The Bungalow Mystery

An orphan in mourning. A suspicious guardian. A decaying bungalow with a terrible secret in the cellar.

This is the original 1930 The Bungalow Mystery, the third book in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. Written by Mildred Wirt Benson under the pen name Carolyn Keene, you may find the classic Nancy Drew is darker and more daring than you remember.

In this original edition, Nancy is only sixteen years old, but that doesn't stop her from tearing off in the night alone in her roadster to investigate the guardian of her friend, Laura Pendleton. She is fearless in a way the later rewrites watered down. She breaks into a house to find clues. She climbs through a window of a broken-down bungalow and finds a horror within — and only needs to step outside for a moment to collect herself before going back in. She engages in a high-speed car chase, complete with a gunfight. She flings herself into a burning vehicle to retrieve evidence.

She is tenacious. She is brave. She is relentless. Come meet the original Nancy Drew.

Experience the original 1930 thriller that introduced the world to a grittier, bolder Nancy Drew — unedited and unapologetic.

This edition faithfully reproduces the original 1930s text as written by Mildred Wirt Benson, complete with period illustrations.

This edition also includes an appendix detailing the differences between the 1930 original and the 1959 revision.