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The Bluebeard Room |
Chapter 1 - A Strange Chat
Nancy, Bess and George are attending a charity garden party on Long Island, where an old neighbor requests an audience with Nancy. Mrs. Harwood explains that her daughter Lisa has not been herself since her marriage to an English nobleman and their subsequent life together in Cornwall. Nancy is shown a photo of her old friend Lisa and agrees that she does look haggard. Mrs. Harwood is afraid that the husband, Hugh, might be poisoning his new wife.
Chapter 2 - The Stone Arrowhead
Mrs. Harwood goes on to explain that his motive might be to
gain control over Lisa's fortune. She asks Nancy to travel to
England and investigate. A small arrowhead falls out of the
envelope sent by Lisa and Nancy hangs onto it as a clue. Also
in attendance at the fundraiser is the international rock
star, Lance Warrick of Britain's Crowned Heads. Nancy is
introduced to the rock sensation, but refuses to be
starstruck, even going so far as to decline to dance with him.
Chapter 3 - Witch Lore
Back in New York City the next day, Nancy visits Merlin's Den, a bookstore specializing in the occult, and discovers that the arrowhead is actually an "elf dart," something which might be sent by a witch as a warning or a threat. Back at Eloise's apartment, the girls are sent 3 tickets to that evening's Crowned Heads concert.
Chapter 4 - Rock Idol
It is quite a madhouse at Madison Square Garden for the concert, and after the show the girls are invited backstage for a press party.
Chapter 5 - Press Party
Nancy meets Jane, the band's beautiful and stylish publicist, and also chats with members of the band. When Lance is finally available, Nancy finds out that he was not the one who sent the tickets.
Chapter 6 - Powder Bag
Lance invites Nancy to the "real" party back the hotel suite, but Nancy is feeling humiliated about being treated like a common groupie, and declines. As the girls reach Eloise's apartment, Nancy discovers that a baggie of cocaine has been planted in her purse. In the morning, Nancy calls the NYPD to report the discovery of the drugs. A narcotics officer notifies her that someone phoned in an anonymous tip and the band's private party at the hotel had been raided; had Nancy been there, in possession of the cocaine, she would have been arrested.
Chapter 7 - Surprise Meeting
Nancy departs the next day for London, and runs into the Crowned Heads at Heathrow Airport. The band gives her a ride in their limousine to Claridge's Hotel. Nancy arranges with Lisa to make the trip out to Cornwall the following day. Lance takes Nancy on a tour of London and out to lunch. They are interrupted by Jane, who says that Lance needs to attend to an urgent problem involving the band's former bass player, Ian Purcell, who was excused from the Crowned Heads for drug problems. Nancy goes with Lance and Jane to Ian's flat.
Chapter 8 - An Unexpected Visitor
Ian's landlady lets them in and shows them that Ian is in a catatonic state, sometimes mumbling gibberish. Ian was visited earlier by an antiques dealer, whom Nancy consults. Apparently Ian claimed to have seen the mate of a valuable statuette of the Celtic Goddess of the Witches, known as the Golden Mab, and had promised to bring back photographic evidence to the dealer. Instead, Ian had returned in an incapacitated state.
Back at her hotel, Nancy receives a visit from Jane, who gently explains to Nancy not to get her hopes up in regards to Lance, as the publicist is already engaged to him.
Chapter 9 - A Night on the Town
Nancy curses her own naivete, but has already agreed to have dinner with Lance, and keeps her promise. She confronts him with Jane's claims, and Lance denies them. Later they go to a very fashionable nightclub and kiss on the dance floor. The next morning, Nancy and Lance visit the clinic where they are looking after Ian and consult with his physician. The doctor believes Ian may have been injected with a mind-scrambling drug, which causes him to stay in a terrified state. Then the duo makes a visit to the Tate Gallery to view the known statue of the Golden Mab, who holds a mirror in her left hand. It is believed that there is a matching statue who holds the mirror in her right hand.
Chapter 10 - A Haunted Land
Nancy takes the train to Polpenny and gets a Cornish history lesson from a fellow passenger. Lisa picks her up at the station, and during the ride to the castle admits that she is lonely as the people in town act distantly toward her. Later on, Nancy and the Penvellyns are about to have dinner when a scream pierces the night.
Chapter 11 - Spook Attack
The screamer is Ethel Bosinny, a local lady who claims to
have been frightened by a figure while coming to deliver a
message for Nancy. The next morning Lisa takes Nancy on a tour
of the castle, including an older, unoccupied area where Nancy
notices a barred door. Lisa explains that Hugh keeps it shut
up and has asked Lisa not to ask about it. This reminds Nancy
of the legend of Bluebeard, who kept the disembodied heads of
his previous wives in a locked room.
Nancy then takes a walk down into the village and has a conversation with the local constable, and hears that there are rumours about some drug dealing going on near the old tin-mine engine house. He also admits that there have always been whisperings about a local witch cult. As Nancy strolls down by the harbor, she is recognized by a reporter named Alan Trevor. Nancy is confused at being recognized, and Alan informs her that her picture is all over the tabloids, being identified as Lance's new flame, which upsets her. As Nancy returns to the castle, she looks for the letter that Ethel dropped the night before. She finds an envelope with the Crowned Heads insignia, but it contains no letter, only another elf-dart.
Chapter
12
- Danger in the Dark
Nancy overhears Hugh and Lisa arguing about the forbidden room, and Lisa retires to her room. Ethel is over for lunch and goes to soothe Lisa with an herbal cordial of her own concoction. Nancy is suspicious of the elixir and takes a sample to be tested later. That night when everyone is asleep, Nancy hears creaking noises in the corridor and investigates. She sees that Lisa is sleepwalking, and is ascending the stairs to the tower. Lisa is about to climb over the parapet and fall from the tower, but Nancy pulls her back to safety and wakes her up. Hugh arrives and takes Lisa back downstairs. While in the tower Nancy notices a light coming from the area of the old tin mine and decides to investigate. She finds the engine house, which she enters to find the lingering smells of incense and marijuana. There is also a pentacle painted on the floor, and Nancy deduces that drug use and witchcraft are connected in this part of Cornwall. She then hears some strange music playing in the distance, which she follows; unfortunately it leads her into a quicksand bog.
Chapter 13 - A Whispered Warning
She screams for help and after a few terrifying minutes, Alan appears and rescues her. He had also been snooping around the engine house hoping to get a story on drug dealing in the area. The next day Nancy visits the local physician, Dr. Carradine, and tells of her suspicions about Ethel's herbal elixir. He tests the sample and declares it to be harmless. He also says he has been treating Lisa, but feels that her troubles are emotional rather than physical. On the way back to castle, Nancy spies further tabloids featuring stories about herself and Lance, and decides that the whole "romance" was actually a calculated publicity stunt coordinated by Jane, and that Lance never really held any interest in her.
That evening the Penvellyns have a dinner party and invite Ethel, Dr. Carradine and a local couple called the Roscoes, who are the owners of the old tin mine. Nancy brings up the subject of the Golden Mab statuette seen by Ian, and the guests appear to be uncomfortable. Mrs. Roscoe draws Nancy aside later and nervously suggests that Nancy be careful when investigating the rumours. The next day, Nancy runs into Lance in the village, and she firmly rebuffs his advances, declaring again that she does not wish to be one of his groupies.
Chapter 14 - Night Sight
Alan appears as Nancy is storming off, and he takes her to a nearby tearoom. Nancy asks him to find out why the villagers are unfriendly to Lisa, and also to investigate rumours about a local witch cult. Back at the castle, Ethel is over for a séance, and channels the voice of a woman speaking in ancient dialect, declaring she is not a witch. Ethel also claims to have had a ghastly vision of a horned devil throwing arrows of fire at Nancy. That night, Nancy is unable to sleep and watches a boat approach the headlands on which the castle stands, then disappear. Then she sees Lisa sleepwalking again out on the headland.
Chapter 15 - Undine
Nancy cries out for Hugh and runs out to rescue Lisa, but Lisa awakes in time before she plunges off the cliff. The next day Nancy meets Alan and finds out that the rumours about a witch cult surrounded Hugh's uncle, the former Lord Penvellyn. There are also stories about a former mistress of Penvellyn Castle, Lady Phoebe, who was burned at the stake for being the leader of a witches' coven in the 1700s. Nancy asks Alan to come with her to investigate the headlands by sea, and he agrees, on the condition that she come out on a date with him that evening. They rent a boat and are able to find a small opening through the rocks, and enter a cavern. Inside are the remains of an old wreck, and some of the items are labeled "Undine." Back on land, Nancy contacts a British colleague of Mr. Drew's to gather historical information on any shipwreck of the vessel Undine. Alan then arrives for their date, and announces that they will be attending the Crowned Heads concert.
Chapter 16 - The Grotto Symbol
Just as Lance is about to go onstage, he spots Nancy with
Alan, and rages over, demanding an explanation. The two men
growl over Nancy a bit, but then the concert begins. Later
Alan admits he wanted to see for himself how Nancy felt about
Lance, and professes that he is crazy about her, then they
kiss. The next day Nancy visits 
the Roscoes and inquires as to whether it is
possible than the tin mine's workings might extend to below
the castle. Mr. Roscoe says they do not. Nancy then speaks
with the British barrister who gives her the information that
the vessel Undine was lost at sea in 1702, after having picked
up an archaeological treasure in Ireland. The only survivor
was a young woman named Phoebe Harwood. Nancy meets with Alan,
and they arrange to investigate the sea cavern again and once
there they discover an underground stream. They are afraid of
being trapped by the incoming tide and agree to return the
next morning with scuba gear to investigate further.
Chapter 17 - Secret Altar
The next morning, Alan does not show up at the appointed hour
and Nancy is about to go on her own, when Lance drives up with
Jane. He talks Nancy into letting him come on the dive with
her, and ditches Jane. Lance apologizes for treating Nancy
like just another girl and then they make their way to the
cavern. They don wetsuits and follow the stream to another
cavern where a large iron cage is suspended from the ceiling.
They climb up the cage by using an attached ladder, through a
trap door, up a stone stairwell to a wooden panel, which
reveals the "Bluebeard" room when opened. Inside the well
appointed room stands a low altar, with a ring of candlesticks
surrounding a golden statuette of a woman admiring herself in
a mirror, which is held in her right hand. Above the mate to
the Golden Mab is a portrait a a beautiful girl who bears a
striking resemblance to Lisa, in 18th century garb, with a
sinister horned devil lurking behind her. Nancy concludes that
the portrait is of Lady Phoebe, and also deduces that she is
somehow related to Lisa. Nancy also finds a large stash of
drugs in the room, and explains to Lance that the coven is
involved in smuggling. From behind a tapestry emerge Roscoe,
Ethel, Dr. Carradine, Bobo (the drummer from Lance's band) and
2 drug dealers.
Chapter 18 - Witch Bane
Nancy and Lance have interrupted a big deal; the coven had managed to detain Alan from coming that morning but had not been able to stop Nancy. At that moment, Hugh enters the room through the door from the castle, and is furious that the coven is using the room for illegal purposes. Then Alan arrives from the underwater passage and a melée ensues wherein the drug dealers are disarmed and the coven subdued.
Later that evening, Hugh explains that his uncle had admitted to being a member of the coven before he died and asked Hugh to let them continue to use the room. However, once the coven turned to drug dealing, they threatened Hugh even further by saying they would kill Lisa if he ever exposed the group. The coven had tried to recruit Ian Purcell, to use as a dealer, but he had recognized the mate of the Golden Mab and was in danger of exposing the whole organization. Ethel had drugged him and frightened him out of his wits.
With her mystery are sewn up, Nancy decides to spend a little vacation time in Cornwall. When she is ready to return to the States, both Lance and Alan accompany her to the airport. She kisses them both goodbye and leaves them both dangling.
illustration of Lisa sleepwalking by Bob Berran © 1988 by Simon & Schuster, New York. illustration of Nancy scuba diving by Hector Garrido © 1985 by Simon & Schuster, New York. illustration of Golden Mab and portrait unattributed © 1986 by Fontana Paperbacks, London.