Nancy Drew: The Message in the Hollow Oak Review – Ft. Hollow Oak Nest Eggs

In The Message in the Hollow Oak, Nancy (an 18-year old girl) is prevailed upon by a seasoned New York detective to solve a centuries-old mystery in Illinois. In 1680, a French missionary named Pere Francois left a mysterious message behind during his travels, inside of an unknown hollow oak. The message is thought to have a link to a hidden treasure that the missionary had stashed somewhere before he died. Nancy travels to Illinois, where she stays at a nearby archaeological dig site with a friendly group of students. However, she quickly finds herself and her new friends tormented by a mysterious pursuer who wants to find the message before she does.

Spoilers ahead!

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This was a FUN one! There were a couple notable subplots that were different from your usual Nancy Drew novel:

1. The villain in this story is quite creepy towards Nancy- I don’t think he was ever actually interested in her, but he follows her rather aggressively and certainly appears to be coming on to her. It made him a little more interesting that the usual cardboard cut-out villains.
2. There’s a jealousy subplot, where one of the students Nancy is staying with (Art) gets a big crush on her and starts treating Ned coldly.

Interesting! This one definitely broke the norm.

Another very fun aspect to this one is Nancy is staying with a group of archaeology students, and a few times she also jumps in and helps out at the dig site. I’ve taken a few archaeological methodology courses for my degree, so I found it interesting. It was, however, perhaps a bit unrealistic. I got a good laugh out of this exchange:

[Nancy has found a half-inch long bone fragment.]

“Do you think it’s a finger bone?” asked Julie Anne, who had joined the group.

At once Claire Warwick spoke up. “That’s obviously a metatarsal bone, not a phalange.”…

“Wait a minute,” said Theresa, stepping forward. “Let’s see that… This is a segment of an infant’s finger,” said Theresa. “Better check your anatomy book again, Claire!”

The Message in the Hollow Oak, pg. 51

Lol! Now, I am no expert. But I don’t think you can identify, with the naked eye, the exact placement of a half-inch bone fragment AND the age of its possessor. She spoke so confidently, too.

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Hollow Oak Nest Eggs

This is, literally, eggs and toast. But with a fun little twist. You carve out the middle of the bread and cook the egg inside it! Saves you some carbs! I actually make this all the time, because it’s really simple and it’s the very first recipe in the Nancy Drew Cookbook, which I’ve had since I was a kid.

The ingredients:

• 2 slices Bread
• 1 tbsp Cooking Oil
• 2 Eggs
• Salt
• Pepper

1. Carve a hole in out of the middle of your pieces of Bread. (Note: don’t be afraid to carve out most of the middle.)
2. Spread the Cooking Oil in a large skillet and turn on to medium heat.
3. Place both slices of bread in the skillet and cook till crispy and slightly browned.
4. Turn over the slices of bread, and crack an Egg into the center of each piece. Add Salt and Pepper. Lower the heat and cook until the eggs are ready, around five minutes.

Serves 2.

Nancy recommends using wheat rather than white bread (just so you know).

The recipe says to cook the eggs for five minutes on low heat, but I always end up flipping the bread over and letting the other side of the egg cook for a minute. I’m a little too paranoid to enjoy sunny side up.

This is very yummy, but perhaps a bit plain on its own. I always throw on some garlic powder in addition to the salt and pepper, and I’d suggest topping it with either bacon or salsa. (I always add salsa!) Enjoy!