This is an extremely well done book. The basic theme is that Nancy has a group of girls that form a Detective Club. She tells them about various methods to gathering clues. Each section is a short story about the club, what type of clue they are involved with, and an activity so the reader can try out their own skills.
The first section is on handwriting and the second is on thumbprints. Fingerprints are, of course, of major value in crime-fighting. The next section is about how to really notice what is going on around you so that you can describe to the police any suspicious character that you see.
One of my favorites, codes, is the next section. This is followed by a section on observing and taking shoe prints from a crime scene. Another section on observing people follows that one. Then there's a story about a woman who has lost a cameo and the girls help her find it.
Palm prints form the next section, although I doubt they are considered very useful in actual crime-fighting. A section on testimony shows how two different people, neither on of whom is a crook, can differ considerably on their view of something.
The last section confuses me a little. There's a report of a ghost in a place and, as usual, it's not a real ghost. There is a guy who doesn't want the place sold and he acts the part of the ghost. The odd part is that he leaves a message on the basement wall, but it's in code. Why in code? I know there was a section on code breaking earlier, but a guy who wants people to stay away will leave an easily understandable message, not one in code.
Other than that one problem, this is a really neat book.
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