A Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys Super Mystery: A Crime for Christmas
First of all, many, many apologies for not posting this sooner. I believe strangerface requested this, like, two months ago. >.< Sorry!
A Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys Super Mystery
A Crime for Christmas
In which Nancy, Bess, Frank, and Joe go to NYC to stop a team of cat burglars from stealing jewels but end up partying around town with a prince in disguise.
(This picture amuses me. Frank looks like actor Jonathan Silverman and not only does Joe look like Nancy's brother instead of Frank's but he also looks a tad bit constipated.)
Our story starts off with excitement! With drama! With intrigue! With...Nancy and Bess taking a cab to their hotel before going out shopping. But it's Christmas in New York so I suppose their important case can wait awhile. After Nancy pays a butt load of money for facial cream which Bess goads her into buying and we know she'll never use, the two girls (and don't you love how this series just completely ignores George?) head over to meet Frank and Joe at the specified meeting place, a street corner. Why there and not the hotel, where both groups are staying, I have no idea.
Anyway, Bess gets distracted by the smell of chocolate in the air and drags Nancy into a packed chocolate store. Because apparently all Bess does is shop and eat. She flirts with the guy working there and not only gets him to give her a free piece of chocolate, but it's part of the special order that the U.N. has ordered for the big Sarconne celebration. Wow, someone's getting fired tomorrow.
Wait, what's that, you say? You've never heard of Sarconne before? Tsk tsk. Well, it's obviously a tiny but well-known country situated somewhere in Europe, and has just been awarded the distinction of being inducted into the U.N. There's a big celebration being held in honor of this great event and diplomats from all over will be attending, including Sarconne's crowned prince, Jean-Claude. Nancy and Bess, as well as Frank and Joe, have been brought to NYC to help catch a duo of cat burglars who authorities believe will try to steal the Sarconne jewels, which have been put on display for the grand event as well. What gets me about this is that the FBI, Interpol, all those great investigative bodies, have no idea who these cat burglars are. All they know is that there's two of them. Yeah, that's it. So instead of continuing to investigate this case themselves, they call in a young woman from a random town in the Midwest to crack the mystery of their identities.
Anyway, just as Bess and Nancy leave the chocolate place, the book proves me wrong in that crime does not take a holiday while sleuths go shopping and Bess's bags are stolen. Nancy takes after the thief and loses him in the crazy crowd of Christmas shoppers before finding him again and tackling him to the ground. But oh noes! It's Joe Hardy! What a cruel trick! Was he the thief? Turns out...nope! Joe saw what happened from their meeting place and stopped the guy long enough to get the shopping bags before the guy got away.
They decide to go out for dinner where Bess immediately starts making eyes at the guy in the table next to them. He's looking interested too but before anything can happen, his party leaves. But as we can't have a Nancy Drew book without one big coincidence after another, wouldn't you know that Hot Guy (aka John) is staying at their hotel! John invites them to hang out with them (Frank actually has the smarts to question "Do we know you?") and they turn him down, much to Bess' dismay. But John is nothing if not persistent and a few minutes later, when the girls are settled comfortably in their fourth floor room, they hear a knock. Not on their door. Their window. Coming from several stories up, John climbed down to their room!! If that doesn't say "crazy stalker"," I don't know the meaning of the word. And neither, apparently, does Bess. She is quite adamant about going out with John and drags everyone else with them to a comedy and then night club. But at one point, Nancy sees John arguing with a strange dark man at the back of one of the clubs. Hmmm, not suspicious at all.
Bess is the only one who doesn't seem to think John is strange while the other three seem to think they've found one half of their cat burglar team. They don't have much time to think about that, though, because they find the girls' hotel room torn to bits when they finally arrive back. Nothing was taken either, even though the girls both had jewelry there. But at least Bess' shopping bags, which Joe accidentally left in his room, were safe. (Hmm....)
The next part of the book features the only bit of work the trio actually does on their cat burglar case, and it features Joe secretly taking pictures of father-son groups in the lobby of their hotel. He doesn't even get very far because he starts taking photos of a girl next door. She catches him and, instead of backing away slowly, starts to flirt and introduces herself. Her name is Fiona, and Frank and Nancy basically eavesdrop while trying not to crack up as Joe tries to flirt back. After this, the group is about to go out with John again when someone stops them and wants them arrested!!
For kidnapping!!
And not just any kidnapping!! But kidnapping Jean-Claude, the crowned prince of Sarconne!!! (dun dun dunnn!!)
He and his cousin, Count Reynaud, are of course in town for the UN visit, but JC just wants to be a normal guy and do normal things and so keeps trying to escape from the stuffy, old Count. CR is understandably angry but JC somehow manages to persuade him to let the quartet become his bodyguards. Even though he already has a whole bunch who are properly trained in bodyguarding and know how to use firearms. But sure, I guess 4 twenty-somethings are good too. (The CIA seem to think so, at any rate.)
But just as one disaster is avoided, another comes hurdling toward them: they decide to go out on the town once again...but JC is kidnapped!! Oh noes!! But our quartet are quick and manage to catch the kidnappers after chasing them around town in JC's limo. A Nancy Drew book is just not worth it if there's not a high-speed chase, I tell ya. (The best part is that, after their car crashes near Central Park, the bad guys hop on some carriage-drawing horses and ride them away. Yeehaw!)
Thankfully, JC is not harmed and then proceeds to take everyone, even the Count, out to celebrate his rescue. At a Mexican restaurant. But the peppy Mexican songs aren't enough to keep Nancy from eavesdropping again, when she hears JC and CR arguing about the quartet being bodyguards because they're "common" and CR even accuses "Beth Melvin" of being a money-grubbing fortune huntress. Later on that night at the hotel, CR once again accuses Bess of being after JC's money, but this time to her face. JC get angry and demands a written apology with a copy sent to his (JC's) parents. Well, no wonder CR treats JC like he's five; he certainly seems to think he's in kindergarten. CR says he'll make it up to them, so JC? Makes him take them to a dance club. (Which, to be fair, is a kind of funny punishment for him.)
But just when you thought the waters were safe out plucky prince was in the clear, he gets kidnapped again!! With Bess!! But of course, after a brief scuffle, the others manage to free JC and Bess from the evil clutches of the kidnappers. But Nancy suddenly suspects something when JC seems a bit odd after this second attempt. He's utterly convinced these kidnappers are different from the first ones and even Bess comments on how they went after her first and then JC. What could Bess possibly have that these people want so badly? Could it have to do with the ransacking of her room and how the only possessions of hers at the time were her shopping bags containing the special-order crown which thankfully happened to be in the boys' room at the time of the break-in? ... Nah, that's not it. ;)
After this, more unexpected drama occurs! Joe is attacked and knocked out in his hotel room! I think there must be a quota for these ghost writers to fill in these books: 1) Every character must be kidnapped and/or attacked. 2) Every character must fall for someone else who's not right for them in the end. And so on and so on.
And in the next 25 pages, #1 happens twice and instances of #2 are yet again all over the place. Joe goes up to his hotel room to get something for the crew and is knocked out by an intruder who had been searching their room. Luckily, Fiona's father is a doctor, and as they're staying on the same floor as the Hardys, he heard everything and was able to treat Joe right away. Then, JC decides to take everyone to Rockefeller Center to ice skate where he continues to put the moves on Bess, Joe hangs out with Fiona, and Nancy gets jealous of all the couples and starts thinking about Frank. (You know, I used to love this particular Frank/Nancy book when I was younger, but in reality, there is a decided lack of F/N moments here. Like, three total. *sad face*) While at the RC, Nancy also sees JC arguing with someone who happens to be one of the first set of kidnappers. But JC is just arguing with him, like he knows him. Nancy says, Something Is Up!
And then, later on, Joe takes Fiona up to his room's bathroom-turned-darkroom to expose himself show her his exposures. Ahem. But suddenly they hear someone trying to break into the room again. Joe goes chasing after the guy but loses him in the stairwell. Must've been one of Escher's designs because I don't know how you lose someone in a stairwell. When he gets back to the room, he finds Fiona locked in the closet and all his photos of potential cat burglars ruined from the light.
After seeing Fiona safely back to her father, Joe rushes to Central Park as he is late to meet the gang on another JC-led adventure. This time, horse-drawn carriage rides! He tells them what happened with the photos and Nancy correctly yet somewhat hurriedly (as there was a decided lack of evidence) deduces that Fiona and her father are the cat burglars. As Frank, Nancy, and Joe are discussing this, they realize that JC and Bess' carriage has gotten considerably farther ahead on the path. Turns out?
They're being kidnapped again!! I do believe three times in one book is a record, folks.
The carriage quickly pulls aside to meet up with a limo into which JC and Bess are pushed. Nancy and the boys reach the spot just after the limo leaves but find a piece of paper on the ground with what looks like an odd math equation. Nancy, Frank, and Joe decide the best thing to do is confide in the Count, who offers the use of the limo to try and find the missing pair. As they approach his hotel room, however, they hear him arguing about Lexington Avenue and how whoever he's talking to is on the wrong side of town. He makes the excuse to the trio that "his people" can't find Bloomingdale's. But just as they're all about to set off to find JC and Bess, who comes stumbling through the door but JC! He managed to escape the limo but Bess unfortunately is still captured.
In a fit of niceness, CR lets them use his limo to go out and search for Bess based on JC's description of where they were taken: a warehouse somewhere. And that's pretty much all he's got. But they'll search all teh warehouses in NYC if they have to so they set off. The limo needs gas so Nancy uses that opportunity to buy a map of the NYC streets, which is about the last smart thing done in this book. According to the map, there's a mathematical strategy to finding out where places are located if you know the address but not where the street is. Turns out the piece of paper Nancy found with the math problem on it is the strategy, which lets them know that Bess' warehouse is. (*channels the Church Lady* How convenient.) And the place, of course, is on Lexington Ave.
Along the way, without thinking about the elephant in the room that is Lexington Ave, Nancy questions JC about the other kidnappings. He admits the first one was a set up because...he was bored. He wanted to get away from the Count and so he arranged the kidnapping. He only argued with one of the guys afterwards because the guy wanted more money when he realized who he was actually kidnapping. The second one, however, was real, and they wonder why the people went after Bess instead. They get to the warehouse and CR agrees to stay in the limo while the other 4 split up and check everything out. JC goes with Joe while Frank and Nancy team up. You'd think there'd be more chemistry at this point now that they're alone together but no. Nothing but worry about poor Bess.
After checking things out and trying to find where Bess is, Frank and Nancy get caught and try to pretend they're agents sent to capture the bad guys. It's pretty pathetic and Bess doesn't help by being all "I told you my friends would come!" at the bad guys. Suddenly, there's a large rumbling sound and who should arrive but JC! On a forklift! Which crashes through the wall of the warehouse! Nothing says "rescue" like "theft" and "destruction of property." But it does get the bad guys to scatter so they rescue Bess and get back to the limo in time for JC and CR to get to the gala celebration the UN is holding for their country. The driver then begins to take them back to their hotel while the crew tries to figure out why they went after Bess. Nancy thinks back to when their rooms were ransacked and how the only thing that wasn't in them at the time of the robberies was Bess' bag with the chocolate crown in it. Somehow, Bess has the chocolate with her. I don't even think it's explained why. But she does and, protesting that it's just chocolate, takes a bit bite only to find...
Plastic explosives hidden within!
They go back to the chocolate place (the limo driver waiting patiently throughout all this, must be getting paid a lot) and break in to see if they can find where the chocolate is being delivered. Gee, they can figure out the guys want the chocolate but not why? But if it adds "breaking and entering" to the list, why not? They discover, quite obviously, that all 20 crowns are going to the Sarconne gala. But while they're at the chocolate store, the kidnappers find them (it's not said how) and Joe manages to fall into a vat of cooking chocolate not once but three times. Without getting burned. Joe has suddenly acquired Wolverine-like abilities, apparently.
They manage to escape the bad guys and get back in the Count's limo. Instead of taking them to the celebration, however, he takes them all the way over to the other side of the city, intent on "getting rid of them." But, hey, Count's orders, right? Nancy, however, has a smart idea and threatens the guy with the plastique! Oh noes! The limo's going to blow!
Not really. She just used that really expensive facial cream Bess made her buy at the beginning of the book. First of all, what a waste of money. Secondly, she was carrying that huge jar around with her the whole time when she never planned on using it? All right...
After the limo driver abandons them and the limo of course crashes, the gang hops a cab back to the UN gala. (The cabbie, unrealistically, is not upset that Joe is dripping chocolate all over his seat.) When they get there, the people at the front desk won't let them in despite the fact that their names are on the list. Gee, you think being covered in dirt and facial cream could be the problem? So the quartet do what anybody would do in this situation: follow some waiters, steal some extra uniforms, and sneak in the front door. Right. Because the help always use the front door.
Inside, they find that each table has a chocolate crown on it and that CR intends to blow up everybody. After watching CR for a few minutes, they discover the DJ to the event (JC's doing, of course) is in on the action. Frank announces that there are bombs inside and everyone runs out, panicked. And where was the UN security during this? Frank then tackles the DJ while Joe clips the wires. There's a short chase out of the room into the hotel lobby where CR aims a gun at them. Why he's a threat in this instance, I don't know. They're in the lobby of a hotel where a UN gala is being held. Once again, where in the world did all those security guards go? One guy with a gun isn't that big of a threat when there are twenty more aiming back at him.
But the ghost writer doesn't know this, and so CR shoots at them. Thankfully, he misses and Frank decides one tackle isn't enough for this book and goes after CR. Only after does he do that is CR taken into UN custody.
While they're recovering from this experience, Nancy sees a strange looking couple leave the lobby. She recognizes one of them as Fiona and calls out her name. Fiona is startles and drops one of her bags in the process of running away. Turns out? The bag is filled with the Sarconne jewels. Nancy was right! The Foxes were the cat burglar team. I don't understand why, out of all the luggage they were carrying, Fiona would drop the jewels. Throw some of the heavier stuff to stop Nancy or whoever was chasing you and keep the jewels. *shrugs* Maybe I should be a cat burglar instead of Fiona because it just seems like common sense to me. ;)
Finally, the group is back at the airport, ready to go home. Bess is upset because JC is going back to Sarconne after having realized that he needs to be responsible and take care of his country. There's no mention, however, that the two decided against a long distance relationship so I can only ask why that wasn't an option. Anyway, there's also a moment of Nancy saying goodbye to Frank, which ends kind of lamely because Nancy once again remembers Ned and how she may be attracted to Frank but she loves Ned. Although, if you find yourself that attracted to someone else, maybe you're not as in love with that other person as you thought, huh? They always use that excuse and I always hated it lol.
As far as other Frank/Nancy moments go, there's really not that many even though I remember there being more. There's a moment when they first meet and another when dancing in the club but either Nancy ruins in with a lame comment or they're interrupted by kidnappers. :P
A Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys Super Mystery
A Crime for Christmas
In which Nancy, Bess, Frank, and Joe go to NYC to stop a team of cat burglars from stealing jewels but end up partying around town with a prince in disguise.
(This picture amuses me. Frank looks like actor Jonathan Silverman and not only does Joe look like Nancy's brother instead of Frank's but he also looks a tad bit constipated.)
Our story starts off with excitement! With drama! With intrigue! With...Nancy and Bess taking a cab to their hotel before going out shopping. But it's Christmas in New York so I suppose their important case can wait awhile. After Nancy pays a butt load of money for facial cream which Bess goads her into buying and we know she'll never use, the two girls (and don't you love how this series just completely ignores George?) head over to meet Frank and Joe at the specified meeting place, a street corner. Why there and not the hotel, where both groups are staying, I have no idea.
Anyway, Bess gets distracted by the smell of chocolate in the air and drags Nancy into a packed chocolate store. Because apparently all Bess does is shop and eat. She flirts with the guy working there and not only gets him to give her a free piece of chocolate, but it's part of the special order that the U.N. has ordered for the big Sarconne celebration. Wow, someone's getting fired tomorrow.
Wait, what's that, you say? You've never heard of Sarconne before? Tsk tsk. Well, it's obviously a tiny but well-known country situated somewhere in Europe, and has just been awarded the distinction of being inducted into the U.N. There's a big celebration being held in honor of this great event and diplomats from all over will be attending, including Sarconne's crowned prince, Jean-Claude. Nancy and Bess, as well as Frank and Joe, have been brought to NYC to help catch a duo of cat burglars who authorities believe will try to steal the Sarconne jewels, which have been put on display for the grand event as well. What gets me about this is that the FBI, Interpol, all those great investigative bodies, have no idea who these cat burglars are. All they know is that there's two of them. Yeah, that's it. So instead of continuing to investigate this case themselves, they call in a young woman from a random town in the Midwest to crack the mystery of their identities.
Anyway, just as Bess and Nancy leave the chocolate place, the book proves me wrong in that crime does not take a holiday while sleuths go shopping and Bess's bags are stolen. Nancy takes after the thief and loses him in the crazy crowd of Christmas shoppers before finding him again and tackling him to the ground. But oh noes! It's Joe Hardy! What a cruel trick! Was he the thief? Turns out...nope! Joe saw what happened from their meeting place and stopped the guy long enough to get the shopping bags before the guy got away.
They decide to go out for dinner where Bess immediately starts making eyes at the guy in the table next to them. He's looking interested too but before anything can happen, his party leaves. But as we can't have a Nancy Drew book without one big coincidence after another, wouldn't you know that Hot Guy (aka John) is staying at their hotel! John invites them to hang out with them (Frank actually has the smarts to question "Do we know you?") and they turn him down, much to Bess' dismay. But John is nothing if not persistent and a few minutes later, when the girls are settled comfortably in their fourth floor room, they hear a knock. Not on their door. Their window. Coming from several stories up, John climbed down to their room!! If that doesn't say "crazy stalker"," I don't know the meaning of the word. And neither, apparently, does Bess. She is quite adamant about going out with John and drags everyone else with them to a comedy and then night club. But at one point, Nancy sees John arguing with a strange dark man at the back of one of the clubs. Hmmm, not suspicious at all.
Bess is the only one who doesn't seem to think John is strange while the other three seem to think they've found one half of their cat burglar team. They don't have much time to think about that, though, because they find the girls' hotel room torn to bits when they finally arrive back. Nothing was taken either, even though the girls both had jewelry there. But at least Bess' shopping bags, which Joe accidentally left in his room, were safe. (Hmm....)
The next part of the book features the only bit of work the trio actually does on their cat burglar case, and it features Joe secretly taking pictures of father-son groups in the lobby of their hotel. He doesn't even get very far because he starts taking photos of a girl next door. She catches him and, instead of backing away slowly, starts to flirt and introduces herself. Her name is Fiona, and Frank and Nancy basically eavesdrop while trying not to crack up as Joe tries to flirt back. After this, the group is about to go out with John again when someone stops them and wants them arrested!!
For kidnapping!!
And not just any kidnapping!! But kidnapping Jean-Claude, the crowned prince of Sarconne!!! (dun dun dunnn!!)
He and his cousin, Count Reynaud, are of course in town for the UN visit, but JC just wants to be a normal guy and do normal things and so keeps trying to escape from the stuffy, old Count. CR is understandably angry but JC somehow manages to persuade him to let the quartet become his bodyguards. Even though he already has a whole bunch who are properly trained in bodyguarding and know how to use firearms. But sure, I guess 4 twenty-somethings are good too. (The CIA seem to think so, at any rate.)
But just as one disaster is avoided, another comes hurdling toward them: they decide to go out on the town once again...but JC is kidnapped!! Oh noes!! But our quartet are quick and manage to catch the kidnappers after chasing them around town in JC's limo. A Nancy Drew book is just not worth it if there's not a high-speed chase, I tell ya. (The best part is that, after their car crashes near Central Park, the bad guys hop on some carriage-drawing horses and ride them away. Yeehaw!)
Thankfully, JC is not harmed and then proceeds to take everyone, even the Count, out to celebrate his rescue. At a Mexican restaurant. But the peppy Mexican songs aren't enough to keep Nancy from eavesdropping again, when she hears JC and CR arguing about the quartet being bodyguards because they're "common" and CR even accuses "Beth Melvin" of being a money-grubbing fortune huntress. Later on that night at the hotel, CR once again accuses Bess of being after JC's money, but this time to her face. JC get angry and demands a written apology with a copy sent to his (JC's) parents. Well, no wonder CR treats JC like he's five; he certainly seems to think he's in kindergarten. CR says he'll make it up to them, so JC? Makes him take them to a dance club. (Which, to be fair, is a kind of funny punishment for him.)
But just when you thought the waters were safe out plucky prince was in the clear, he gets kidnapped again!! With Bess!! But of course, after a brief scuffle, the others manage to free JC and Bess from the evil clutches of the kidnappers. But Nancy suddenly suspects something when JC seems a bit odd after this second attempt. He's utterly convinced these kidnappers are different from the first ones and even Bess comments on how they went after her first and then JC. What could Bess possibly have that these people want so badly? Could it have to do with the ransacking of her room and how the only possessions of hers at the time were her shopping bags containing the special-order crown which thankfully happened to be in the boys' room at the time of the break-in? ... Nah, that's not it. ;)
After this, more unexpected drama occurs! Joe is attacked and knocked out in his hotel room! I think there must be a quota for these ghost writers to fill in these books: 1) Every character must be kidnapped and/or attacked. 2) Every character must fall for someone else who's not right for them in the end. And so on and so on.
And in the next 25 pages, #1 happens twice and instances of #2 are yet again all over the place. Joe goes up to his hotel room to get something for the crew and is knocked out by an intruder who had been searching their room. Luckily, Fiona's father is a doctor, and as they're staying on the same floor as the Hardys, he heard everything and was able to treat Joe right away. Then, JC decides to take everyone to Rockefeller Center to ice skate where he continues to put the moves on Bess, Joe hangs out with Fiona, and Nancy gets jealous of all the couples and starts thinking about Frank. (You know, I used to love this particular Frank/Nancy book when I was younger, but in reality, there is a decided lack of F/N moments here. Like, three total. *sad face*) While at the RC, Nancy also sees JC arguing with someone who happens to be one of the first set of kidnappers. But JC is just arguing with him, like he knows him. Nancy says, Something Is Up!
And then, later on, Joe takes Fiona up to his room's bathroom-turned-darkroom to expose himself show her his exposures. Ahem. But suddenly they hear someone trying to break into the room again. Joe goes chasing after the guy but loses him in the stairwell. Must've been one of Escher's designs because I don't know how you lose someone in a stairwell. When he gets back to the room, he finds Fiona locked in the closet and all his photos of potential cat burglars ruined from the light.
After seeing Fiona safely back to her father, Joe rushes to Central Park as he is late to meet the gang on another JC-led adventure. This time, horse-drawn carriage rides! He tells them what happened with the photos and Nancy correctly yet somewhat hurriedly (as there was a decided lack of evidence) deduces that Fiona and her father are the cat burglars. As Frank, Nancy, and Joe are discussing this, they realize that JC and Bess' carriage has gotten considerably farther ahead on the path. Turns out?
They're being kidnapped again!! I do believe three times in one book is a record, folks.
The carriage quickly pulls aside to meet up with a limo into which JC and Bess are pushed. Nancy and the boys reach the spot just after the limo leaves but find a piece of paper on the ground with what looks like an odd math equation. Nancy, Frank, and Joe decide the best thing to do is confide in the Count, who offers the use of the limo to try and find the missing pair. As they approach his hotel room, however, they hear him arguing about Lexington Avenue and how whoever he's talking to is on the wrong side of town. He makes the excuse to the trio that "his people" can't find Bloomingdale's. But just as they're all about to set off to find JC and Bess, who comes stumbling through the door but JC! He managed to escape the limo but Bess unfortunately is still captured.
In a fit of niceness, CR lets them use his limo to go out and search for Bess based on JC's description of where they were taken: a warehouse somewhere. And that's pretty much all he's got. But they'll search all teh warehouses in NYC if they have to so they set off. The limo needs gas so Nancy uses that opportunity to buy a map of the NYC streets, which is about the last smart thing done in this book. According to the map, there's a mathematical strategy to finding out where places are located if you know the address but not where the street is. Turns out the piece of paper Nancy found with the math problem on it is the strategy, which lets them know that Bess' warehouse is. (*channels the Church Lady* How convenient.) And the place, of course, is on Lexington Ave.
Along the way, without thinking about the elephant in the room that is Lexington Ave, Nancy questions JC about the other kidnappings. He admits the first one was a set up because...he was bored. He wanted to get away from the Count and so he arranged the kidnapping. He only argued with one of the guys afterwards because the guy wanted more money when he realized who he was actually kidnapping. The second one, however, was real, and they wonder why the people went after Bess instead. They get to the warehouse and CR agrees to stay in the limo while the other 4 split up and check everything out. JC goes with Joe while Frank and Nancy team up. You'd think there'd be more chemistry at this point now that they're alone together but no. Nothing but worry about poor Bess.
After checking things out and trying to find where Bess is, Frank and Nancy get caught and try to pretend they're agents sent to capture the bad guys. It's pretty pathetic and Bess doesn't help by being all "I told you my friends would come!" at the bad guys. Suddenly, there's a large rumbling sound and who should arrive but JC! On a forklift! Which crashes through the wall of the warehouse! Nothing says "rescue" like "theft" and "destruction of property." But it does get the bad guys to scatter so they rescue Bess and get back to the limo in time for JC and CR to get to the gala celebration the UN is holding for their country. The driver then begins to take them back to their hotel while the crew tries to figure out why they went after Bess. Nancy thinks back to when their rooms were ransacked and how the only thing that wasn't in them at the time of the robberies was Bess' bag with the chocolate crown in it. Somehow, Bess has the chocolate with her. I don't even think it's explained why. But she does and, protesting that it's just chocolate, takes a bit bite only to find...
Plastic explosives hidden within!
They go back to the chocolate place (the limo driver waiting patiently throughout all this, must be getting paid a lot) and break in to see if they can find where the chocolate is being delivered. Gee, they can figure out the guys want the chocolate but not why? But if it adds "breaking and entering" to the list, why not? They discover, quite obviously, that all 20 crowns are going to the Sarconne gala. But while they're at the chocolate store, the kidnappers find them (it's not said how) and Joe manages to fall into a vat of cooking chocolate not once but three times. Without getting burned. Joe has suddenly acquired Wolverine-like abilities, apparently.
They manage to escape the bad guys and get back in the Count's limo. Instead of taking them to the celebration, however, he takes them all the way over to the other side of the city, intent on "getting rid of them." But, hey, Count's orders, right? Nancy, however, has a smart idea and threatens the guy with the plastique! Oh noes! The limo's going to blow!
Not really. She just used that really expensive facial cream Bess made her buy at the beginning of the book. First of all, what a waste of money. Secondly, she was carrying that huge jar around with her the whole time when she never planned on using it? All right...
After the limo driver abandons them and the limo of course crashes, the gang hops a cab back to the UN gala. (The cabbie, unrealistically, is not upset that Joe is dripping chocolate all over his seat.) When they get there, the people at the front desk won't let them in despite the fact that their names are on the list. Gee, you think being covered in dirt and facial cream could be the problem? So the quartet do what anybody would do in this situation: follow some waiters, steal some extra uniforms, and sneak in the front door. Right. Because the help always use the front door.
Inside, they find that each table has a chocolate crown on it and that CR intends to blow up everybody. After watching CR for a few minutes, they discover the DJ to the event (JC's doing, of course) is in on the action. Frank announces that there are bombs inside and everyone runs out, panicked. And where was the UN security during this? Frank then tackles the DJ while Joe clips the wires. There's a short chase out of the room into the hotel lobby where CR aims a gun at them. Why he's a threat in this instance, I don't know. They're in the lobby of a hotel where a UN gala is being held. Once again, where in the world did all those security guards go? One guy with a gun isn't that big of a threat when there are twenty more aiming back at him.
But the ghost writer doesn't know this, and so CR shoots at them. Thankfully, he misses and Frank decides one tackle isn't enough for this book and goes after CR. Only after does he do that is CR taken into UN custody.
While they're recovering from this experience, Nancy sees a strange looking couple leave the lobby. She recognizes one of them as Fiona and calls out her name. Fiona is startles and drops one of her bags in the process of running away. Turns out? The bag is filled with the Sarconne jewels. Nancy was right! The Foxes were the cat burglar team. I don't understand why, out of all the luggage they were carrying, Fiona would drop the jewels. Throw some of the heavier stuff to stop Nancy or whoever was chasing you and keep the jewels. *shrugs* Maybe I should be a cat burglar instead of Fiona because it just seems like common sense to me. ;)
Finally, the group is back at the airport, ready to go home. Bess is upset because JC is going back to Sarconne after having realized that he needs to be responsible and take care of his country. There's no mention, however, that the two decided against a long distance relationship so I can only ask why that wasn't an option. Anyway, there's also a moment of Nancy saying goodbye to Frank, which ends kind of lamely because Nancy once again remembers Ned and how she may be attracted to Frank but she loves Ned. Although, if you find yourself that attracted to someone else, maybe you're not as in love with that other person as you thought, huh? They always use that excuse and I always hated it lol.
As far as other Frank/Nancy moments go, there's really not that many even though I remember there being more. There's a moment when they first meet and another when dancing in the club but either Nancy ruins in with a lame comment or they're interrupted by kidnappers. :P