The Secret Life of Nancy Drew...

Confessions of a Teen Sleuth
Chelsea Cain

genre:  parody, mystery, Nancy Drew
pages: 160
rating: ***1/2

I must confess...I have never read a Nancy Drew book.  Ahhhhhh!  I know I know.  I love mysteries, but I have never read one of her books.  They always seemed old to me. Yet, both of my daughter's love Nancy Drew.  I don't know, I don't get it.  But, when I saw this book at the library, it looked too good to pass up.

Confessions of a Teen Sleuth, is a parody on the Nancy Drew series.  It is divided into ten chapters, or short stories.  Each with a name reminiscent of a Drew title.  It starts in 1926 and concludes in 1992, that's a lot of time to sleuth.  The basis is that the Nancy Drew books were written by Carolyn Keene, Nancy's college roommate.  Carolyn got most of her facts wrong and that prompted Nancy to write her memoirs, Confessions of a Teen Sleuth.  More than one famous teen detective makes an appearance in this book.

I really enjoyed this book, as far as the plot.  I don't want to give too much away.  There are lots of surprises about Nancy's life.  It's slightly irreverent, which I liked.  The writing is very well done, but it is written like the old Nancy Drew books.  It had an 'old' feel to it.  That I didn't enjoy.  It was a lot of fun reading stories with the Hardy Boys, those were eye opening, Trixie Belden's daughter, and Encyclopedia Brown.  I was a huge Brown fan growing up.  That was the best part.  Reading about series characters, in a different book, like they were real people.

If you want a fun quick read give Confessions of a Teen Sleuth a try.  It's a hoot.

-Caren