Who made Nancy Drew?

There seems to be a little bit of an argument among the fans and critics of whether she's this strong feminist icon or this goody-two-shoes with a trust fund who is really annoying. Do you have an opinion about that?

I do. Yes, that's the sort of antifeminist argument that cropped up. "Well, how can we take her seriously as a feminist role model? She relies entirely on her father's money." But you've got to look at it in context. This is a fictional character being written for children -- not even being written for teenagers but for children. And it misses the point. The point is you're supposed to love Nancy for all of these qualities we've been talking about. For being intrepid, for being brave. They're not meant to be a template on how to live a specific life. They're meant to present ideals.

While you were writing this book, did you find that there were people coming out of the woodwork wanting to share their stories about Nancy Drew and how she affected them?

Yeah. I have to say, I was prepared for it, but I wasn't prepared for the level it reached. And it still happens now. I go to a dinner party and I get introduced, and everyone has something to say about it. And really unlikely people told me they had read all the Nancy Drew books -- like a lot of men, which you never think. I mean, certainly more women. Everyone has these really good memories, and they want to tell me how much they loved her. It's such a nice way to go through the world.

So did you encounter any fans who had particularly interesting stories or connections to Nancy Drew?

I didn't meet any personally. But there are a lot of stories -- a lot of which I put in the book toward the end -- about these women who read her in their underground bunkers during the resistance. And the really interesting thing is that it keeps happening. It just is reverberating ahead into the future.

I don't think this made it into the book, but when [Wall Street Journal reporter] Daniel Pearl was kidnapped, his wife wrote a book. And in a story I was reading about it in the Times, she and the woman that they were staying with in Pakistan talk about how he was kidnapped. They didn't think the Pakistani police were doing such a good job, so they undertook their own investigation. And the friend describes how they kept this log of everything they were doing and how she did it based on what she had learned from Nancy Drew books.

And it was like, "How could this be?" You know, at the moment I read it, there could not have been anything more up to the moment. So that's the really extraordinary thing to me: how many people in so many different parts of the world have read the books and the amazing consistency of what people get from Nancy. What they attribute to her about themselves is always things like these women in Pakistan. "I learned how to be intrepid and take good notes and follow my own path." It's this really incredible set of characteristics. I think the character's so cartoon-y, but that's what I mean about her being invested with Harriet and Mildred, who I think really were both like that. And that somehow manages to shine through.

So, can you recommend one Nancy Drew book? What would be your favorite, if you had to choose one?

My favorite? Or what would I recommend to other people?

Both.

Well, I'm really a fan of the old ones, which depending on how p.c. you are, you might not want to read them.

You mean the unrevised ones?

The unrevised ones. [Pauses to think for a minute.] Boy, this is hard. Well, actually, one of the earlier ones that I really love, which I talk about a little in the introduction, is "Mystery of the Tolling Bell," the revised one. There were certain ones as a kid I was obsessed with. I was obsessed with that one, and I was obsessed with "The Clue of the Leaning Chimney." Some other ones that I loved: "The Quest of the Missing Map" is a great early one.

It depends on what your taste is for. "The Secret of Shadow Ranch" is great because they go out to Arizona and they're on this ranch and they go riding a lot. There's all kinds of natural-world forces. And then there's a really creepy early one called "The Secret of Red Gate Farm" that has a cult in it. It meets in a cave and the three girls, of course, manage to infiltrate the meeting. But then, of course, they're discovered. I think the reason I love the early ones is that they're very atmospheric; the stories are really drawn out. Even the very first one is fantastic: "The Secret of the Old Clock." I think it's hard to go wrong.

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