The Haunted Showboat

Happy Saturday, y'all, and welcome to a new Nancy Drew Challenge!  This week we reach a milestone:  we've finished the books with original and revised text versions, and from here on out we get just one story for each one, and just one book cover until we get to the paperbacks.  So let's take a look at #35, The Haunted Showboat!

We have another lovely Rudy Nappi cover here, and this is the first of three in a row where we have Nancy and her chums Bess and George turned away from us and looking at something (side note:  Ryan recently read the first Hardy Boys book, and one word he asked me about was chum, he'd never heard it for friend before).  Anyway, I quite like this one, it's got some great vibes like The Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland.

Case file:  Road trip!  Nancy, Bess, and George drive down to New Orleans to visit another cousin, Donna Mae (whose dad is always referred to as "The Colonel" so I imagine him looking just like Colonel Sanders at KFC).  Donna Mae has just jilted her perfectly lovely fiance and taken up with a new and more obnoxious man as well as a new obnoxious personality.  She wants to refurbish an old showboat to use as the location for a ball to announce her engagement, but no one will work on the boat because it's haunted.  In between tourist activities, Nancy investigates the haunting and proves the new fiance is a ne'er-do-well in the middle of Mardi Gras.

Here's my card:

I don't have any showboat stamps (what a weird omission in my collection, am I right?), but we do get a LOT of descriptions of flowers and gardens in this book, including several mentions of azaleas.  George is wearing that lovely pink shirt on the cover so I had to do an azalea for this one.

My current favorite Nature Walk DSP coordinates very well with the book cover, don't you think?  The style of the DSP mirrors the painting style on the cover art and also I just really love that DSP.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Best Thoughts
Ink:  Secret Sea, Stampin' Blends in Polished Pink, Magenta Madness, Berry Burst, Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Dapper Denim, Basic Beige, Thick Basic White, Nature Walk DSP
Accessories:  Seasonal Labels dies, Layering Circles dies, Dimensionals, Sparkle Dot Essentials

But wait, there's more!  We also get talk in this book about pirates and hidden treasure, and a day or two after I made the azalea card I just had to come back and make a pirate card for this book:

This isn't the first book where Nancy has found literal pirate treasure, and I'd wager it won't be the last!  I do have a pirate image in this stamp stamp set, but I decided to just go with the treasure chest and a punny sentiment this time.

I dug out my Waves of the Ocean DSP for this card for a fun background, quite appropriate for pirate treasure, don't you think?  I still incorporated pink for George's shirt and I didn't even talk yet about how Nancy and Fred from Scooby-Doo apparently shop at the same clothing boutique.  It's hard to tell but I think Bess is wearing an orange button-down shirt, it kind of blends in with Nancy's hair.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Pirates & Mermaids
Ink:  Early Espresso, Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight, Pecan Pie, Smoky Slate
Paper:  Pacific Point, Thick Basic White, Waves of the Ocean DSP, Bright & Beautiful DSP Stack
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Purple Fine Shimmer Gems, Dimensionals

So only one book cover, but I still made two cards this week!  I'm not going to say I will *always* make more than one card for each book, but sometimes I might.  Anyway, this book does have some fun tourist stuff (the restaurants mentioned in the book are still in operation today), but be aware that there are some not-so-fun racial stereotypes involved.  I'm going to give it three stars for the stereotypes and also I think that Donna Mae's first fiance should have run very far away instead of taking her back at the end of the book.  If you're inspired to make a card, either just by the book cover or if you read the book itself, leave me a comment so I can see!  Or just tell me what your favorite Nancy Drew book is.  Stay tuned next week when we uncover The Secret of the Golden Pavilion!