The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes by Carolyn Keene
The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes takes place in Scotland, not so surprisingly. Nancy and her pals sure did get to do a lot of travelling. What did these girls do for a living? I mean, weren’t they in school or anything? I can’t believe I used to enjoy these books so much. Some kids’ books really hold up but the Nancy Drew series is formulaic to the point of predictability and the mysteries are always solved on the basis of a series of improbable coincidences. Must every piece of paper she finds hold a sinister plot, treasure map, or secret code? Maybe someday a possible clue could turn out to be just a bit of litter. And if the criminals would only leave Nancy alone and stop trying to run her car off the road, she’d never catch them.
The strangest part of the formula is the way the local authorities are always so quick to believe everything Nancy tells them and hop right to arresting people on her command. Most fictional private detectives have a contentious relationship with the police. Well, I suppose our good little Nancy, who can barely manage to give her boyfriend of umpteen years a kiss on the cheek when they say goodbye, couldn’t possibly have a contentious relationship with anyone.