NANCY DREW AND THE SECRET OF SHADOW RANCH SPOILER FREE REVIEW

 

Welcome back to another spoiler free review of the Nancy Drew books!

Nancy Drew and the Secret of Shadow Ranch follows Nancy and her cousins Bess and George visiting an aunt and uncle of theirs at Shadow Ranch in Phoenix, Arizona. The place has been reported to be haunted, and part of it may be due to a local legend of a historical figure who lived in the area named Dirk Valentine who left a treasure nearby for his long lost love, Frances. At the same time, a neighbor girl named Alice recently had her artist father go missing, so Nancy has to help her find him. Like the previous books, the two mysteries end up having to do something with each other at the end.

But I gave this book 4.5 stars because there is one small part where Nancy and her friends dress up as Native Americans (referred to as Indians in the book), but luckily there is one Native American character in the book named Mary Deer who is portrayed positively. She is the owner of a shop and she helps Nancy briefly with the mysteries. Well, it's a product of it's time while also slightly being ahead of it's time. 

You should still check it out! There are also other books out there with even better Native American representation, like A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger, which I read last year.