Review by Frank Plowright

Eight years on from starting their graphic novels about River Heights’ tenacious teenage detective Nancy Drew, Papercutz began a reissue series combining two original stories to a volume as Nancy Drew Diaries. Far more sophisticated cover designs than provided for The Demon of River Heights and Writ in Stone in their original editions are to an extent deceptive, as while there’s no arguing with the popularity of a character now approaching her centenary, the stories don’t captivate.

The reason for this is primarily Sho Murase’s art. There’s no issue with her updating the look to encompass a manga style, as Nancy Drew stories have always kept pace with the times, but the pages never sparkle. The drawing is technically good, conveying emotion in close-up facial expressions, but there’s so little deviation from those close-up views. Murase also works digitally, and takes the easy route of using only marginally modified versions of the same illustration as seen on the sample art, which also shows River Heights’ police chief as having the longest fingers in the world. When Murase is forced into a viewpoint from greater distance backgrounds are simple or non-existent. It really battles against the idea of a graphic novel.

As the series progresses, Stefan Petrucha’s plots become more creative, but while his opener follows the investigative template, it never moves beyond pastiche. It lines up suspicious people when a pair of college film makers disappear, and plants the clues, but only Nancy herself comes across as more than a single note personality, everyone else there to service events and no more. The second story is better, more reflecting this edition’s cover by incorporating elements of gothic horror. A history professor arrives in River Heights with apparent evidence that Chinese visited what became the USA centuries before Columbus landed on the continent, and that’s coupled with a child who disappears with a video camera. This time there are very few suspicious characters, and when all is revealed Petrucha’s motivations are clever and well reasoned.

There’s really no overcoming the disappointing art, which really drags these stories down. Murase is forced into being more expansive for Nancy Drew Diaries Vol. 2, or alternatively the first three Petrucha/Murase collaborations were subsequently issued as the first Nancy Drew Omnibus.