Nancy Drew Secret of the Old Clock

Nancy is 18, and is prompted to help the Crowley kin by her affection for a young child who is Crowley's distant relative. The Hoover Sisters (Changed from 1930 "Horner") and Nancy help one of the Hoover sisters obtain singing lessons to develop her skills; in the original version, they sought to improve their hatchery and dress-making skills. This is a more refined and sedate Nancy; Crowley's initial "heirs" are depicted as very undeserving of wealth; and Helen is older (in preparation for her eventual "write-out" after volume 4 of the revised series - no explanation is made in the original series to introduce Bess and George, although two figures illustrated in the same vein as these girls appear in a 1959 illustration at a camp for girls.) The action is increased significantly, and is faster-paced. Greater detail is given to show Nancy described as wearing a variety of fashions in the book, and her encounter with the undeserving Topham sisters now centers around a torn evening dress instead of a broken vase, as in the original story. Racial stereotypes and all minority characters are omitted, and Nancy encounters an additional difficulty with her car--a faulty top switch, resulting in her chance meeting of the Hoovers while caught in a deluge driving the open car. The final scene, reading of the will which disinherits the Tophams, focuses on the delight of awarding deserving Crowley kin, instead of Nancy's desire to harm the snobbish Topham family.