Mystery of the Tolling Bell

Happy Saturday and welcome to the latest Nancy Drew Challenge!  This week's book is #23, (The) Mystery of the Tolling Bell, and I have three different covers for this one.

The Russell Tandy cover on the left features Nancy in her signature blue, I like her pleated skirt and that hairstyle is SO 1940s.  I wonder why this is the only one that has "The" at the start of the title; the second book is the same text as this one but the title slightly changed.  Hmm.

Next we have Rudy Nappi's first cover for this one, which is clearly based on Tandy's but now Nancy has her signature 1960s flip hairdo and I really love that pink and red outfit.  10/10, would wear.  Also, this is the very first original text book I ever bought!

Last up we have Nappi's revised cover, which is kind of a combination of the collage style and also features the same scene as the first two versions but Nancy's outfit is far less interesting than either of the original text covers.  This one is my childhood copy.

I'm choosing the middle one as my favorite cover, both because of the awesome pink outfit and also it makes more sense for Nancy to have her trusty flashlight rather than carrying a clutch purse with her.  So let's take a look at the story!

Case file:  Nancy, Bess, and George are in the seaside town of Candleton to help Carson with a case; his client Mrs. Chantrey was duped into buying worthless stocks in a cosmetics company.  In addition, there's a mysterious cave in the seaside cliffs from which emanates the sound of a tolling bell and the locals think it's haunted.  Naturally, Nancy solves both mysteries and catches all the bad guys with Ned's help as strongman.  This one is like The Whispering Statue in that it's set in a seaside town, and perfume is a major plot point like in The Secret of Red Gate Farm.  But Tolling Bell also has some really whackadoo elements, like when Nancy gets drugged and has a dream that she's carried away by two elves.  It's bonkers.  And Carson gets drugged this time too.

Here's my card for the first cover version:

I just *had* to buy Fanciful Fragrance on eBay just so I could make a card for this book, and who knows how many other Nancy Drews feature perfume as a major plot point so really it was an investment, ha.  Anyway, I do love this image with the fancy perfume bottles and the set has some nice sentiments and some other fancy images too.

I ended up with Baja Breeze and Tranquil Tide to try to color match to Nancy's outfit on this one.  The brownish strip is the Earthen Toned Metallic Specialty Paper but it wasn't reflecting much when I took my photos.  I used champagne-colored rhinestones to make this card a bit fancier, and also that lovely Filigree background stamp, love it.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Fanciful Fragrance, Filigree
Ink:  Tranquil Tide, Baja Breeze
Paper:  Tranquil Tide, Baja Breeze, Thick Basic White, Earthen Toned Metallic Specialty Paper
Accessories:  Squares Collection Framelits, Dimensionals, Champagne Rhinestones

On to the next cover!  This one is the original text again.

And here's my card:

The flimflam cosmetics company is Mon Coeur, which means "my heart" in French, so I wanted to do a heart image for this book to coordinate with Nancy's pink and red outfit on the cover.  As soon as I came across Living Large, I knew I had to use it.  Look, the stamped girly even has Nancy's signature 'do!

Once again I tried to work in the colors on the cover, so I ended up with Cloud Cover, Polished Pink, Cherry Cobbler, and Pebbled Path for my neutral.  I love that Wild Hearts background, this was a great excuse to break it out along with Living Large.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Living Large, Wild Hearts
Ink:  Pebbled Path, Polished Pink, Stampin' Blends in Polished Pink, Timid Tiger, Petal Pink, Cherry Cobbler, Cloud Cover
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Polished Pink, Thick Basic White, Cloud Cover DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangles dies, Stitched So Sweetly dies, Stitched Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Rhinestones, Cherry Cobbler Quilted Satin Ribbon, Wink of Stella

And now for the revised text:

The story is the same as the original text, just condensed a bit with no major changes that stood out to me.  And if you've been wondering how I could make multiple cards for the Mystery of the Tolling BELL without using any bells, well, here you go:

Midway through the book, the crooks decide that the Mon Coeur name is getting too hot with Nancy and Carson on their case, so they plan to change the brand name to Sweet Chimes with a logo of bells.  I had to look through my To Sell? stamps to find these bells in Best of Brides & Babies.

Once again I used Pebbled Path as my neutral, and I used So Saffron for the warm colors of Nancy in the center of the illustration.  There are some hints of blue in the rocks around her, so I chose Boho Blue for my card base, and hey, blue goes with a wedding card, right?  No one gets married in this book, though Ned definitely has it on his mind and Nancy politely ignores it because she's more interested in solving mysteries than canoodling.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best of Brides & Babies, Occasional Quotes
Ink:  Versamark, Pebbled Path, So Saffron, Peach Pie, Boho Blue
Paper:  Boho Blue, Pebbled Path, So Saffron, Thick Basic White, Bella Bleu DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Circles Collection Framelits, Mini Dimensionals, Clear EP, Pearls

I hope you enjoyed (The) Mystery of the Tolling Bell, this was another one I really liked from my childhood and still enjoyed a lot on this read through.  If you're inspired to play along (hooray!), just leave me a comment below!  I'll be back next week to search for The Clue in the Old Album.  Cheers!