Nancy Drew's Clues

Have you ever recovered from a faint, only to discover that you’ve been kidnapped and your cell phone is dead? Most people don’t realize that all they would need are smelling salts to perk up and a carrier pigeon to send an SOS, and they’d be good to go. Of course, most people aren’t teen detective Nancy Drew, of the famous children’s book series.

Fortunately, Drew’s unique methods of detection are compiled in The Official Nancy Drew Handbook, which hits bookstores next month. The book offers tongue-in-cheek skills, tips, and life lessons that can be learned from the famous girl sleuth. Such as? “How to lift fingerprints using face powder, and how to tap Morse code with high heels,” says author Penny Warner.

Warner, a Danville resident, has authored seven mystery novels set in California’s Gold Country. She got the Handbook assignment thanks to her encyclopedic knowledge of the Nancy Drew books.

“In the fourth grade, I had mononucleosis,” says Warner, 60. “My mother made me turn off the TV, and I started reading Nancy Drew. I got hooked immediately and read every one.”