The Sign of the Twisted Candles is the ninth volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories

The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories was the long-running "main" Nancy Drew series, published between 1930 and 2003. Initially, titles were published by Grosset & Dunlap, but with #57 publication switched to Simon & Schuster. Most people consider these first 56 to be the original series and consider the...

 series. It was first published in 1933 under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene

Carolyn Keene

Carolyn Keene is the pseudonym of the authors of the Nancy Drew mystery stories and The Dana Girls mystery stories, both produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate...

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Plot summary

While solving the mystery of an old man's disappearing fortune, Nancy both starts and ends a family feud and reveals the identity of an orphan of unknown parentage. The second of three novels by ghostwriter Walter Karig, this story focuses on Nancy's encounter with a 100-year-old man at "The Sign of the Twisted Candles," a roadside inn and restaurant. Nancy, Bess and George take afternoon tea there while waiting out a storm; Nancy's roadster has a "wet engine." They encounter Asa Sidney, celebrating his 100th birthday, and the pathetic maid/waitress Carol Wipple, mistreated by her adoptive parents, Frank and Emma Jemmit.

Nancy discovers that Mr. Sidney is an elderly relative of Bess and George, and her willingness to communicate with him launches a family feud upon his death a few days later, and leaves her chumless, as the cousins refuse to associate with Nancy. Carol is named as the major benefactress, and Nancy must prove that Frank and Emma Jemmit have misappropriated property. Relatives of Mr. Sidney and his wife(Sidney and Boonton families) fight over the money, getting in on the action. Nancy also must discover why Asa was interested in the young woman.

While investigating, Nancy is reunited with her friends, and later, in the climax, is nearly killed by being pushed from a ladder against a tower window (illustrated as internal art in the original 1933 edition; this illustration and two others were dropped in 1936). Carol's true identity is discovered as the great-niece of Asa Sidney, as are a number of inventions awaiting patent from Sidney, and securities. The family feud is resolved due to Nancy's discoveries.

Artwork

The original R.H. Tandy dust jacket shows Nancy meeting with Mr. Sidney, in her simple summer dress and hat. Bill Gillies' 1950 cover art shows Nancy as a busty sweater girl, watching from a window as Frank Jemitt digs a hole outside. A more simply executed version of this image was used for half of the endpaper used from 1953 to 1959 (known as Digger endpaper). The endpapers show the digging man, while Nancy (in art adapted from The Secret of Red Gate Farm) hides behind a tree and watches. The 1968 cover art shows a flip-haired Nancy near a candle with Asa glowering in the background. This art was also used as a generic cover stock, in red, blue and pink, for library binding or rebound library copies of all titles in the series.