The Secret of the Old Clock

The Secret of the Old Clock is the first novel in the long-running Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. The middle-grade novel was first published in May 1930 and was subsequently revised in May 1959. Grosset & Dunlap published the first 56 novels between 1930 and 1979. (See the Background section of this guide for details on the full publishing history of the series.)

The Nancy Drew books are all written under the pen name Carolyn Keene, but multiple writers have used this pseudonym. Journalist Mildred Wirt Benson ghostwrote 23 of the first 30 novels based on the series concept developed by Ernest Stratemeyer. The 1959 revisions were written by Stratemeyer’s daughter, Harriet Adams, who frequently changed character names and sometimes entire book plots while retaining the original title. She also softened the character of Nancy herself to make her more sedate and less impetuous. As one journalist noted, Nancy is now “more sugar and less spice.”

The series has been adapted multiple times for film and television. Four movies were made between 1938 and 1939. The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries TV series ran for three seasons starting in 1977. Another Nancy Drew TV series ran for a short period starting in 1995. Two more Nancy Drew films were made in 2007 and 2019. Most recently, the teen detective was featured in a CW television series running from 2019 through 2023.

All the books in the series are suitable for children aged eight-12 in grades three and seven. They fall under the categories of Children’s Mystery, Detective & Spy Books and Children’s Books on Girls’ and Women’s Issues.

This study guide and all its page citations are based on the Kindle edition of the novel.

Content Warning: While most libraries and bookstores now carry the 1959 editions of the early novels, the original editions of the books frequently portray racial and ethnic stereotypes that some readers may find offensive.

Plot Summary

Set during an unspecified month in spring in the fictional Midwestern town of River Heights, The Secret of the Old Clock uses an omniscient point of view to provide the backstory elements and series continuity. The novel explores several themes: The High Price of Greed, The Pursuit of Justice, and what it takes to be A Modern Heroine.

Eighteen-year-old Nancy Drew leads a pleasant life in River Heights. As the daughter of the town’s most prominent lawyer, she enjoys the freedom to pursue her interests and help her father in his legal practice. The story begins on a fine spring day. After delivering some documents, Nancy is driving her blue convertible through the countryside when she sees a young girl run into the road and almost get hit by a furniture van. The girl topples off a low bridge and into a creek, and Nancy rushes to rescue her.

When Nancy returns the girl, Judy, to her two elderly maiden great-aunts, who are her legal guardians, they reveal the family’s troubles, confiding in Nancy that they’re in dire financial straits and hope to acquire an inheritance from a well-to-do deceased relative named Josiah Crowley. Unfortunately, nobody can find his new will, and the old one names the Topham family as his sole heirs. The Tophams claim that this is his only authentic will.

Nancy went to high school with the Topham daughters and disliked their haughty, greedy behavior. She vows to find Josiah Crowley’s new will and begins to investigate, receiving help along the way via legal contacts and leads provided by her father. The young sleuth soon learns of others to whom Crowley promised money. No one has even seen the new will, which the eccentric old man told her was well hidden. In the process of uncovering the location of the new will, Nancy encounters a ring of burglars, who lock her in a closet in an empty house where nobody is likely to rescue her.

After freeing herself, Nancy pursues the thieves, who have stolen the mantel clock where Crowley hid his will. The detective manages to retrieve the clock and gets the burglars arrested with the help of the State Patrol. She then finds a notebook in which Crowley reveals the location of the safety deposit box containing his real will, which leaves the bulk of his estate to his deserving friends and relatives. With her father’s legal assistance, Nancy ensures that the Tophams’ plan is foiled and that the proper heirs receive their money. At the end of the novel, the family gifts Nancy the old clock as a memento of her adventure, and she anticipates solving more mysteries in the future.