Customer Reviews

The Secret of Red Gate Farm (Nancy Drew, Book 6)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

Best Nancy Drew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All starts when Bess buys a bottle of Blue Jade perfume from a unwilling salesperson. Next thang you know Nancy, George, and a new friend, Joanne are prisoners in cave! How did this all happen? Read the book and find out!

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!

I have just read an enticing book, The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene. This book is part of the Nancy Drew Mystery series. Nancy is an adventurous, fun-loving and determined girl. Wherever Nancy goes, a mystery seems to follow. In this book Nancy makes a new friend and helps here with a few problems. Nancy's new friends invited her to her grandmother's farm, kind of as a repayment since Nancy was so kind. At the farm they stumbled upon a counterfeiting ring, which amazed Nancy. Personally I thought this book was very exciting and accelerating. I really don't like mysteries ,but this one showed me they aren't so bad. So I recommend this book to people who really don't like mysteries ,like me. The descriptive words and accelerating actions made me like the book.

I read the 1931 version. As usual with the original Nancy Drew books, the writing was good. But this particular volume stands out as being one of the better Nancy Drew books. While the whole book is good, the ending at the cave is really exciting.

This was one of the most exciting Nancy Drew books. It all starts when Bess insists on buying mysterious perfume. From there her, Nancy, and George are plunged into a mysterious mix of codes, secret hideouts, and unscroupulous characters that results in the girls being held prisoners in a most unlikely place. The story results in Nancy cleverly helping the owner of Red Gate Farm and capturing her abductors.

Originally written by Mildred Wirt Benson from outlines by Edward Stratemeyer, the Nancy Drew series was first published in 1930s. THE SECRET OF RED GATE FARM was the sixth book in the series, and like the earlier books it presented its heroine as a rich, headstrong, and distinctly reckless teenager who sometimes carried a pistol and who wasn't above breaking the law when it suited her purposes.

As the series progressed and other writers began to generate Nancy Drew novels, the character changed and Nancy was "toned down;" instead of flatly rich, she became reasonably affluent; recklessness was replaced by commonsense caution; and while she might be willing to bend the law a bit she would never knowingly break it. In the 1950s and 1960s the earlier novels were re-written to reflect this change in character.

Originally published in 1931, RED GATE FARM was re-written in 1961--but unlike several other re-written titles the story remains much the same. In this instance, Nancy and her friends Bess and George visit Red Gate Farm, where owner Mrs. Byrd is in financial difficulty and has rented a portion of the land to a religious cult. When Nancy becomes curious, she and her friends are threatened by the cult members--and they decide to infiltrate the group's strange gatherings.

It is worth noting that the cult, which is called The Black Snake Cult, dresses in white robes with odd, peaked hoods, and Nancy and the girls consider disguising themselves with sheets and pillowcases the better to spy upon their activities. Given the era of the book's first publication and later re-write, this would seem to be a subconcious reference to the Klu Klux Klan on the author's part! As always in the original series, the story is very much of its era: there are no cell phones, computers, or modern gadgets, and Nancy is very much an ideal of the time: she can sew, herd a cow, treat a snakebite, and still seem to dress appropriately for all social occasions.

The Nancy Drew books are not great literature by any stretch of the imagination--they are too distinctly formula for that--but they are competently written, literate, and never talk down to their target audience. They are also good "comfort reading" for grown-ups who recall their childhood reading fondly. RED GATE FARM is an amusing read for old fans and newcomers alike.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

They all have the same generic plot to them except for
different mysteries. The end was actually surprising
with it's couple of twists. I think this book is where
I end my reading of Nancy Drew. The books were good
and occupied my time in a good way. They were fast
enjoyable reads that I could read in a few hours.

thank you for your time
and feel free to comment
this review,
Loran

Traveling on a train after buying exotic perfume, Nancy Drew and her friends, who are famous for solving mysteries, meet a girl named Joanne. Something strange was happening, the sales lady at the perfume shop was very reluctant to sell the Blue Jade Perfume. Then at Red Gate Farm, there are some strange people from a "nature clan" called the Black Snake Colony. They perform weird chants and dances; Nancy helps one of the colony members, who later warns her to stay away from the hills of Red Gate Farm where the Black Snake Colony members reside. So of course this young sleuth sniffs up a mystery.

Nancy and her friends decide to investigate this mystery themselves. They dress up as clan members and follow them into a mystifying cave. Who are those people? What are they doing? Read The Secret Of Red Gate Farm to find out!

If you love thrilling action, and extreme suspense The Secret of Red Gate Farm is the book for you! You won't be able to put it down until your finished!

C.L.

This is one of the most thrilling Nancy Drew books EVER published. I would encourage ANYONE to read this book(the original version of course)