The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

Nancy then joins Helen at summer camp to investigate the Topham summer home nearby. When Helen gives Nancy charity tickets to sell, she sells them to the Tophams to gain entry to their home and quiz them about the clock. Interviewing various Crowley relatives and friends, Nancy learns from an injured old lady that Crowley hinted that the clue to his will would be found in the family clock. Aided along the way by friend Helen Corning, she becomes interested in the case because she dislikes Crowley's snobbish nouveau-riche social-climbing heirs presumptive, the Tophams.Ī nasty encounter at a department store allows Nancy to discredit the Topham sisters when they break an expensive imported vase. Sixteen-year-old Nancy Drew wishes to help the Turners, who are struggling relatives of the recently deceased Josiah Crowley, by finding a missing will that can give them claim to Crowely's estate. In 2001, the novel ranked 53rd on Publishers Weekly's list of the all-time best-selling hardcover children's books in English, having sold about 2.7 million copies. In early editions, she is depicted as a mere servant later in the series, she becomes more of a family member. The Drews reside in River Heights and employ a housekeeper, Hannah Gruen. Her father, Carson Drew, is a well-known criminal defense lawyer. Nancy Drew is a sixteen-year-old high school graduate (her age was changed to eighteen in the 1959 rewrite).

It was first published on April 28, 1930, and rewritten in 1959 by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams. The Secret of the Old Clock is the first volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series written under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene.

The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene