Product Description

Nancy becomes suspicious of a secret society and is drawn to investigate.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #628799 in Books
• Published on: 1995-01-01
• Format: Facsimile
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

About the Author
Carolyn Keene is the author of the ever-popular Nancy Drew (All New) Girl Detective and Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew series.

From AudioFile
Nancy Drew fans will enjoy meeting old chums: tomboy Georgeand timid Bess; Nancy's supportive dad, Carson Drew; and of course,the clever sleuth, Nancy, herself. Added to the mix this time are anew friend whose grandmother is about to lose her farm,money-laundering thugs, and a mysterious cult. For those who canoverlook corny clichés, annoying adverbs, and stereotypicalcharacters, this book has a well-structured, suspenseful plot withlots of twists and turns and enough danger to keep young readersshivering. Background music, done to good effect, adds the feeling ofan old-fashioned radio drama. Reader Laura Linney seems made toorder. With an expressive, well-modulated voice, she keeps the pacelively and maintains just the right balance between narration anddramatization. E.S. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

The Mystery of the Vicious Black Snake Colony
Nancy Drew and the Mystery at the Red Gate Farm is a very good book. It all started when Nancy and her friends, Bess and George (who were cousins) were out shopping. They came to a perfume shop and Bess found a bottle of perfume she wanted. When she went to buy it, the clerk acted very strange and almost insisted that Bess shouldn't buy it. She bought it anyway and they continued their journey home. On the metro link, Nancy and the two cousins befriended a very nice girl. She was about their age and her name was Joanne. She lives on Red Gate Farm with her grandma, but they are planning to sell it soon. "Grams put an ad in the paper saying that we will allow boarders to come live with us, but no one answered it yet. I was out looking for a job today, but I haven't had much luck."
During the way home, Bess was opening up her perfume to show Joanne and the bottle slipped out of her hands. It spilt everywhere and got on Nancy. Later on, Nancy left to go to the bathroom. On her way, a mysterious looking man was staring at her and smelt her perfume. He asked her in a whisper, "Any word from the chief?" The man realized his mistake and walked away. Could this have been some kind of clue to a mystery?
The next morning Nancy drove Joanne to her interview. When they got there, a rude man confronted them. He told Joanne to go to another room and wait for him. Nancy sat in a chair in the front office where she saw the man writing and talking on the phone. When he went to Joanne, Nancy got up and wrote down what he had written. Joanne finished soon afterwards and they left.
Nancy called up Jo and told her that Bess, George, and she could come be their paying boarders at the farm so that Grams could get more money to keep the farm. So the next day Nancy picked everyone up and they were on their way to the farm. It took several hours for them to get to the countryside. After traveling for such a long time, they decided to go eat. When Nancy drove up, she noticed that the man that she had seen on the train, the woman from the perfume shop, and the rude guy in the office were in a car filling up gas. The girls quickly ate and continued towards Red Gate Farm.
When they got home, everyone was introduced to each other. Joanne told the girls that there was a cult that lived on the hill right next to Red Gate Farm. They're called The Black Snake Colony and perform rituals on the nights when there are full moons. Jo told them that everyone in town is afraid of them. A couple of days later they decided to make cloaks like the ones the Black Snake Colony wear so that one night they could sneak up and start the rituals with them and find out what was going on in the colony. After going to buying the material for the cloaks, they had a bite to eat at the same restaurant they had eaten at a couple days before. They sat down at a table and heard loud voices. They walked into the room with secret service agents. They were talking about counterfeited money. All of a sudden the restaurant owner said, "That's her! That's the girl who gave me the fake $20 bill!" She was pointing at Nancy. When the girls found out what happened, they cleared everything up with the manager. Evidently, someone snuck into Nancy's wallet and traded her real money for counterfeit money.
That night the girls finished making their cloaks and decided that they were going to join the rituals that night. So when they saw the Black Snake members doing their dances, they ran out to the hill. Joanne stayed behind some bushes as the girls' look out. Bess, George, and Nancy ran out to the hill in their cloaks and masks and started dancing and chanting. A few minutes later, everyone went into a hidden cave. Once everyone was seated on the ground, their leader said, "Ok, let's get to business!" Everyone stood up and walked into a secret room where there were machinery, paper, and money everywhere. "So they're the counterfeiters!" Nancy thought to herself. "Before you start working," their leader said, "let's have everyone take off their masks to make sure no one's missing." The three girls whispered to each other, "We're doomed!" Nancy told them calmly to try and run for it, but a man was guarding the door.
When it came to the three girls' turn to take their masks off, Bess accidentally shouted, "Nooo!" The Colony surrounded the girls and forced them to take off their masks to reveal themselves. The girls were very scared but one by one they took off their masks. The leader was outraged when he found out that the girls had snuck inside the cave and were snooping around. He told his people to tie them up and take the girls out to a nearby shack.
While the girls got tied up, they saw Joanne being dragged inside by another man. Joanne had been caught! When they reached the mouth of the cave, the police were there. I wonder what happens next! You will have to read the book to find out what happens in the end. I like Nancy Drew and the Mystery at Red Gate Farm because it was a suspenseful book and I never knew what was going to happen next!

One Of The Best Nancy Drew Books
This review concerns the original 1931 edition and the revised 1961 edition, which tells a story similar to the original, but it is shorter. While on a shopping trip, Nancy, Bess and George meet a young girl named Millie (Joanne in the revised edition) who lives at Red Gate Farm with her grandmother. Millie/Joanne and her grandmother may be forced to sell their farm because they don't have enough money, so they decide to take in boarders. Nancy, George and Bess go to the farm to spend some time with their new friend and she tells them about a weird nature cult that rents part of their land and performs strange rituals at night. Nancy; however, suspects that the cult is not quite what it seems. To find out if she is right you'll have to read the book. I really enjoyed this book. I found the mystery intriguing and the writing was very good (at least with the original edition, which was the one I read). I'd recommend reading the original edition, if possible, but either way, this is a very good story that fans of the series would enjoy.

Kindness Personified
I read this book not too long ago after a long break from reading the hardcovers. I forgot how much I liked it!
In this book, Nancy and the gang helps out a girl and her granny at their farm, and becomes entangled in solving a mystery involving counterfeiting, greed, and a KKK-like "clan."
What really stood out in this book was Nancy's eagerness to help others, and her generosity. I love how Nancy shows so much concern for Joanne. She drove Joanne to different towns in search of a job, and went to her farm to be a paying boarder just so they wouldn't have to sell the place. You don't read about that sort of thing in the paperbacks nowadays. I haven't read a YSPC in a really long time, so it was a treat to read something so refreshing and different! You really lose sight of the real Nancy when you start reading paperbacks. I've never really realized how different Nancy had become since the 50s, or the 30s, for that matter, until now.
This book is the quintessential example of Nancy Drew being a great role model.

S.J.