Perfect Cover: Book Two in the Perfect Mystery Trilogy (Nancy Drew (All New) Girl Detective) (Paperback)

~ Carolyn Keene (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

My friends and I are headed to the Big Apple!

George, Bess, and I continue our investigation of the Miss Pretty Face Beauty Pageant in New York City, where the next round of competition is being held. When I get there, Pretty Face Cosmetics seems creepier than ever!

Suspicious security men, animal rights protesters, and a mysterious scientist make this the craziest case I've ever investigated. And when someone suddenly goes missing, I realize it just might be the most dangerous!

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, IT'S A WONDERFUL TOWN

"Ladies and gentlemen," the flight attendant announced over the intercom, "we've begun our final descent into New York City. Please make sure your seat belts are fastened and your seat backs and tray tables are in the upright and locked position."

"Look out, New York, Nancy Drew is here. Yes, I mean that Nancy Drew, teen detective and beauty pageant winner!" George Fayne, one of my two closest friends, turned to me from the aisle seat and held an imaginary microphone to her lips. "The-e-e-ere she is, Mi-iss Pretty Face...," she crooned.

I groaned. "George, if you sing that to me one more time, I swear I'll seal your mouth with duct tape."

George smirked. "Goes with the territory, Nan. I know you entered the Miss Pretty Face pageant to solve a mystery, but the mystery's over now -- and yet, here you are, about to take part in the next phase of the competition. I just want to hear you admit that you're a real pageant girl."

"I am not!" I protested. "It just didn't seem right to drop out, especially after all the drama the pageant has had the last couple of years."

I'd originally entered the regional Miss Pretty Face beauty pageant to go undercover. I had been trying to find out why the previous year's winner had been dethroned. I solved that mystery, and found plenty of scandals and surprises along the way -- but the biggest surprise came when I ended up winning the pageant! Now I was on my way to New York City to represent our hometown, River Heights, in the nationwide Miss Pretty Face pageant. George and my other best friend, George's cousin Bess Marvin, had come with me for moral support (or, in George's case, to torture me in person) and to take a vacation in the big city.

The plane's wheels touched down on the runway and we taxied toward our gate.

"Nancy, can I borrow your Perfect Face again?" Bess asked.

I laughed. "I know you just want to borrow some lotion, but it sounds weird when you put it that way. I feel like saying, 'My face doesn't come off!'" Unzipping my carry-on bag, I looked inside for the small Perfect Face Revitalizing Lotion samples I had been given as a contestant. "You can have them all," I said, handing them to her. "To be honest, I don't really like the way the lotion makes my face feel."

"Oooh, I do," Bess said, smoothing it onto her cheeks. "I totally love it! It's so tingly."

"That's exactly why I don't like it," I told her. "I don't know, it just feels strange."

George put a finger to her lips. "Shhh, don't say anything bad about the Pretty Face products. Piper's listening," she cautioned me. "I bet she's trying to find some dirt on you so she can get you disqualified as Miss Pretty Face and take your place."

I sneaked a glance between the seat backs. Sure enough, in the row behind us, the first runner-up, a blond girl named Piper Depken, was leaning forward with her ear cocked. When she caught me looking at her, she flushed and leaned back, giving me a cold stare. "You've got bags under your eyes," she told me, then pointedly held up a magazine and pretended to read it.

I sighed. Talk about a change of attitude. When I first entered the pageant, Piper had been friendly and seemingly helpful, giving me advice about how to make myself a better beauty queen. Granted, her tips included telling me that I was ten pounds overweight and trying to convince me to go on an awful diet in order to lose the weight, but still. However, the moment it had become clear that I was actual competition, the friendly manner had vanished. Piper wanted to win the pageant crown, and she wanted it bad.

In fact, I did feel a bit guilty about winning. The crown happened to come with a lot of great stuff, like a scholarship, not to mention free Pretty Face cosmetics for life, since Pretty Face was the pageant's sponsor. Piper, I knew, came from a poor family and could really have used the scholarship.

"Oh, and Nancy?" Piper added, tapping my shoulder.

I turned around. "Yes?"

"That blue top? Wrong color for you," she said, and gave me a poisonously sweet smile.

On the other hand, I'd have felt much worse if I'd taken the crown from somebody who was actually nice.

After we got off the plane and collected our bags, a sleek black limousine whisked us away toward the Manhattan skyline. Bess, George, Piper, and I shared the big car with Kyle McMahon, the North American brand manager of Pretty Face cosmetics, and his daughter, Kelly, who happened to be the previous year's Miss Pretty Face River Heights.

"Thanks for letting George and me share the limo, even though we're not in the pageant, Mr. McMahon," Bess gushed. "I feel like a queen, riding into Manhattan this way!"

Kyle McMahon had been scrolling through the e-mails on his PDA, but now he looked up and gave Bess a smile. "You're very welcome," he told her. "It's bending the rules a bit, but we had the room."

His cell phone rang and he answered the call. "Kyle McMahon here....Yes, that's right....No, that ad campaign rolls out next week....Hang on, I've got the e-mail chain right here...."

As he spoke, he massaged the bridge of his nose wearily. I caught Kelly's look of concern and gave her a sympathetic smile. "He works pretty hard, doesn't he?" I whispered.

"Especially since he got promoted. He was supposed to spend a week a month in New York City, but he's been here more like three weeks a month," Kelly whispered back. She pushed a strand of blond hair off her forehead. "I know I should be happy for him and all, but this new job is really stressing him out."

Kelly's mom had passed away when she was ten, and she was an only child, so the bond between her and her dad was pretty tight. I knew what that was like -- I lost my mom when I was just a little kid, too -- so I completely understood her concern.

"Things will settle down after the pageant is over," I told her.

"I hope so," she said with a sigh.

We wound through the crooked, tree-lined streets of Greenwich Village and finally pulled up in front of a sleek glass-and-steel building that towered over the surrounding brownstones. A uniformed bellhop came out and opened our car door. "Welcome to the Horatio, ladies," he said.

"The Horatio Hotel." Bess sighed in rapture. "I read all about this place in Us magazine. It's the hottest new spot in the city. I spent a week calling them four times a day until they had a cancellation and I could get a room." Since she wasn't with the pageant, Bess had gotten a separate room for George and herself.

"Wow," I murmured as I climbed out of the limo. It was certainly a far cry from the chain hotels where beauty pageants were typically held. "I wonder what kind of strings Pretty Face had to pull to get the whole pageant in here."

Kelly overheard me and gave me a slightly forced smile. "My dad is the one who made all the arrangements," she said. "Don't tell me you're thinking of investigating him!"

"No, no," I assured her quickly. "I didn't mean anything by it."

Whoops! Ever since I'd revealed that I was a detective, everyone in the pageant had been treating me a bit warily. It had been especially hard with Kelly because we'd gotten to be such good friends during the River Heights pageant and I think she felt blindsided when she found out I'd been keeping a secret from her.

"Well, that's a relief," Kelly said with a laugh.

We went inside and registered. I saw George's eyes widen as she looked at the room rates. Bess grinned mischievously. "Hottest spot in the city," she reminded George.

"Right," George said, gulping. "Remind me to point that out to my mom when she sees the bill."

Kelly and I followed the bellhop up to the eighth-floor room we were sharing. It was filled with light from a huge window that looked west over the Hudson River. "This is gorgeous!" I said, sinking down on one of the cream-colored armchairs. A low glass coffee table held a bouquet of pink-and-white flowers that filled the air with a delicious scent. I leaned back and stretched out my legs. "Why does traveling make me so tired? It's not like I did anything but sit all day, but I feel like I could just stay in this armchair forever. That is, if we can get something from room service. I'm starving!"

Kelly glanced at the pageant agenda that had been left in our room, then at her watch. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but the welcome reception starts in an hour," she told me. "We've just got time to unpack, freshen up, and change."

I got up, sighing. "A pageant girl's work is never done."

"Tell me about it," Kelly said with a laugh. "You know, I loved being Miss Pretty Face, but I have to say I'm glad it's your responsibility now. It's hard to be on all the time. And it's nice to know I can leave the reception any time I want."

As I rummaged through my cosmetics bag, I frowned. "Uh-oh. I gave all my Perfect Face samplers to Bess and I forgot to bring a big jar for myself. I'm not being a very good representative of Pretty Face!"

"Lucky for you I am a good one," Kelly joked, and held up her own jar of Perfect Face Revitalizing Lotion. It looked different from mine, as Kelly's dad was always giving her lab samples rather than the finished product, but I didn't care. All that mattered was that I show up wearing it. I took it with a smile of thanks and moved into the bathroom to put it on.

"Hey, Bess and George and I were thinking that after the reception we'd go out and see the town," I called to Kelly. "You want to come with?"

There was a long pause. Then Kelly said, "Um, I'm not sure."

I stuck my head into the bedroom. "What's up? You've got a hot date or something?" I teased.

Her cheeks turned pink. "Why would you think that? No, I just don't know whether I'll be too tired. It's been kind of a long day."

She seemed a little sensitive, so I backed off. "I know what you mean. The way I'm feeling right now, I might come back after the reception too. It has been a long day. And I've got a fitness class tomorrow morning."

An hour later the two of us met George and Bess at the elevators. "The reception is in the rooftop ballroom," Kelly said as we rode up. "It's supposed to have the mos...

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Aladdin (July 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416955305
• ISBN-13: 978-1416955306
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #263,182 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars What An Woman, August 25, 2008

By	Rondall Banks "Rondall Banks" (Toccoa, Georgia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Nancy Drew has got to be one of America's best love girl detective's ever cause during the great depression there was no women in business for herself or helping her father as an detective cause it was unheard of until Nancy Drew came along.Nancy has come along way since the great depression through the sixties cause here she is now in 2008 she and her friends Bess and George along with her boyfriend Ned Nicklerson now you can read her own words along with everybody else's.You Go Nancy!

Rondall Banks