Nancy Drew books: All the stories we want to see on The CW
The CW’s Nancy Drew doesn’t really adapt the classic mysteries of Edward Stratemeyer’s original novels. The mystery that Nancy (Kennedy McMann) and the gang are solving in The CW series is a wholly original mystery. While there have been references to the books and past cases that Nancy has solved, there hasn’t been a true adaptation of the source material.
With Nancy Drew already renewed for a second season on The CW, we’re taking a look at the past books for the series. Who knows? Maybe one of them can get enough of a supernatural tinge to it to allow for an adaptation for season two. Here are our favorites for a potential adaptation on The CW’s Nancy Drew.
Password to Larkspur Lane
Written in 1933, Password to Larkspur Lane follows Nancy as she finds a carrier pigeon in her yard and leads to a mystery about an elderly patient being held captive in a care home. Considered to be one of the best stories in the Nancy Drew canon, Larkspur Lane is ripe for a creepy adaptation within the world of the The CW series.
Imagine it. Nancy gets involved in a case involving a care home outside of Horseshoe Bay that is keeping decades long secrets about patient misconduct. So many creepy hidden corners and abandoned asylum vibes? Definitely could be a fun adaptation to make so creepy, so easily.
The Message in the Hollow Oak
In this novel, Nancy wins some land in Canada that may or may not have gold on it. On the way, she, George, and Bess are part of a train crash, which kills a passenger they befriended named Ann Chappelle. Anne asks Nancy to give a message to her grandfather and to find a lost love she left behind many years ago.
If we keep the death of Ann Chappelle, then this would be perfectly suited to a Nancy Drew season. Ann’s ghost haunts Nancy and her friends as they try to find her lost love and unravel the mystery of why Ann ran away from home. Plus a train crash! Who would want to crash the train and why?
The Mystery of the Tolling Bell
This Nancy Drew story actually has a ghost in it! Or, well, a story about a ghost in it. Considering that The CW’s Nancy Drew loves taking ghost stories and making them all too real, then this would be perfect for an adaptation. When George, Bess, and Nancy go to a seaside town to search for Carson Drew’s missing client, Carson himself doesn’t show up. While they handle the disappearances, they also hear a story about a ghost in the cliffside and mysterious tolling bell.
Horseshoe Bay in The CW Nancy Drew series is already perfectly set up for such a story. While Dead Lucy is the most famous horror story to come out of Horseshoe Bay, we’re sure that they are more haunted things either in the town or the surrounding area to get good stories out of for future Nancy Drew seasons.
The Witch Tree Symbol
Admittedly, you need some knowledge of the Amish and their beliefs around witches. As The CW’s Nancy Drew is actually pretty good at respecting different cultures and their beliefs, then they should be able to explain it pretty well. (Seriously, check out the writers room Twitter. They get into detail on the topics.) Basically, Nancy and her friends travel to Pennsylvania Dutch country while pursuing a thief after finding a witch tree symbol.
Debated on whether or not they are used as hex signs, a witch tree is when a tree is planted over the burial site of a believed to be witch (outside of an Amish cemetery) so that the evil can be contained within the tree. So this definitely a fascinating origin for Nancy Drew to get into, especially since ghosts are real. Why not witches?
The Whispering Statue
The original 1937 novel is considered to be one of the most ragged and overpopulated stories of the Nancy Drew series, not to mention explicit mentions of abuse. Like it’s considered to be so bad that the 1970 reprint needed a complete overhaul of the story. Why are we recommending this story about a statue that resembles Nancy? Why do we think the Nancy Drew show should put their own spin on it?
Precisely because the book is an overpopulated mess that the writers can stretch out the story, fill in the gaps, and craft a compelling narrative. One thing that is great about The CW’s Nancy Drew is that they take their time in unwinding the mystery, establish mythology, and building atmosphere.
The most overstuffed book in the series can be taken apart and drawn out in some pretty interesting ways. What better redemption than taking something considered bad and making it good?
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Nancy Drew airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.
