy Brown”). Martha isn’t at all motherly or kind to Lucy, and Nancy immediately decides there must be something weird going on. After they get back to Shadow Ranch, Jack tells Nancy that it’s well known around the area that Martha doesn’t give Lucy proper food or clothes, but Martha chases anyone who tries to intervene off her property with a shotgun so everyone just kind of shrugs and is like, “Hope she doesn’t kill that kid, idk.” Nancy decides to investigate — she’s sure Martha can’t really be related to Lucy! “She felt certain that Lucy Brown came of far better stock than squatter quality.” Ah, 1930s Nancy.
Alice, meanwhile, has a brief crying jag over her father and Nancy decides she must help her, lest their entire vacation be ruined by one (1) instance of Alice being emo.
Aunt Nell tells the Clue Crew that she plans to sell Shadow Ranch, but she’ll need to fix it up first. You might think that perhaps her renovations will suspiciously start having problems, perhaps created by someone who doesn’t want her to sell the ranch, but let me tell you, this book is so much weirder than that. They round up some cattle to sell, to raise money for the repairs, and naturally Nancy is the best cowgirl, again, some more. Bess sits the whole thing out because LOL Bess incompetent.
They go into town to sell the cattle, and the Clue Crew takes in a “moving picture show” (God bless). They see Martha Frank in town, arguing with a sketchy guy who owns a junk shop. The altercation nearly turns physical, and Nancy notes that Martha seems almost afraid of the man. (File this away, because this is going to be really dumb later.) Nancy asks Foreman George about the junk shop owner, whom he identifies as one “Zany Shaw.” “Sharp little eyes and a bald head as shiny as a new dollar!” Wait a second…
Foreman George tells them that, like Martha, no one really knows where Zany is from or how he came to be in Arizona, but he’s creepy and everyone steers clear of him (although they buy enough from his shop that he makes plenty of money, apparently).
The girls go out for a ride and run into trouble and have to run to Martha Frank’s house for help again. Martha is rude and sketchy and Lucy is afraid to talk to the Clue Crew again. One thing about this book is that it’s actually pretty long, compared to the modern Nancy books — we’re on chapter eight and the mystery is just starting to be set up; the whole thing is twenty-five chapters, which is surprising compared to the modern books, where the mystery is usually well wrapped up by chapter fifteen or so.
Ross Rogers stops by the ranch, but he doesn’t say much and clams up when Aunt Nell mentions his last name — she says her maiden name is “Rogers”, so they might be related, but Ross Rogers says that his surname is actually “Roger”, but everyone calls him “Rogers” because what the hell kind of surname is “Roger” anyway, so he just rolls with it. Then he hurriedly leaves despite driving for like four hours just for lunch. Everyone’s like, “Weird”, but Nancy and Alice defend him again — he might be cagey and suspicious, but he’s just so darn nice! As soon as he leaves, Nancy has a brainwave and realizes she recognizes Ross Rogers because he worked at the bank in River Heights before mysteriously disappearing one day. What a coincidence that they should run into him again here!
(Can you guess what Ross Rogers’s secret is now?)
Nancy decides that going horseback riding and scaring off bears and snakes with a shotgun is more fun than investigating Ross Rogers or Martha Frank, though, so we skip ahead a few weeks. (Nancy is hilariously casual and enthusiastic about carrying a “revolver” in this book. Can’t believe the game doesn’t let you shoot rattlesnakes, tbh.) The Clue Crew then attends a dance in town, where they meet a lawyer named David who’s quite taken with Bess (that you Dave??), and a doctor who’s only named “Doctor Cole”, whom Nancy finds interesting. I don’t know how old they’re all supposed to be — on the one hand, people weren’t quite as askance about age gaps back then as we are now; on the other hand, law and med school weren’t as stringent as they are today either, so I guess it’s possible that they aren’t that old.
Ross Rogers also shows up to the dance, even though he’s gotta be like twenty years older than everyone else there, and Nancy takes the opportunity to try and dig up his traumatic past. He acts weird when she says that she recognizes him, then runs away before she can talk to him further. Nancy’s all indignant over this: “Well, of all things! What can be the matter with that man? Is he afraid I’ll find something out about him?” Heh. Yeah, how dare he have secrets that he doesn’t want other people to know about. Nevertheless, she decides to drop it: “I have no right to go prying into his affairs,” she thinks to herself.
Cut to: Nancy deciding to stick her nose into Lucy Brown’s business instead. Oh, Nancy. The girls go out for a ride and get in trouble and have to take shelter at Martha Frank’s again. Martha is out this time, so Nancy takes the opportunity to speak to Lucy and poke around her room. The Clue Crew finds a trunk that’s mysteriously full of fancy dolls and dresses for a toddler-age girl. Then Zany Shaw comes to the cottage and gets all threateny when he catches the Clue Crew there. He accuses them of breaking in, and Nancy’s like, “Do we look like the type of people who break into houses?”, presumably meaning that they aren’t swarthy or Catholic enough to be criminals.
Back at the ranch, literally, Nancy muses over Lucy some more, eventually deciding that she must have been kidnapped. Really, Nancy? It took you until chapter 15? The Nancy I know would’ve jumped to that conclusion in chapter 6, Martha would’ve covered it up for a bit and everyone would’ve doubted Nancy for a few chapters, but by chapter 12 she would’ve been proven right and shamed Martha and everyone who ever questioned Nancy Drew. Nancy recalls that a dress in Lucy’s trunk had a tag from a Philadelphia store, so she sends her father a telegram(!) asking him to investigate.
The Clue Crew goes for a ride and gets in trouble and ends up at Martha Frank’s house again. Maybe the reason she doesn’t like you is because you’ve been here for like three months and still get lost every time you go up the mountain, Nancy. Once again, Martha is sketchy and Lucy looks like she wants help but is too afraid to say it. This book would probably be shorter if we didn’t have like ten versions of this scene, admittedly.
Nancy decides to rescue Lucy and bring her to Shadow Ranch, but when she swings by the next day, Martha is packing to leave. Nancy’s horrified that Martha is going to spirit Lucy away and starts demanding Martha explain their relationship. Martha says it’s none of her business, to which Nancy responds, “It is if I care to make it!” Hee! And thus, the ethos of the Nancy Drew series was born.
All this drama turns out to be totally unnecessary, however. (This book? Padding its word count? I never.) The next day, the Clue Crew and their beaux go out for a ride. They come across Martha beating Lucy again; Lucy runs away and breaks her arm, so Doctor Cole brings her to Shadow Ranch anyway. Carson Drew has finally telegraphed Nancy back (God bless), and Nancy thinks, “I feel certain it will contain news that will throw light on the mystery. If not, it will be the first time Dad ever failed me.” Heh. I mean, it may be the first, but it certainly won’t be the last, Nancy!
Carson was able to dig up a case that occurred in Philadelphia, wherein a little girl named “Louise Bowen” was thought to have been kidnapped by a disgruntled “furnace man” who worked for her parents. Nancy notes that Louise would be about Lucy’s age today. Both of the Bowen parents have since died, but Louise stands to inherit their fortune should she reappear. Nancy’s like, “But it would be really dumb of Louise’s kidnappers to hold on to all her old dolls and clothes with her home city on the tags.” Nancy Drew villains? Dumb? Perish the thought.
Nancy sneaks into Martha’s cottage to look through Lucy’s stuff again. She finds a ring with the initials “L.B.” and gasps “Louise Bowen!” Or…Lucy Brown? Whatever, Nancy is convinced that this ring is rock-solid proof that Lucy is a fake name and Lucy is actually Louise. Then Zany Shaw catches her and gets his threat on again, but Nancy knocks him out with one punch and escapes. God, she and Ned really are meant to be. (Also, do I need a Nancy punch tag now?)
Nancy makes it back to Shadow Ranch, where Doctor Cole has rolled up to check on Lucy, and has brought Ross Rogers along for contrivance the hell of it. Upon seeing Ross, Martha freaks out, but Ross has no idea why. Nancy makes Bess call David (the lawyer, not the ranch hand whose only job is standing around not fixing the chicken coop), to try and intimidate Martha into confessing.
Literally all David has to do is show up, and Martha spills all: Zany Shaw is her brother; he was the disgruntled furnace man who kidnapped Louise Bowen. Mr. Bowen accused Zany of stealing money and fired him; Zany denied it, but without a reference, he couldn’t find work and he and Martha lost everything. Zany kidnapped Louise Bowen for revenge, with the intention of just holding her for ransom, but his plans were screwed up when some guy heard Louise screaming and tried to intervene. Zany bonked Some Guy on the head and, thinking he killed him, fled town with Martha and Louise. And Some Guy — as I’m sure you guessed — was Ross Rogers!
Ross Rogers tells them that he just woke up one day in a sketchy house in Philly, unable to remember who he was. What is he, the protagonist of an RPG? Is there an enigmatic old woman nearby who pretends she’s helping him unravel his past, but is actually using him for her own ends? Not knowing his own name, he picked “Ross Roger” because it just kinda vibed right to him. Martha says she never saw Ross before Zany whacked him on the head, and Nancy is disappointed for like five seconds, then realizes she has a clue to his identity after all: if he thought Roger was his last name, could it be because his real last name is Regor, as in Alice Regor? George, God bless her, says, “It would be too dramatic!” It would be, George, wouldn’t it?
Aunt Nell says that Uncle Dick knew Alice’s father well, and he’d be able to identify whether Ross Rogers is really him. She does add that Alice’s father’s full name was “Robert Ross Regor” which like…book, why are you giving more details like this if you’re going to keep up the farce that his identity is still a mystery? Anyway, Nancy says, “If you could telegraph him, it would settle everything!”
(Remember how Nancy was like, “No criminals would be dumb enough to keep clues to Louise Bowen’s real identity around?” Yeah, Zany apparently told Martha to get rid of Louise’s stuff but she’s like, “But the clothes were so darn cute!” Whatever, Martha. Also, if they’re siblings and generally in cahoots, why was Martha so afraid of Zany?)
Nancy decides that, with Lucy/Louise’s parents being dead, only Ross Rogers really has a case against Zany and Martha anymore, so it’s up to him to decide if charges are pressed. As far as Nancy’s concerned, “they have been punished sufficiently enough.” For kidnapping and abusing a child for like ten years, so long that her parents died without ever finding out that she was okay? I kind of feel like they haven’t been, Nancy. But Ross Rogers agrees with her and says he won’t press charges if Zany and Martha leave the country; they promptly flee and are never heard from again.
Uncle Dick shows up and confirms that Ross Rogers is indeed Alice’s real father. Ross and Alice decide to adopt Lucy/Louise. Nancy is relieved that Lucyise will be raised by a nice upper-middle-class family, and her fortune will also ensure that she’s outfitted and educated according to her station instead of being A Poor (not in so many words). Aunt Nell and Uncle Dick decide they like Shadow Ranch and don’t want to sell it anymore. Foreman George gets over hating George’s name, and everyone leaves Shadow Ranch happy.
But why was Ross Rogers in River Heights, that time Nancy saw him at the bank? What brought him out to Arizona? Is Shadow Ranch going to be run into the ground because Foreman George is so shit at his job? Who cares! “Needless to say, Nancy Drew was highly praised for the good work she had accomplished”, and that’s all that matters.
THE END.
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