Customer Reviews

Nancy Clue and the Hardly Boys in a Ghost in the Closet

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If you were ever a fan of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, the book will capture your heart. The gay humor will keep a smile on your face all the while. Mabel Maney captures the essence of the original series and gives it a hilarious twist in this light-hearted story of international espionage, mistaken identity, love, and of course, FAAbulous style. The mystery itself is as authentic as Carolyn Keene's originals. The story line is classic, and, golly, the fashions are keen! The innocent words and phrases of earlier decades become rib-tickling double-entendres in the unorthodox utopia of River Depth, Illinois and 'nearby' Feyport. The only thing missing is the classic pen-and-ink drawings that illustrated the original books. The parody can be a little heavy at times, but not enough to deter you from enjoying this refreshing, fun book. Cancel your appointments, find a cozy corner and escape to a place where you can cherish childhood memories in ways you never dreamed of...

Mable Maney captures the breathlessness and aw-shucks rhythm of 1940s teen detective novels -- with a skewed slant that some of us wished could have been written in our own teen literature. Although I had not read the two preceding Nancy Clue novels, I had no problem falling in with Nancy and her career-fixated girlfriend, Cherry Aimless, R.N. And, with the introduction of the Hardly Boys, this book is equally a treat for gay guys as well as gals. All the characters act and are drawn as 1940's and 50's stereotypes, wonderfully un-P.C. for today's mainstream taste. Some of their adventures and internal dialogues are laugh-out-loud funny, others are as wincingly camp as any "Brady Bunch" episode. Imagine discovering a lost episode of "Leave it to Beaver" where Eddie develops a crush on Wally and you get the general idea. A small example of the cleverness of this spoof are the illustrations, shown at the start of each chapter...which, just like in th! e real novels, are totally unrelated to the story. Altogether a fun read!

This really is a hoot. It's all done in (very) good taste and you can tell the author is having a ball writing this stuff.