The Spider Sapphire Mystery, Nancy Drew Mysteries #45 (1968)

In this adventure, Nancy, Bess and George take on the case of the theft of an ancient jewel, the Spider Sapphire, that originated in east Africa millions of years ago. After one Nancy’s father’s friends, a synthetic jewellery exhibitor named Floyd Ramsay is accused of stealing the original artefact, a prehistoric spider encased in sapphire, and passing it off as his own work by a group of men claiming to represent the owner of the jewel, a Mr Tagore, Nancy decides to help out. The blackmail threats that follow convince Nancy and her friends that skulduggery is afoot, and they decide to travel to the jewel’s African homeland to try to gain some insight as to the Sapphire’s origin and the potential identity of the blackmailers. As luck would have it, a group of River Heights Emerson College students, including the girl sleuth and her companions, are going on safari to Kenya anyway, so they take the opportunity to get to the bottom of the mystery. Once in Kenya, as Nancy delves into the mystery of the Spider Sapphire, attempts to end her investigation become more serious and potentially lethal.

A sub plot and second investigation opens for Nancy when Madame Lilia Bulawaya, a touring singer, asks the girl sleuth to investigate the strange disappearance of her brother, a tour guide, rumoured to have been killed by a lion, but no body has been found. Nancy cheerfully takes on this second case, and despite traps set by her mysterious assailants is able to find Madam Bulawaya’s brother (who it turned out had an amnesia episode after the lion attack), locate the Spider Sapphire, thus proving Mr Ramsay’s innocence, and expose the bad guys. This is a multi location, action packed mystery in which Nancy does not do a whole lot of sleuthing, but is kept on her toes by continuous incidents.

“Star, come back!” Nancy called

Suddenly there was a deathly quiet. Nancy and Bob looked over, horrified, at the prone form of Lance Bishop, sprawled on the floor, next to the scattered boxes that had fallen on him; his gun was there too, lying far from his senseless grasp, where it had spun after hitting the floor. “Is he…?” Bob began. Nancy had placed both a protective and retraining hand on the boy’s shoulder when the infuriated Bishop had stormed into the warehouse where the girl detective and her prize turned witness were hiding. On spotting them, Bishop had snarled with glee, “”No confessions, no testimony!” and levelled his gun at the pair. Whether caused by the violent momentum of the murderer’s entrance, or sloppy packing by that day’s porters, or both, a shaky column of boxes teetered before Nancy’s amazed eyes and tumbled down onto the man with a crash, knocking him to the floor. After the cacophony of the collapse faded, Lance Bishop remained where he lay, unmoving.

Nancy hurried to the motionless form and knelt next to Bishop. She felt his wrist. There was a pulse. “He’s out, but he’ll be ok.” she stated and looked up at Bob, who was staring ambiguously at Bishop’s gun. The girl knew that, swift as she was, she woukd not be able to outpace Bob to the weapon if he ran to fetch it. “You’ve come this far, Bobby.” Nancy said gently, fixing the lad’s dark eyes with her own. “Don’t blow it now.” Bob shrugged unsmilingly, acknowledging he had indeed made his decision. Nancy snatched some light packing case rope. “I’d better tie him up,” she told the watching Bob, “we wouldn’t want him to come round before we call the police.” Bob’s strange expression returned. “Why bother?” he rejoined. “We have his gun.” Nancy busied herself tying Bishop’s wrists behind him as he began to stir, groggily. “That would be no use to me.” she muttered audibly, not looking up from her task. “Horrible things!” Once the stunned man was securely bound, Nancy stood and walked towards Bob, a short coil of rope still dangling from her hand. “I need to be sure you behave yourself while we wait for the police, Bob.” she told the grim faced young man. “I’ll need to tie you too.” Bob sighed wearily, his only expression of displeasure or reluctance at the prospect. He nodded and remained silent and unresisting as Nancy pulled the wrists of her main witness and prisoner, behind his back.