The Clue in the Crumbling Wall

Happy Saturday and welcome to another Nancy Drew challenge!  This week we're focusing on book 22, The Clue in the Crumbling Wall:

Both of these beautiful covers are by Rudy Nappi.  The OT is on the left and we have a thrilling action scene with Nancy removing a box from the titular crumbling wall while bad guys are chipping away at the other side (the real mystery is how the bad guys don't see the girls).  Once again I love Nancy's dress, which is my favorite shade of green, though Bess and George have made some lovely color choices as well.  Good job all around.

For the RT cover, we're still in the collage era of cover design.  We still have a bad guy (just one this time) chipping away at the wall and Nancy looking worried about it, but we get a bit more of a view of Heath Castle in the background which I love.  This one kinda has a similar feel to the RT cover of The Mystery of the Ivory Charm as it uses similar green tones for most of the cover, but thankfully this book is far superior to the hot mess that is Ivory Charm.

Let's take a peek inside:

Case file:  A female police officer who works with juvenile offenders asks for Nancy's help in finding missing dancer Florianna Johnson, who is to inherit the old estate of Heath Castle if she can be found in the next three weeks.  Florianna's niece Joan has been in trouble for stealing plants (including two rosebushes from Nancy's yard), and Joan's mother is not well, but Florianna has been missing for nearly 10 years.  Nancy, Bess, and George investigate Heath Castle and find that extensive damage has been done by men searching for something valuable in the walls of the castle.  Of course Nancy outwits the bad guys and locates Florianna, reuniting her with her family and saving the estate from further ruin.

Here's my card:

Since the book begins with Joan stealing Nancy's rosebushes, I decided to go with roses for this card and I had to use the Stacked Stone background stamp for the crumbling walls in the book.  There's a subplot involving river pearls, so I used pearls for my embellishments, and actually this is the first time I've used the Smoky Slate pearls, I quite like them.

I took Shaded Spruce from Nancy's dress and went with a combination of Groovy Guava, Calypso Coral, and Crushed Curry, inspired by Bess's outfit and hair.  Sorry George, I didn't use blue but you look good in that color.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  All Things Fabulous, Stacked Stone
Ink:  Groovy Guava, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Shaded Spruce, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Smoky Slate, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Fabulous Florals dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals, Smoky Slate Pearls

On to the RT:

Case file:  This is one that follows the OT very closely, just a bit condensed, and a couple of the names have been changed; Florianna is now Juliana and some of the more minor characters have their names changed too.  The mystery itself plays out the same way as the OT.

Here's my card:

This time I wanted to feature Heath Castle on my card, and the closest I could get to that in my stamp collection was this collage-style stamp from Provençal.  I happened to find a small line-drawing rose image in the Dear Friend stamp set while I was looking for a greeting to put on here, which is just what I wanted for the background strip.  I used Marigold Morning cardstock for that piece with the roses, but used Peach Pie ink since I thought my Marigold Morning ink pad was probably dry--turns out those two colors are nearly identical.

Once again I used pearls as my accents on this one; I chose Marigold Morning as my supporting color because of--what else?--Nancy's hair.  We can only see the top of Nancy's shirt here but I kinda hope she's dressed just like Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Provençal, Dear Friend
Ink:  Shaded Spruce, Pear Pizzazz, Peach Pie
Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Shaded Spruce, Marigold Morning, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Word Window & Modern Label punches, Mini Dimensionals, Pearls

If you're inspired by Nancy's latest adventure, please leave me a comment so I can see what you make : )  Meanwhile, stay tuned for next Saturday when we listen for The Mystery of the Tolling Bell.  Cheers!