The Secret of Mirror Bay, 49th in the original Nancy Drew series has all of the elements that make it a perfect “Nancy” in my opinion. My favorite characters are involved including Ned, Burt, Dave and Aunt Eloise. There is even a companion for Aunt Lou. It is Burt’s uncle, Matt, who just happened to be a chemistry professor at Emerson College.

The story has vivid food descriptions, a long lost family treasure, the requisite Nancy look-alike, as well as a colorful history of the Upstate New York area in which the story takes place. Nancy also proves to be an expert in sailing. She and Ned are invited to sail in a regatta, which they never make, due to boat tampering from some unscrupulous person.

The story starts out, of course with Nancy asking Bess and George to go away with her to the Mountains near Cooperstown, NY. Aunt Eloise has rented a cabin on Mirror Bay and has heard tell of a woman gliding along the water’s surface. Nancy is immediately intrigued and enlists the help of her two best chums.

The girls drove to the cabin, starting out early in the morning and stopped for lunch. They arrived in Cooperstown in time to have a swim and prepare dinner while the sun was setting. Another argument for those of us who believe River Heights is somewhere in the New York/New Jersey area.

Almost immediately, Nancy and her friends become embroiled in several mysteries. Not the least of which, in typical Nancy fashion, is woman who has swindled many people out of their vacations and just happens to have more than a passing resemblance to Nancy.

Not all of the girls’ time was spent solving mysteries. They went sailing, swimming and sightseeing. During one of their dips in the lake, a boat tried to run Bess down. Another element that is so Nancy.

As things progress, Nancy and gang not only have to worry about the imposter and the water glider, but now it seems like there are green monsters inhabiting the nearby woods. As it turns out, the mystery involving the green monster, just happens to be about some research papers which were stolen from colleagues of Matt’s. How’s that for coincidence?

The woman who “walked on water” turns out to be a Miss Anne Armitage. She tells a tragic story of child who died young. Her parents were so grief stricken, that they had her royal coach which was imported from Russia, carefully packed away and lowered into the bay. No one was supposed to ever speak of this. One of Nancy’s major clues to this mystery came from an antique Valentine she and the girls noticed when they were at the Children’s Museum. In order to solve this mystery, the gang had to do some scuba diving–another talent they all seemed to possess.

Needless to say, Nancy and her chums solve all three mysteries and every one lives happily ever after.

I would be remiss in not noting that the vivid descriptions of food, (which we all seem to love) including a fruit and cottage cheese salad, a cheese soufflé with tiny ham sandwiches, corn on the cob and tomato salad. There are several other descriptions, but the best is the thickly frosted chocolate roll that Bess made. Apparently, she used pickled walnuts by mistake. Yummy! As the girls are always talking about food, not far behind are George’s comments about Bess’s weight–at least three times. I would have been surprised if George hadn’t said anything.

Another element I just love about Nancy Drew is that I always learn something. In this book, I learned about the history of Cooperstown and uses of luminescent mushrooms during WWII. Best of all was the information needed if you get stung by a poisonous centipede. Find a sharp rock, and rub it along your skin before you make the incision to draw out the poisonous blood. The reason for rubbing the rock on your skin is that if you are going to get any germs into the blood stream, they will be your own. I’ve always remembered that from the first time I read Mirror Bay when it was published in 1972.

Mirror Bay has always been one of my favorite Nancy Drews. In an odd coincidence, the boat that tried to run over Bess was called the Water Witch. I now live on Waterwitch Cove Circle.

Even though Mirror Bay is one of the latter of the original 56 Nancy Drew books, I highly recommend it. The story has all of the elements of a quintessential Nancy that make you want to curl up by the fireplace or in a cozy alcove and become lost in the world of Nancy Drew.

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