The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew, Book 2‪)‬

''The Hidden Staircase'' is the second book in the Nancy Drew series.
To me, this book is more exciting than the volume that introduced Nancy Drew, girl detective. The mysterious stone mansion with its many secret staircases and passageways, the frightened elderly twin sisters, and the strange thefts make for exciting reading. Carson Drew’s kidnapping at the hands of miserly, Nathan Gombet, and Gombet’s cruel servant, “the slovenly unnamed negress,” bring new meanings to the words “thrilling adventure.” Nancy looks appropriately inquisitive and beautiful in a 1930s style on this cover art. The revised story, with a completely different plot, is also very good, but it doesn’t effectively compare to the 1930 original story [here].—William Land.