The Clue of the Velvet Mask

Infobox Book
name = The Clue of the Velvet Mask


author = Carolyn G. Keene
country = United States
language = English
series = Nancy Drew Mystery Stories
genre = Mystery novel
publisher = Grosset & Dunlap
release_date = 1953
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 192 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-448-09530-0
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Clue of the Velvet Mask" is the thirtieth book in the original "Nancy Drew" series. As well, it was Mildred Benson's final ghostwrite for the series, which was subject to major revision prior to publication. In the story, Nancy tries to solve a mystery about a gang of event thieves robbing homes during parties, lectures, musicals, and other social occasions planned or catered by Lightner's Entertainment Company.

Plot summary

A masquerade is the first incident related, where Nancy and friends try to thwart suspicious, masked party-goers from reaching valuable objets d'art on display. At the party, Nancy finds an odd, black, velvet hood, which she retains as a clue. Nancy's acquaintance, Linda, who is an employee of the company, is suspected of wrongdoing. At subsequent Lightner events, Nancy encounters other thieves, and is nearly suffocated by an evil pair of crooks. Nancy and George rent wigs to switch identities; however, George is kidnapped, her disguise removed, put under the influence of hypnotic, mind-altering drugs, and threatened.

Nancy focuses on the executive assistant at Lightner's, Mr. Tombar, while she attempts to decode mysterious numbers written on the lining of the mask. She realizes that the numbers actually mark dates of events at which robberies took place. She and Bess investigate the ramshackle Blue Iris Inn in the nearby countryside, and fall victim to the evil Velvet gang. Only paranoid George knows where they are, and can identify the clothing last worn by Nancy. Will she be able to overcome her fears and help her friends?

The story is one of the books in the series with the most physical action, finding Nancy repeatedly assaulted or engaged in physical confrontations. George Fayne is drugged and a victim of criminal threat, and Ned is involved in two physical confrontations as well.

The revised version changes Nancy's hair to titian, George's from black to brown, and eliminates subplots and extra descriptive vocabulary, including non-essential scenes and passages, including humorous passages where Nancy works undercover as a file clerk and finds the work unappealing. Additionally, the revised version removes questionable (in 1969) descriptive elements of George's drugged status and hypodermics. Strangely, the revision eliminates the importance of George's recovery; although she leads investigators to the scene of the kidnapping, Mr. Drew is nearly as instrumental in finding Nancy as George. Her discovery of a dress button Nancy has planted at the scene is downplayed. In the original version, Nancy has changed clothes, so only George knows what Nancy and Bess were wearing when they disappeared.

Releases of the book

The original volume was published in 1953, and was the first book to feature cover art by the artist Rudy Nappi. Nappi would go on to illustrate the covers of both the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew from 1953 to 1979. During his long term of employment, Nappi eventually updated cover artwork for books he originally illustrated. The original artwork shows Nancy in a conservative Spanish dancer's gown, on a mansion terrace. She is watching a man climb a trellis, while a masquerade is depicted through the French windows of the house. This art was also used on picture cover editions, from 1962 to 1969. The only interior illustration, the frontispiece, shows Nancy and Bess about to be kidnapped while spying at the Blue Iris Inn.

This book was the first, promotional release for the 1959 debut of the Nancy Drew Reader's Club. The volumes released in this group are two-toned pastels, featuring full color jackets and frontispieces, as well as eight double-page drawings by artist Polly Bolian. Bolian depicts Nancy as a strawberry-blond, but with the short tousled "Audrey Hepburn" hairstyle worn by many young women at the time, and tailored, preppy 1950s ensembles. Books had internal references to other volumes removed, and contain no clues of sequencing. Bolian adapts, with less action, the same scene as the original frontispiece, for the cover art; Nancy and Bess, in vivid 1950's shirtwaist dresses, spy on Mr. Tombar from a ruined garden.

The 1969 revised version, still in print, shows Nancy carrying the accessories from her costume, underneath a large image of a head wearing the black velvet domino. This edition contains five plain pen and ink illustrations as well.

Interestingly, the "capture" scene frontispiece, from the original 1953 edition, was chosen by several book-binding companies to be used as the cover illustration on rebound or library bound editions of many Nancy Drew titles.

See also

* "Nancy Drew"