The Mystery at Lilac Inn

Basic Comparisons

The 1931 text is an Applewood reprint and has 25 chapters and consists of 200 pages, plus other material.. There are four illustrations.

The 1961 text has 20 chapters and 180 pages. There is an illustration opposite the title page, and one illustration in chapter 1, and illustrations in chapters 5, 9, 13 and 19.

There are very few similarities between the two text versions.

Covers

Inside illustration, 1931 edition.

There are also three more illustrations.

Text differences.

This is one of the titles where the two text versions are so different they are like two different books, according to the excellent site here.

1. Nancy is 16 in the 1931 text. Presumably she's 18 in the newer text.

2. Nancy is with Helen Corning at the start of the 1961 text.

3. Nancy was out driving to deliver legal papers in the 1931 text.

4. Hannah has to leave for a while and the Drews need to find a temporary replacement.

5. Helen and Nancy are in a canoe that gets upset in the 1961 version.

6. Someone is impersonating Nancy in the 1961 version.

7. Nancy doesn't seem very confident of her skills in the 1931 text.

8. A cottage Nancy is staying in gets blown up, basically, in the 1961 text.

9. Helen gets knocked unconscious in the 1961 text.

10. There's no mini-sub in the 1931 text.

Synopsis section. SPOILERS!

Chapter 1

1931: Nancy, 16, is driving her blue roadster when she sees an inn's ad for chicken dinners. She meets a former classmate of hers named Emily Crandall. Emily's mother had died years before and she is under the guardianship of Jane Willoughby. Nancy was on an errand for her mother, to deliver some legal papers to a judge, which is why she was out driving. Emily's due to receive an inheritance of her family's jewels.

Nancy says Hannah is going to leave to care for her sister. Then Nancy finds out Hannah is leaving that day, and important guest will be coming soon.

1961:Nancy and Helen Corning are going to visit with Emily at the inn. They are in a canoe that gets upset. They see a man but he doesn't help them. Emily is going to marry Dick. Helen is engaged to Jim Archer. The inn is Emily's. Maud is the social director and is angry at something. Emily says she and Dick have a mysterious enemy that is trying to jinx the inn.

Chapter 2

1931: Nancy returns home. Hannah has to leave immediately. There's an important guest coming before long. Nancy checks with some agencies to find a replacement but the ones she is sent are not satisfactory.

1961: A ghost is seen and a lilac tree stolen. Other things have happened. They hear a scream but there's no one there. An article on Nancy appears in the Evening News, River Heights paper. John does scuba diving. Hannah calls and says someone has broken into their house.

Chapter 3

1931: One of the girls that is sent is Mary Mason who proves haughty and unusable.

1961: Someone overhears Nancy on the phone. Emily has diamonds that she plans to sell to raise money for the inn. Nancy returns home and her room is in a mess, her charge card stolen.

Chapter 4

1931: Nancy finally is able to get a decent temporary replacement. Nancy visits Emily who is waiting to get some jewels for an inheritance. She wants to sell some to help the guy she wants to marry, Dick Farnham.

1961: Some one is impersonating her. Nancy calls her father and then returns to the inn. A red truck forces her car off the road.

Chapter 5

1931: Jane Willoughby and her friend Mrs. Potter stop at the Lilac Inn to eat. There's a traffice accident outside and they rush to see what happened. When they return they find the jewels have been stolen.

1961: The state police arrive. Emily shows the jewels. The lights go out and the jewels are gone. Nancy finds a panel in the wall that opens.

Chapter 6

1931: Jane gets very upset and sort of nasty. She wants people searched. She gets so upset she faints.

1961: At least two people seem to be working together as thieves. The diamonds were not insured. Nancy finds her stolen credit card and talks to the police. Tools are stolen from the shed.

Chapter 7

1931: Nancy and her father talk about what happened. Some people think Jane took the jewels since she's having financial difficulties of her own. He suggests Nancy visit Emily but before she can leave Mrs. Willoughby shows up.

1961: The diamonds and the care are found, but it turns out the diamonds are fakes. A woman bumps into Nasty and a real diamond falls out of Nancy's purse. Someone is trying to pin Nancy. Later Nancy goes on in a canoe and goes skin-diving, but someone shoots a spear at her.

Chapter 8

1931: She wants Mr. Drew to take on her case. He asks her a lot of questions about what happened. Nancy gets to visit her friend Emily. Nancy is reluctant (she doesn't seem very confident of her own abilities) but agrees to try to help.1961: Nancy returns to the inn and realizes that several people are involved in what is going on. The truck that ran her off the road was stolen. Helen goes out for a walk but is knocked unconscious.

Chapter 9

1931: Nancy visits Mrs. Potter. She then goes to the inn to find out what she can.

1961: Nancy and John search for Helen. the cottage the girls were in explodes and catches fire. The police are called.

Chapter 10

1931: Helen Corning and Nancy go shopping. While they are in one of the fancier places Nancy sees Mary Mason enter the store. It carries clothes way too expensive for a girl who works as a maid.

1961: Mr. Drew arrives. A state trooper finds bomb fragments. Nancy finds a notebook with some kind of coded message in it.

Chapter 11

1931: Nancy goes back to the inn to ask more questions. Mr. Drew tells Nancy that the police are probably going to arrest Mrs. Willoughby. She finds out that one woman who was not willing to be searched is Viola Granger who has served time for robbery.

1961: Someone had seen Maud in Nancy's room. Nancy goes home to get replacement clothes for her and Helen.

Chapter 12

1931: A rock hits Nancy's car. She sees the red truck again but it leaves. Nancy talks to Mary who had worked at the inn and is suspicious of her. She goes home and talks to her father.

1961: Nancy starts checking out people that Mary Mason has worked for and finds out she has a brother in a near-by town. She goes there and searches and finally sees Mary.

Chapter 13

1931: She lives in a run-down neighborhood. A delivery truck arrives with various packages for the house. Nancy talks to the delivery man about the packages.

1961: Nancy plans to dress up as a ghost and goes back to the inn, no one expecting her to return early. She sees her double but is stopped by a guard.

Chapter 14

1931: Nancy talks again to her father. He tells her Viola Granger has come into considerable money lately. Nancy wants her father to help her find out from store owners about what Mary has bought, and also to check out pawnbrokers.

1961: They have something like an earthquake. Nancy is suspicious of Maud.

Chapter 15

1931: Nancy visits Emily again. The police are questioning Mrs. Willoughby. Mr. Drew has found out about a whole bunch of things Mary has bought.

1961: Nancy finds flipper prints. Nancy and John go skin diving. John's foot gets stuck underwater and Nancy is able to get him loose. Nancy talks to the police and her father.

Chapter 16

1931: Nancy goes downtown and spots an odd stranger who drops a piece of paper. She picks it up and then follows on a train, eventually losing him at some pawnshops.

1961: A lilac tree falls down. Maude quits; she was acting like a blackmailer. Nancy finds a letter in a tree and some guy's pipe is missing.

Chapter 17

1931: She goes back home. Mr. Drew hears from a friend that the police are going to arrest Mrs. Willoughby. Nancy later returns to the mason's house. She spots three people at a boat dock.

1961: Helen and Nancy talk to an actress. Nancy's car is missing but is found nearby. Nancy finds the missing pipe. The girl they are looking for has been in prison for forgery. Nancy knows who is impersonating her. Nancy is grabbed.

Chapter 18

1931: Nancy manages to get into the house and overhear the gang's conversations.

1961: Three people are holding her prisoner. She's put into a mini-sub that they are using. She figures out someone's role in all of this, and that more people are involved.

Chapter 19

1931: There's more gang conversations. Nancy is caught by them and gagged.

1961: Nancy gets transferred to a regular boat. Nancy's father had proved a woman was guilty of check forgery, the woman being Gay Moreau. She confesses to all the thefts, and that it's to get back at Mr. Drew. The boat hits a log and catches on fire, and the crooks leave Nancy on board.

Chapter 20

1931: She's put onto a motorboat. The weather is bad. At first it seems that they will hold Nancy for ransom.

1961: A river police patrol arrive and catch three of the gang and the mini-sub. A second boat arrives with her father on board. The rest of the gang are taken captive. They next day Nancy dives to the sunken boat and recovers the diamonds. There's also reference to thefts of electronics equipment from an Army base that were going to be sold to a foreign enemy.

Chapter 21

The boat moves down the river. Mary is nasty to Nancy but gets seasick. The boat suddenly hits something.

Chapter 22

The crooks abandon ship, figuring they can return for the jewels later. Some guy hears Nancy and gets her off the boat and gets the guys on the bigger boat to stop the smaller one from sinking. One of the gang members makes a run for it.

Chapter 23

Mary and a guy are caught. She tries to lie her way out of things. A Captain Dudley talks over and it turns out he knows Mr. Drew so he can vouch for Nancy. Nancy is determined to go back to the boat and find the jewels.Chapter 24

She locates the jewels hidden in a clock. The police arrive and say they've been looking for Mary for a year.

Chapter 25

Later a party is held for Emily and Nancy at Lilac Inn. Nancy is given a beautiful bracelet for her role in recovering the jewels.

There's also a good Publisher's Note, and a short piece called The Nancy I Knew by Mildred Wirt Benson.


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