Nancy Drew: The Whispering Statue Review

Ft. Whispering Statue Sherbet

In The Whispering Statue, Nancy goes undercover at a seaside resort to investigate Willis Basswood, a seller of antiques, statuary, and rare books, when he goes under suspicion of swindling the people whose wares he’s selling. Simultaneously, the resort she’s staying at recently lost a famous whispering statue which used to adorn its front grounds. Nancy dons a wig, glasses, and copious amounts of tanning lotion to pass as shrill voiced Debbie Lynbrook– and then gets hired as a salesclerk at Mr. Basswood’s store!

Spoilers ahead!

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This was SO FUN! Easily my favorite Nancy Drew mystery so far, and the one that, I would say, most resembles the video game series. Nancy going undercover at a distant location right where the mystery is taking place is a very classic game plot. Since I’m reading the series in order, I wonder if most of the books have a similar turn, which may explain why almost none of the Nancy Drew games take place in River Heights.

Some brief notes I made while reading the book:

• George’s Judo skills come back to play. Not sure if I’ve mentioned this in other reviews, but George’s abilities in Judo are frequently mentioned; This time she actually did something useful with it. I think I’ll start calling this Judo Alert. George flexes her Judo skills twice in this book.
• This book was definitely written by someone who knows how to sail. There are at least two chapters in this book that are so decently full of sailing jargon that I have almost no idea what’s going on. Here’s a random excerpt:

“Nothing here.” Ned sighed. “Let’s go wing and wing since we’re before the wind, and hope for the best.”

“We may be better off. Setting a spinnaker is always tricky business,” said Nancy. “We’ll do well wing and wing, especially since you’re crewing.”

Uhuh, okay.

• Later in the book, after the antique shop has been raided and the police have the keys to the store, Nancy goes to the police headquarters to ask for the keys, so that she can do some sleuthing herself. AND THEY GIVE IT TO HER!
• It’s not as egregious as some, but this has a typical Nancy Drew ending with the villains spilling all their plans, and each part they had to play in the events of the book. Here’s how one mysterious assailant reveals his identity:

The prisoner stared at Nancy in disbelief. Then he said, “Sure.” As if suddenly proud of his identity, the man puffed out his chest. “Trunk Rasson is strong. I can lift anything.”

He reveals his identity by referring to himself in the THIRD PERSON.

Overall, fantastic, solid, 10/10 Nancy Drew mystery, full of goofy fun and packed with shenanigans. What did you think of The Whispering Statue?

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Whispering Statue Sherbet

I ran into issues with this recipe, mostly because I can’t read, but also because this recipe has some strange directions. This came from my wonderful Nancy Drew cookbook:

The ingredients are as follows:

• 6 8-oz Orange Drinks
• 1 8 1/2-oz can Crushed Pineapple
• 1 14-oz can Condensed Milk
• 1 6-oz can Concentrated Orange Juice

One note straight off: The recipe calls for six 8-oz orange drinks. I bought Fanta, which I assume fits the bill.

1. In a pitcher, mix together the Orange Drinks, Pineapple, Condensed Milk, and Orange Juice.
2. Remove the dividers from empty ice trays.
3. Pour the mixture into the trays and put in refrigerator. To prevent the mixture from separating, stir at 10-minute intervals until freezing begins.

Nancy Tip: Nancy likes to serve this on ice cream cones, or as a combination with vanilla ice cream.

When I read this recipe, I thought, “This is so simple! You just throw it all together!” And that’s true. And I proceeded to throw it all together. But I definitely forgot that the ingredients I bought were not the correct amounts; I think I tripled the amount of pineapple. My sherbet was quite grainy. One of these days, I will learn how to read.

Another note: This recipe says to put the sherbet in the fridge, and then keep stirring every ten minutes, for an unspecified amount of time until it freezes. The fridge is not correct. It needs to go in the freezer. I asked my mom, “Did they have freezers in the 70s?” and she was very offended, so I think the answer is yes. Perhaps the terms were used interchangeably though, because I don’t know why this recipe says fridge. I don’t think it will ever freeze unless placed in the freezer. (I did try it in the fridge, at first.)

ALSO, I used a long cake pan, rather than ice trays without dividers, as I don’t have those. It worked fine in the pan.

Because I tripled the pineapple, it was far too acidic on its own. But Nancy is right that it combines well with vanilla ice cream; they were delicious together.