Nancy Drew #67
	The Sinister Omen

Setting	Ft. Lauderdale, FL (Spring Break)
Recurring Characters	Bess Marvin, George Fayne, Carson Drew, Ned Nickerson, Chief McGinnis, Burt Eddleton, Dave Evans, Mrs Marvin
Characters and Suspects	Señor Ricardo Segovia - government investigator Eleanor Palmer - age 93 - feisty old lady who was a friend of Carson’s grandparents Susan McAfee - personal secretary & companion to Mrs. Palmer Fred Blaine - TV newsman (wife Linda, 2 sons Robert & Edward) Andre - Segovia’s chauffeur Consuelo - Segovia’s housekeeper Edward - Mrs. Palmer’s gardener (Odette - maid) Albert - bodyguard and former stuntman Detectives Gomez and Maniello
Culprits	The Brotherhood of the Vulture     Otto Stroessner - head of crime syndicate, stamp dealer, bald and wears a monocle     Errol Bigley - Mrs. Palmer’s butler     Angus Campbell - Segovia’s neighbor on the canal; owns yacht The Flying Scot     Brian “Mac” McConnell - second in command who once saved Otto’s life     “Tuxedo” - restaurant owner, and his friend     thin cadaver man (burglar?)     swarthy man “Pedro” (burglar?)     2 French sailors     3 kidnappers Motivation:  Trying to find love letters from Mrs. Palmer’s grandfather to her grandmother which he write when he was in South America.  Bad guys are trying to get the rare stamps on the envelopes.
Resolution	Nancy helps Mrs. Palmer find the letters; getaway plane falls into sinkhole
Mis-adventures	Nancy falls out of her bed while having a nightmare lands seaplane on an empty tank of gas walks through a nest of rats     climbs on roof to escape attacking burglars
Nancy's talents	quotes Churchill flies seaplane knowledge of rodent behavior
Key clues
Nancy's outfits	pale blue pajamas peach-colored bathing suit
items of interest	Ned’s father owns a Land Rover Carson’s grandparents died before Nancy was born Nancy has her great-grandmother had the titian hair River Heights airport is on the Muskoka River reference on pg 44 - Cape Canaveral - previous adventure w/ alligator (reference to RT Moss Covered Mansion?) Nancy not able to communicate in Spanish with maid letter D with lines extended a bit is a special mark between N&Carson
Meaning of the title	pg 47 - symbol of vulture on decal:  brooding black vulture, wings half spread, crouching - turns up on the seaplane, in limo, on Nan’s shirt, on dock
reward

THE COVERS

Below is a gallery of all the covers I have found for The Sinister Omen. Below each picture is the artist's name, and a brief description of the scene depicted.

Wanderer "Arch" cover by Ruth Sanderson: page 166 - through night binoculars Nancy is witnessing a meeting between small boat and hydrofoil, involving the transfer of small suitcase	Wanderer "Checkerboard" cover by Hector Garrido: page 34 - after crashing seaplane; however, they land in water and the plane does not burst into flame, her clothes are not torn and she does not discover the decal of the vulture until later
Minstrel cover by Aleta Jenks: pages 7-12 - Nancy has a nightmare about being attacked by a black vulture	Wahlströms (Sweden) cover: recycles Ruth Sanderson's artwork
Armada (UK) Format "C" cover by unknown artist: composition of elements from the story:vulture, seaplane, and the bald, monocled Otto Stroessner
Armada (UK) Format "D" by Mike Adams	Forlagshuset (Norwegian) cover by unknown artist: similar scene to Sanderson above
Tammi (Finnish) cover by Pentti Ajanto: finding the vulture decal	Tammi (Finnish) cover by Pentti Kareinen: investigating the cellar?
Hachette (France) covers by Philippe Daure: similar scene to Ruth Sanderson's above, with inclusion of menacing vulture on Format "F" cover
Fargoes (Malay) cover by unattributed artist - examining a stamp (unconfirmed title)

THE PRINTINGS

This chronological listing of printings mimics the identification system developed by David Farah for his guide on Nancy Drew. He has given me permission to replicate his system for the purpose of categorizing the paperbacks from this series. For those of you not familiar with his methods for identifying a printing, the first line describes the outside of the book (cover/spine/back cover) and the second line describes the internal pages (inside cover/pre-text pages/post-text pages/inside back cover).

FOREIGN TITLES

The Sinister Omen, artwork by Ruth Sanderson © 1982 by Simon & Schuster, New York.
The Sinister Omen,, artwork by Hector Garrido © by Simon & Schuster, New York.
The Sinister Omen,, artwork by Aleta Jenks © by Simon & Schuster, New York.
The Sinister Omen,, artwork unattributed © 1984 by Fontana Paperbacks, London.
The Sinister Omen,, artwork by Mike Adams © by Fontana Paperbacks, London.
Alice et le mauvais présage, artwork by Philippe Daure © 1986 by Hachette, Paris.
Kitty och den svarta gamen, artwork by Ruth Sanderson © 1982 by Simon & Schuster, New York
Neiti etsivä ja paha enne, artwork by Pentti Ajanto © 1984 by Tammi, Helsinki.
Neiti etsivä ja paha enne, artwork by Pentti Kareinen © 1994 by Tammi, Helsinki.
Detektiv Nancy Drew og det onde varsel, artwork unattributed © Forlagshuset A/S, Oslo.

© 2002, 2016 Lea Shangraw Fox