This post is part of the Nancy Drew Review Project; visit the project index here.
Originally published in 1931, The Secret at Shadow Ranch is the fifth book in the long-running Nancy Drew mystery series. After the authors began revising the early books in the series, it was reissued in 1961 under the title The Secret of Shadow Ranch.
Famously, this book introduces Nancy’s long-time friends and partners-in-crime, Bess Marvin and George Fayne. In both versions of the story, Nancy goes with cousins Bess and George to visit a ranch in Arizona, owned by Bess and George’s aunt and uncle, the Rawleys. They also bring along a younger girl, Alice Regor, whose father has gone missing. And…that’s probably about all of the similarities between the two texts, to be honest.
I read both versions of this story as part of my ongoing Nancy Drew Review Project.
1931 Original Text
Of all of the Nancy Drew books, I think that Shadow Ranch is the most popular. The Western setting is certainly one of the most memorable, and the ill-fated love story / buried treasure plot is a perennial fan favorite.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I realized that the single-most popular Nancy Drew mystery originally looked nothing like its current version. No buried treasure! No phantom horse! No desperadoes or star-crossed outlaws! Aside from taking place at a ranch, Mildred Wirt Benson’s original text might as well being a completely different Nancy Drew novel. #shook
Overall, the original text is a good book but a bad mystery. The vast majority of the book is about Nancy, Bess, and George enjoying a happy vacation in rural Arizona. They ride horses, have picnics, ford rivers, and go exploring. Although they face some obstacles (rattlesnakes, lynxes, etc.), the book doesn’t really concern itself with a traditional mystery plot. True, toward the end, Nancy discovers the “secret identity” of a couple of mysterious characters, but that’s not really a mystery. Certainly, Nancy doesn’t do any of the sleuthing or snooping that she’s so famous for.
I mean…the original text is okay…I guess? There’s nothing wrong with it! But it’s not very on-brand for Nancy, particularly when compared with the first three of the original text books. Before undertaking this project, I didn’t anticipate that I would be able to tell the difference between an “Edward Stratemeyer book” and a “Harriet Adams book,” but boy is the sudden about-face in the series’ direction obvious. In the shift between The Bungalow Mystery (#3) and The Mystery at Lilac Inn (#4), Nancy’s character and the style of the plots are nearly unrecognizable. This fifth book, The Secret at Shadow Ranch, is similarly confusing.
Mostly, though, I think this book was just in need of a beefier mystery. Nancy’s characterization isn’t bad or terribly inconsistent, although you can see that Adams was pressuring Wirt Benson to deviate from her original vision of the character. Generally, the book is a shame, because it could have been very good.
1965 Revised Text
This is the Shadow Ranch I grew up reading, and this is the Shadow Ranch that was made even more relevant to modern readers by the Her Interactive computer game (which is excellent).
Although the revised text spends just as much time on Nancy & Co’s adventures throughout the Arizona mountains, there’s also a more heavily present aura of mystery, which comes from the fact that Shadow Ranch seems to be haunted by a phantom horse and random acts of sabotage/vandalism…plus the myth of desperado gold hidden somewhere nearby. There’s a ghost town, a rodeo, Native American cliff dwellings, and lots of yee-haw good times to be had by all.
Interesting, even though Shadow Ranch is the most popular Nancy Drew book, I don’t know that it was ever my true favorite. I like it well enough, but something about it doesn’t wow me? It’s still a great book, though.
I did notice one mistake by the authors: towards the end, someone teases Nancy about Ned—but Ned Nickerson, Nancy’s favorite date, isn’t introduced in either the original text or the revised text until book #7, The Clue in the Diary. So when Ned is mentioned here in Shadow Ranch, unfamiliar readers will have zero clue who he is. A small whoops, but surely it could have been edited out in subsequent reprints?
The Verdict
Sadly, there’s no contest here. The revised text has all the trappings of the very best Nancy Drew mysteries, whereas the original text reads more like “Nancy and Friends Go on Vacation,” which is simply not on-brand. I do love the western setting in both versions, though, and I wish there were more of the original 56 mysteries that took place in the west of the US.
The Secret OF Shadow Ranch wins over The Secret AT Shadow Ranch by a long ways.
[Disclaimer: cover art scans are from this site.]
