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About the NDRI

The Nancy Drew Research Institute is full of scientists who read Nancy Drew books so that they might understand what the hell is going on, not just with the titian-haired goddess herself, but with the world in general. They are here to help.

The Scientific Formula; Or, How and Why We Do What We Do

We love counting things. We love the attendant numbers of counted things. We love knowing that such and such receptacle contains a known, finite quantity of things. Contained. Counted. Known. Uncontained. Uncounted. Unknown. A delirious excitement and nausea oft...

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The Haunted Showboat

We looked online today to see if Nancy Drew advertises her detection services. Having found no online presence we can only assume that, as in most things that are GOOD in this world, she doesn't need to advertise; in part, because of the word-of-mouth thing and also...

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The Hidden Window Mystery

Charlottesville, Virginia. 1956. VA Senator, Harry Bird, initiates a policy of MASSIVE RESISTANCE to enforced desegregation. Charlottesville, Virginia. 1956. Nancy Drew et al. come to town to solve some mysteries and help Nancy's cousin get ready for GARDEN WEEK....

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The Witch Tree Symbol

What would we do without gypsies, without the ever-present threat of gypsies? Gypsies ruin everything. Seemingly, they can't even help to not fuck things up. Trying to live your life free from religious prosecution? Leave Europe, settle in the land of the free and...

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The Scarlet Slipper Mystery

If this book is to be believed, we have sunk further and faster in the last forty years than it would have been thought imaginable. In this 1971 edition of The Scarlet Slipper Mystery, Nancy does a slap down of an international espionage/counterrevolutionary/smuggling...

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The Ringmaster’s Secret

We don't apologize for tardiness any longer. We are leaner and meaner here at the Institute of Ye Oldie Timey Nancy Drew Research. We are going to say it like it is. From now on. And like it is is this. This is #31 in the series. It was a slog to read. Our eyes were...

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The Clue of the Velvet Mask

We are the lonely. The unloved. We are the great unwashed who teem with the desire to roust and lead. Our lives, held up to the glare and glisten of Miss Drew, are beyond the pale of pale. We turn the glisten to catch you up in its shine. What special counter have you...

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Mystery at the Ski Jump

Here at the Nancy Drew Research Institute we are first and foremost scientists. Our jaws dropped when we heard the foul stupidity regarding legitimate rape spewing from the maw of Senator Todd Akin.  Our jaws dripped when we heard "certain secretions".  Our jaws...

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The Clue of the Black Keys

We want to shuffle our feet in shame at the coming to light of the letter from India.  We were actually almost completely joking about passing off the important research to underpaid shelf re-stockers in New Delhi.  But, you know, there was that 1% chance that we...

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The Secret of the Letter from New Delhi

Nancy Drew Research Institute Happy Valley, Canada USA Pego Fasil Venkatanarasimha Rubber and Plastic Pipe Store 426 Lalkuan Bazar Road New Delhi, India 110024 Dearest Nancy Drew Research Institute of Happy Valley, A colleague from your venerable temple contacted our...

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The Secret of the Wooden Lady

We are all fired up and trembly here at the Nancy Drew Research Institute (NDRI). We have come into a bit of a fortune. It went down like this.   The head researcher's strange Aunt Carrie, who has always taken an interest in the work of the Institute, has decided to...

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The Clue of the Leaning Chimney

We are soaked in sweat here at the NDRI.  Perchance it was the unbelievable number of complicated convergences that were met in the course of parsing ye olde The Clue of the Leaning Chimney.  Never too early in the day for a convergence or six, we always say. Honestly...

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The Ghost of Blackwood Hall

Jumping Jesus on a stick!  We are both ashamed and ennobled by our tardy reporting of FACTS and FIGURES about yon young whippersnapper N.D.  She has beguiled us into believing that our work is of the UTMOST import and therefore people will wait in a trembling way for...

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The Clue in the Old Album

The Nancy Drew Research Institute (NDRI), bereft of a responsible Board of Directors, jacked of its pension funds by unscrupulous researchers, clinging to its very existence by the ragged nails of fate, would nonetheless like to take this time out to bestow its First...

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The Mystery of the Tolling Bell

Okay mystery fans. We are spent here at the Institute. Our NDRI mascot, a lovely little albino gerbil, has been violently ill for the last 24 hours and we are all sixes and sevens as to whether to take her to the vet or just let this mysterious illness work its way...

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The Old Mystery of the Tolling Bell

We want to say that nobody should visit mysterious ghost strewn caves wearing heels, pleated skirts, and clutching a purse. We want to say that. We also want to say that this is the first time that Nancy has ever taken a reward for a job well done - a Paul Revere bell...

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The Clue in the Crumbling Wall

Wow! A favourite read here amongst the intrepid interpreters of The Word. Nancy kicks over venomous asps, packs of domesticated wolf-kin, a near drowning, concussions up the yin yang, and imprisonment to bring us TRUTH, BEAUTY and a pack of HAPPY, CRIPPLED CHILDREN....

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The Old Secret in the Old Attic

Well, gangsters. We want to apologize for the paucity of NDRI research over the last month or so. What excuse have we this time? Whores? Hockey whores? Financial debauchery? Well actually none of these and all of these. You see, we inadvertently discovered a worm hole...

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The Secret in the Old Attic

Okay. Things have been monkey strange here for the last few weeks. We had an important fiscal deadline here at the Nancy Drew Research Institute (NDRI), namely the turning over of the books to a professional external auditing company. It turns out that the man who was...

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The Clue in the Jewel Box

Ladies! Ladies! Ladies! What need of you a smoky eye? A raccoon eye? Retinyl palmitates? A come hither stare or even a body made skeletal? All you need is Mystery Eye. It costs nothing, it leaves no chemical trace that will later morph into some unspeakable cancer of...

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The Quest of the Missing Map

There have been no messages of love, support, or personal shame posted on the Nancy Drew Research Institute's much beleaguered plywood window proxies. That privilege has been reserved for the deserving corporate entities down the street whose "business as usual" maxim...

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Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion

Sweet Jesus...has forgotten to come again and here we were in the trenches battling the overdrunk fans of the men who chase and swat at small black things while wearing skates. Unbeknownst to any of you, the NDRI head offices were located at the epicentre of the...

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The Old Mystery at the Moss-Covered Mansion

We read. We learn. 1940s Nancy is far spunkier, ruder, bitchier, more entitled, more unlawful, more prone to serious injury and surviving major death encounters (plane crash, thrown overboard into the mid Atlantic at night, attacked by a jaguar, etc..) She is not...

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Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk

Things went awry here at the Nancy Drew Research Institute. Very awry. The Board of Directors. An emergency meeting. The Impending Rapture. Whores. Drugs. Booze. (Why always these three?) Dismissal of Board. Staff left in the lurch, cobbling together our very reason...

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The Old Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk

Jesus. The Nancy Drew Research Institute has been a hub of whirlwinds. We have just found out that the rapture is coming on May 21st and we are horrified! According to our whip-paced schedule we will be in the actual process of inputting the statistics from The...

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The Clue of the Tapping Heels

So the book deal came. No joking. The work of the Nancy Drew Research Institute (NDRI) will be anthologized in a textbook bound for university and college students of literature here in Happy Valley, Canada, USA. The contract has been signed, the deal is done. We will...

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The Haunted Bridge

As mentioned a few weeks ago, we here at the NDRI (Nancy Drew Research Institute) have lost over half of our staff during "The Mystery of the Very Bad Lottery Numbers". As a result we are pretty tapped out here and are scrambling to post our findings in a timely...

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The Whispering Statue

Hey Nancy Drew Research Institute (NDRI) followers. Here in Happy Valley, Canada, USA, we are watching the final game of the Vancouver Canucks vs. The Chicago something-or-others. We have neither time nor inclination to be witty, maudlin, sad, angry or whatever passes...

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The Mystery of the Ivory Charm

At the end of each work week we here at the Nancy Drew Research Institute (NDRI) gather to compare notes about the current mystery on tap. Together we discovered what we indeed had noticed separately - that there were no clothing changes given ink in The Mystery of...

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The Message in the Hollow Oak

Following from last week's debacle of thwarted dreams, five members of the research staff here at the Nancy Drew Research Institute (NDRI) have quit. They are sensitive souls who found that they no longer had the stamina to send out seething stink eye to the ones who...

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The Clue of the Broken Locket

So here's the dealio. The researchers here at the Nancy Drew Research Institute (NDRI) bought a group lottery ticket in the hopes of winning - gasp - 50 million dollars. We were heady with the excitement of largesse and benevolence and our own Buddha selves and now...

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Password to Larkspur Lane

The Nancy Drew Research Institute (NDRI) has something to say. Courting ethical wrist-slapping, we have a message to all of you confidence men, escaped criminals, perps, thieves, do-ers of bad, and others for whom life's road has been hard. If you want to fly under...

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The Sign of the Twisted Candles

Hello Nancy Drew mystery lovers in Canada, the United States and Newfoundland. It has been fairly quiet here at the Nancy Drew Research Institute (NDRI) this week. The board of directors is seemingly pleased with the direction of the research, we've picked up more...

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Nancy’s Mysterious Letter

We plugged away indifferently this week. A dear friend and supporter of the NDRI has died and Japan has been moved eight feet. The world rotates on a different axis now, friends.   Constant amazement is our constant companion.  ...

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The Clue in the Diary

As the lead researcher here at the Nancy Drew Research Institute (NDRI) I have made a decision without consultation of either board, colleagues or clients. I expect that there shall be some sort of kerfuffle about it, nonetheless, it had to be done. First a general...

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The Secret of Red Gate Farm

Our hearts are heavy here at the Nancy Drew Research Institute (NDRI). One of our dear colleagues held his premature infant in his arms for mere hours before the child passed from this world and another of our peers has been stricken with a sickness that will soon end...

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The Secret of Shadow Ranch

Hello Nancy Drew Research Institute, lovers of. We have been a bit under the weather here this week in Happy Valley. Actually, as sick as sick dogs might be a more nuanced telling of the hell we have endured in the laboratory for the past five says. Literally...

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The Mystery at Lilac Inn

Good God. The pace of this research is somewhat gruelling. Who knew that the task of reading and annotating one Nancy Drew book per week would take us researchers to the edge of insanity? We know that the work is well-paid, rewarding, adding to knowledge, blah blah...

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The Hidden Staircase

We've had a very stressful week here at the Nancy Drew Research Institute. The NDRI rents an office/laboratory in a large professional building here in Happy Valley. The management company that runs the building has come down hard on the quality of the research that...

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The Secret of the Old Clock

Good people. Welcome to the first instalment of the Nancy Drew Research Institute's endeavour to research Nancy Drew. Below you will find all of the pertinent information about The Secret of the Old Clock. Nothing has escaped the critical eyes of our in-house research...

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