'The Bungalow Mystery: The Original 1930 Text, Restored' Returns the Last Nancy Drew Book Edward Stratemeyer Lived to Edit, Impostor, Prisoner, and All

Nancy's third case is restored from three printings of the 1930 original, with Tandy's illustrations and the story of the 1960 rewrite

NEW YORK, Oct. 29, 2026, The third Nancy Drew mystery has been published in its original 1930 form, restored from three independent printings of the first edition. The Bungalow Mystery: The Original 1930 Text, Restored (Companion Classics) presents the complete novel, all twenty-five chapters, with Russell H. Tandy's original 1930 illustrations. Editor Horace Harriott Jr. adds an introduction telling the book's two-texts story, an essay on its author, a note on the period text, and an appendix of verified differences between the 1930 original and the 1960 revision.

The Bungalow Mystery was published on April 28, 1930, one of three Nancy Drew books released the same day to launch the series, and the last of them that Edward Stratemeyer, the man who created Nancy, lived to edit; he was dead within two weeks. It opens with a rescue: caught by a storm on Moon Lake, Nancy and Helen Corning are capsized and struggling when a stranger rows out to save them, Laura Pendleton, an orphan who cannot even swim. Laura's guardian, Jacob Aborn, proves boorish and grasping, demanding her jewels and telling her she is nearly penniless. Following the false guardian to a deserted bungalow in the woods, Nancy finds a man chained to the wall of the cellar: the real Jacob Aborn. The "guardian" is Stumpy Dowd, a notorious criminal and sometime actor, wearing an honest man's face to steal a fortune of more than a hundred thousand dollars.

In 1960 the book was rewritten, twenty-five chapters cut to twenty, and published summaries of the revised edition describe the imposture itself rebuilt, with Dowd joined by his wife Alma, the two impersonating Mr. and Mrs. Aborn together. The original text, the lone impostor, the lone prisoner, vanished from print for more than sixty years. This edition restores it, preserving even the first edition's quirks, including a first chapter headed "CHAPTER 1," in Arabic numeral, where every later chapter takes a Roman one.

Alongside the book, the Nancy Drew, The Bungalow Mystery Book Club Kit offers the edition's discussion material as a printable PDF, with chapter and whole-book questions arranged for group reading. The kit is available for $7 through the editor's Payhip store: https://payhip.com/b/CdQyv

The Bungalow Mystery: The Original 1930 Text, Restored is available now as an eBook ($9.99) through Payhip: https://payhip.com/b/7WPJM, paperback and hardcover print editions follow on Amazon. The novel's 1930 text and Tandy's illustrations are in the U.S. public domain; all companion material is original to this edition. This is an independent restoration of a public-domain work. Not published, authorized, or endorsed by Simon & Schuster, Inc. NANCY DREW is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., used here only to identify the 1930 work.

About the editor

Horace Harriott Jr. is a New York-based author and editor of more than two dozen books, including The Side Hustle Handbook, Master Playbook and The Ultimate Commissary Cookbook. This edition is part of his Companion Classics series of reading-together editions of public-domain classics.

About the book

The Bungalow Mystery: The Original 1930 Text, Restored, Carolyn Keene (author), Horace Harriott Jr. (editor). Companion Classics, independently published, October 2026. The novel was first published April 28, 1930; the 1960 revision is a separate, later version not reproduced here.