Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk (Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #17) by Carolyn Keene

Writer: Mildred Wirt (1940)

Revised By: Harriet Stratemeyer Adams (1976)

Nancy and her friends return to New York City from Rotterdam by ship. On the ship, Nancy is distracted by a man's sign language for the deaf, warning another man to beware of Nancy and NE.

When Nancy returns to her cabin, the captain's niece, Nelda Detweiler, introduces herself to Nancy, and she will be sharing the cabin with Nancy's group. The porter brings their suitcases into the cabin, including a brass-bound steamer trunk with an initial: N.D. None of the girls claimed the ownership of the mysterious trunk, and Nancy couldn't find her bag among the delivered suitcases.

Then, Nelda receives an anonymous threat letter and is afraid of being followed. She was wrongly accused as a jewellery thief after a man ran out of the jewellery shop with the loots. Although she is cleared from the charges, she still receives anonymous threats. The family suggests she leaves South Africa for a while to avoid trouble.

When the girls can't locate the owner of the mysterious trunk, the captain sends a locksmith to open the trunk. They find different sets of men's clothes and wigs inside the trunk. Nancy suspects the owner doesn't want to claim the trunk because he doesn't want to be known that he is in disguise. Nancy has to investigate the mysterious owner behind the trunk and the man who warned others about Nancy. Nancy is also curious about the meaning of NE and the mysterious person who sent an anonymous threat to Nelda.

This time, we get to know that Nancy can read sign languages. I cannot believe how far-fetched the story was and felt funny when reading about a meteor falling near the ship. I start to question the size of the trunk and the necessity to search the trunk multiple times. Whenever the girls are free or thought of exploring the trunk, they will find pieces of jewellery and call the captain to come and look regardless of the time.

I lost interest easily in this story because there are multiple mysteries simultaneously, and the investigation keeps jumping from one to another. At first, they are interested in Nelda's story. Then, they switch their interest to the trunk, and after that, they want to know who is using sign language and those men with the masks. I would prefer a slightly more extensive investigation of each mystery before jumping to a different case without any transitions.