"The Fake Heir"
Writer: Stefan Petrucha
Artists: Daniel Vaughn Ross Ross, Juis Lundgren(3D)
Publisher: Papercutz
This issue of Nancy Drew benefits from Stefan Petrucha's splendid mystery weaving skills, but the change in artist damages the potential for full enjoyment of the book. Vaughn Ross' artwork is sketchy and lacks Sho Murase's precision lines. Vaughn Ross still attempts to keep the book manganized, but he lack's Sho's deft handling of the genre. I don't particularly like manga, but even I can see the difference. His work also hurts the characters. His Nancy's pretty decently designed as is his Bess, but thanks to Vaughn Ross, George more often than not looks like a boy, and she's a Georgina.
Vaughn Ross' artwork, though subpar when compared to Sho Murase's manga, is tolerable and doesn't impede Petrucha's clever mystery that suggests murder but ends on something far stranger. The book opens with an unusual but natural phenomenon that sends Nancy and the cousins Bess and George spinning. Nancy in this scene displays her smart seamanship and level head during crisis events.
Some may argue that Petrucha goes to extraordinary lengths go get Nancy involved in a mystery, but I tend to disagree. What he instead does through the unusual phenomenon is find an interesting and causal explanation that answers the important question. If professional divers were looking for a yacht that disappeared some years ago, how does amateur sleuth Nancy find it?
When the engaging plot device settles Petrucha lets Nancy in on a cache of sunken treasure. Ah, but this won't pay for Nancy's future crimefighting headquarters. Somebody already put in a claim for the treasure, and in this way Petrucha bows to realistic legalese. The hunt for the heir of the treasure serves as the impetus for the mystery, and Nancy, thanks to Petrucha, is in fine form.
While I mention Petrucha often in this review, the fascinating truth about Nancy Drew is that the author perfectly conceals himself in the voice of titian-haired detective. As you read you forget about the author completely. Nancy's distinctive and cadent narration carries you rapidly through the story. It's Nancy's excitement that impels you to read the adventure.
On the back of the book, the publishers spotlight a scene in the story where Nancy gets bitten by a spider. Petrucha does an impressive job of making this spider-bite an important and continuing theme of the story as well as the herald Nancy's comeuppance. Unlike some of her mysteries, as the story progresses, Nancy earns a severe disheveling and suffers the embarrassment of multiple mistaken diagnoses. Apart from adding a touchable humanity to the character, the trials and tribulations she encounters reinforces the idea that Nancy will let nothing get in the way of her mystery solving.
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