The Mystery of the Fire Dragon

Happy Saturday and welcome to a new Nancy Drew Challenge!  Today we are investigating The Mystery of the Fire Dragon, Nancy's 38th adventure and one I remember from childhood.  Take a look:

We have another gorgeous Rudy Nappi cover and I do love Nancy in a yellow dress.  I think this is a favorite cover for a lot of Nancy Drew fans and it is pretty fantastic, I love the composition with the rounded doorway and Nancy looking at the party happening on the other side.  Five stars just for the cover.  Yes I have two copies of this book, I've had the flashlight edition (glossy cover) on the right for years and I just got the matte cover on the left last year.  A previous owner left a coded message in the book and apparently she thinks Greg is cute.

Case file:  Nancy's aunt Eloise invites the girls to New York to investigate the suspected kidnapping of her next door neighbor, Chi Che Soong, who bears a strong resemblance to George despite being Chinese when George is...not.  Nancy has George dress up as Chi Che in an attempt to get clues to the kidnappers; George is almost kidnapped, Bess really IS kidnapped, and once they get Bess back, Nancy moves the investigation to Hong Kong where Ned is conveniently doing a class.  Then Nancy also gets kidnapped not once, but TWICE, and eventually rescues herself and Chi Che and we get to learn about dragons, fireworks, and mah jongg along the way, not to mention international politics and smuggling.  It's an adventure.  With lots of kidnapping.

Here's my card:

That dragon stamp is one of the very first stamps I ever bought way (waaayyyy) back in high school and I couldn't wait to get it out for this book challenge.  And how perfect is it that I have firework patterned paper?  Love it.  I embossed both the dragon and the greeting with black embossing powder so they're shiny.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Artistically Asian, dragon from Rubber Stampede
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Poppy Parade, Pacific Point, Celebrate Everything DSP
Accessories:  Spotlight on Nature & Textured Notes dies, black EP, Starburst Sequins

But wait, there's more!  Here's a second card:

I've had that junk mail stamp for probably over 15 years (I have another one that says fan mail) and this is the first time I've used it, I couldn't resist since Nancy and Chi Che are both held prisoner on a junk in the book's climax.  I used a lot of the same supplies as on the first card and hey, I even have Crushed Curry embossing powder.

This time I used one of the Everyday Arches dies to sort of mimic the arch on the cover, though it doesn't match exactly but it was the feeling I was going for.  I used Crushed Curry as my main color for both cards due to Nancy's dress, which is pretty fantastic.  I would totally wear it if I needed to dress up for something.  And naturally she has the matching handbag.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Junk Mail from A Stamp in the Hand
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Basic Black, Celebrate Everything DSP, Poppy Parade DSP
Accessories:  All That & Everyday Arches dies, Azure Afternoon sheer ribbon, Crushed Curry EP, Dimensionals

I really like The Mystery of the Fire Dragon and I think in general it handles Chinese culture better than The Clue of the Leaning Chimney, though having George dress up as Chi Che is problematic at best.  Overall I give it four and a half stars, I remembered several scenes from this despite not having read it in many years, and it was very interesting to read now as they went into detail about the political situation in Hong Kong, which was a British territory when this was written.  Anyway, if you are feeling inspired, I hope you'll leave me a comment with a link to what you make!  And join me next week when we tackle The Clue of the Dancing Puppet.