Review by Frank Plowright

Writ in Stone concerns an archaeologist’s discovery, and the opening section plays on Nancy Drew’s fame as a detective extending beyond her community of River Heights. Professor Severe has discovered a dated rock inscribed with Chinese characters that he believes proves the Chinese were in California eighty years before Christopher Columbus’ voyage to North America. The rock is inevitably stolen, beginning Nancy’s next case.

It’s not only the rock that’s missing. So is Owen, the child Nancy was babysitting, along with her friend George’s camcorder. Nancy’s primary suspect is the museum caretaker, who lives in a spooky house near the cemetery.

As in The Demon of River Heights, Sho Murase’s art varies very little from close-ups, and when backgrounds are featured they’re basic. Her people are angular and sharp featured, and while the art is functional it’s hardly pleasing. As before, an ability to tolerate the unimaginative art goes a long way to determining whether readers are going to like this incarnation of Nancy Drew or not.

Possibly because the Nancy Drew stories are aimed at younger readers, Stefan Petrucha shows Owen’s actually come to no harm, but why he won’t return home is a mystery that’s never adequately explained. There’s hardly a surplus of suspects as far as the shady activity is concerned, so even younger readers are likely to figure out who’s responsible even before Nancy does. However, Petrucha’s motivations for what goes on are smart, well-reasoned and have a historical basis.

This is combined with the opening volume as the first Nancy Drew Diaries. Next up is The Haunted Dollhouse, or alternatively the first three books by Petrucha and Murase are combined as the Nancy Drew Omnibus.