An A-Z of Nancy Drew Characters - Part I Quiz

Answer: Near the baths at the ryokan

Rentaro Aihara is the handyman at the Ryokan Hiei in Kyoto, Japan. Nancy was invited to stay at the ryokan as a gift from P.G. Krolmeister for solving the crime in the previous PC game "Trail of the Twister". The ryokan is allegedly haunted and has a reputation among ghost hunters.

Rentaro has lived next door to the ryokan, since age seven. He is a friend of the Shimizu family, who own the ryokan. He spends most of his time in his shed in the garden, where he is working on a robotic dog. He has previously created a robotic cat for his girlfriend Miwako Shimizu. It is Rentaro's dream to move to the city and get a job at a technology firm. Miwako does not want to leave the ryokan however. When he fails to convince Miwako, he sets up various hauntings at the ryokan, scaring guests away. That way Miwako might finally want to leave to the city with him. Naturally Nancy eventually foils his plot and he leaves the ryokan and loses the love of Miwako.

Nancy first meets Rentaro near the public baths at the ryokan. Rentaro explains to her that the colour of the curtain hanging at the entrance of the baths indicates whether the bath is for men or women only that day. Blue means men only and red means the bath can be used only by women that day.

Answer: Five painted conks

Renee Amande has been the housekeeper for Bruno Bolet for a long time, living at his estate in New Orleans. Bruno has recently acquired a crystal skull, that is worth a lot of money. It is said that the skull has quite a bit of history, with most of its owners not dying a natural death. Bruno had sent the skull to be examined to make sure it was authentic. He received a letter from the appraiser informing him it was indeed the real thing, but Renee switched the letter with one telling Bruno that the skull was fake. Bruno received quite a shock upon learning this news and died of a heart attack.

Nancy eventually manages to find the skull, and Renee steals it from her, leaving Nancy locked up in a crypt. Nancy manages to escape and stops Renee, who wants to leave by boat through the swamps. Renee drops the skull and it is swallowed by Bruno's alligator Bernie, never to be found again.

During the game Renee can be found just outside the house, where she does her gardening, even though the weather is frightful. Nancy asks Renee whether she can borrow the special shovel that Renee keeps here. In exchange for the shovel, Renee asks her to find five painted conks for her, a type of mushroom. Nancy will have to search through the garden and the cemetery beyond it to find them. Nancy uses loquats to lure Bruno Bolet's pet iguana Iggy. She finds them in the garden, where she has to spray some wasps to get them. The pink roses and frogs are not part of the game.

Answer: Harry Houdini

Eustacia Andropov is Harry Houdini's cousin by marriage. Harry Houdini has often performed at the Royal Palladium theatre in St. Louis, where Nancy goes with her friend Maya Nguyen. Maya is there to interview actor Brady Armstrong, the star of "Vanishing Destiny". Maya is kidnapped however. Nancy is forced by the kidnapper to stop the demolition of the theatre. She finds out that the owner of the theatre J.J. Thompson gave away 50% of ownership of the theatre to Harry Houdini. Nancy tries to figure out what happened to that share, after Houdini died and therefore contacts Eustacia. Eustacia refers her to Sherman Trout, working at the Library of Congress.

Eustacia is not exactly a cheerful character. All of her friends and relatives have died already and she expects everyone she talks to, to die shortly as well. In PC game 7 "Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake" Eustacia makes a short, but amusing cameo appearance. Nancy can talk to her on the phone, when she calls Vivian Whitmore a second time in the game. Eustacia and Vivian are playing canasta and the loser has to pay for pizza. Eustacia actually remembers talking to Nancy earlier and says to Nancy: "Nancy Drew, the snoopy one. Are you not dead yet?".

Answer: Sorting envelopes with Roman numerals

Jeff Akers is the park ranger for Moon Lake. He is pretty strict about enforcing the park rules. Even when Nancy is locked in a shed, which is then set on fire by the culprit of this game, he eventually tickets Nancy for burning refuse in a manner that endangered park property, after she was able to free herself. He is a very busy man, but as he explains, has a duty to the public. If the park were a little larger, he would be able to hire an assistant. Moon Lake however did not manage to buy the former home of gangster Mickey Malone. Instead it was bought by Nancy's friend Sally McDonald.

Jeff's father Joe also was a park ranger. His grandfather William was the right hand man of gangster Mickey Malone. Jeff first tries to deny that fact, when Nancy asks him about it. He later explains it is painful for his family, after Nancy has found the diary of William Akers in a safe in the basement of Sally's house. Jeff knows very much about the history of Moon Lake. At the Ranger Station he put a together a museum. He also manages to trace the former girlfriend of Mickey Malone called Vivian Whitmore for Nancy during the course of the game.

At one point in the game Jeff will give you the task of sorting envelopes with Roman numerals on them. They have to be placed in the correct column. It is Red Knott who gives you the task of making photographs of birds, Emily Griffen assigns you to arrange a display of Combo Cola cans. Testing the well water is one of the things Sally McDonald asks you to do for her.

Answer: By sewing a dress

"Secret of the Old Clock" is set in the 1930s in the town of Titusville. It is shortly after the Great Depression. Jim Archer runs the bank in Titusville. Nancy first goes to talk him to find out whether the jewelry stolen at the Lilac Inn is insured. At first he tells Nancy that his bank is doing fine, but he later confesses that he has financial trouble. He was going to surprise his wife by giving her a new red dress, but now he can't afford the dressmaker anymore. He asks Nancy to finish the dress for him.

In the game Nancy visits Emily Crandall, a young girl who has recently lost her mother and now has to run the family restaurant, the Lilac Inn, with the help of her guardian Jane Willoughby. Emily and her mother expected to inherit from their rich neighbour Josiah Crowley, but when he died all his money was left to Richard Topham, a paranormal expert that recently met Josiah. Jim Archer had also hoped to benefit from the will of his friend Josiah. In the end Nancy discovers that the will that was found is not the real one. The real will does leave money to both Emily and Jim.

In the game Nancy never has to arrange a bouquet of flowers. She does not deliver cherry pies either, but she does have to sort the different types of pie that the Lilac Inn produces, so they are loaded just right on the delivery van. In the game she is able to deliver telegrams to earn extra money.

Answer: Light of Our Love

Rick Arlen is the star of soap opera "Light of Our Love", or "LOOL" for short. The soap opera is modeled on the real show "Days of Our Lives", which is also referred to as "DOOL". Rick has recently been receiving threatening messages and poisoned chocolates. Nancy is asked by his co-star Mattie Jensen to investigate the case. Mattie is staying at the apartment of Nancy's Aunt Eloise in New York. Nancy stayed at the house of Aunt Eloise in Florida, in the first PC game "Secrets Can Kill". "As the Castle Turns" is an expression used by Lisa Ostrum in PC game 3, "Treasure in the Royal Tower".

Rick does not believe there is anything seriously the matter, even after a stage light nearly falls on him. He does not think someone will really seriously hurt him. Nancy finds out there are rumours that Rick wants to leave the show and go into movies. Talent agent Dwayne Powers describes Rick as a social climber, who does not really think that acting is an art form. It turns out that Dwayne is behind the death threats in the end, because he has a serious grudge against Rick, due to the fact that his own acting career failed.

Rick is also somewhat flirtatious. He has been romantically involved with both his co-star Mattie Jensen and Lillian Wise, the director. He also tries to flirt with Nancy, but she thinks his ego is as big as the state of Texas. At the end of the game Rick and Mattie end up getting married.

Answer: A press pass

Just like Rick Arlen from "Stay Tuned for Danger" Brady Armstrong is rather vain. He is totally dominated by his agent Simone Mueller though. She forced him to cut off his hair for instance. Within the game Nancy finds out that Brady is very insecure about a lot of things and wants to learn about taking matters into your own hand in your life, through the use of a self-help book.

Nancy originally comes to the Royal Palladium theatre with her friend Maya Nguyen. Maya is a journalist who comes to interview Brady Armstrong. When she enters Brady Armstrong's dressing room, she is kidnapped. Later Nancy finds out the original plan of the kidnapper was to kidnap Brady, but something went wrong. Brady appears to be helpful, finding Maya's press pass at one point. He is quite confused however about where he found it. Simone is trying to gain publicity for Brady off the kidnapping and has taken pictures of various places where Brady could have found the press pass, which is the reason Brady mixes up the correct location.

Near the end of the game, Nancy finds out that Brady is really a descendant of the original owner of the theatre, J.J. Thompson. He approves of the demolition of the theatre, so he can pursue plans of his own. Maya had found about this. Brady later hides her notebook to prevent her from exposing that fact. He is not behind the kidnapping though. At the end of the game, it turns out he is only co-owner of the theatre, so it can't be demolished. He then donates his half to charity, presumably doing so for publicity rather than having an altruistic motive.

Answer: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek

Tino Balducci makes his first appearance in "Last Moon to Blue Moon Canyon". He is one of the people invited by the wealthy Lori Girard to help find the mine of Jake Hurley. Lori has bought the old train owned by Jake and hopes to discover the treasure supposedly hidden in the mine. Tino is a rather arrogant man, constantly boasting about a spectacular arrest he has recently made. Rumours however say he just happened to be in the right place at the right time or even simply bumped into the culprits with his car. Nancy later finds out that Tino used to be in love with Lori. During the game they find each other again. Tino explains that he was worried about what his friends would say if he was in love with the somewhat shallow Lori.

Tino tries to solve the case, but is completely unsuccessful in doing so. He dismisses important clues as not interesting and is rather condescending towards Nancy and her friends the Hardy Boys. He is responsible for pulling the emergency brake at one point in the game. He tries to frame ghost hunter John Grey for this by leaving one of his thermometers at the scene.

When Nancy investigates a case in the Canadian Rocky Mountains for the owner of Icicle Lodge Chantal Moique in "The White Wolf of Icicle Creek", she informs Nancy that she hired an assistant for her. When it turns out to be Tino, Nancy is not very pleased. Tino tries to deduce the culprit of several acts of sabotage at the lodge by having Nancy conduct a rather strange survey. It includes finding out what side the suspects get out of bed from, what the planet is they most identify with and whether or not they like paprika. Naturally Tino draws a completely wrong conclusion from the results of this survey.

Answer: By showing her slides of mosaic tiles

Nancy goes to Venice to investigate a series of art thefts in Venice by a masked criminal called "The Phantom". She is requested to investigate this crime by Prudence Rutherford, a wealthy woman, who was also a character in "Secret of the Scarlet Hand" and "Danger by Design". Nancy stays at her former home in Venice, the Ca' Nascosta, now the home of wealthy widow Margherita Faubourg. Colin is working on the renovations of the house, restoring a mosaic in the main room. At their first meeting he introduces Nancy to mosaic tiles and shows her various slides. Nancy manages to escape by saying she is pressed for time.

Colin is very helpful to Nancy during the investigation. He lets her use his microscope, when she needs to examine a secret message using a microdot. It is soon apparent that he is rather fond of Nancy. He feels bad when he finds out that the locket Nancy is wearing was given to her by her boyfriend Ned Nickerson. Colin is a man with a past however. Nancy finds information that his real name is Justin Beaumont. He was once convicted for art theft in England. He claims that he is now being blackmailed by Margherita to do the restoring work for her cheap. Margherita however claims that he helped her do the renovations cheap, using the expertise he gained as an art thief. After his departure, Margherita finds out that instead of using cheap materials, he really used very expensive stuff.

At one point in the game, Nancy can find some sausages in her room, with a note from Colin. The sausages turn out to be very bad and Nancy collapses. Colin denies having written the note, but by comparing the handwriting of everyone at the Ca' Nascosta, Nancy deduces that it was Colin who wrote the note. Colin eventually leaves and confesses in a note that he did leave her the sausages. He never knew they were tainted. He donates a Chinese puzzle box to her, that he won in a card game. The puzzle box gives her an important clue to solve the case she is working on.

Answer: Uncle Steve

"Secrets Can Kill" was the first ever PC game. As part of the 80th anniversary of Nancy Drew, this game came out in a remastered version, using the original plot, yet adding new features. In the game Nancy stays at the house of her Aunt Eloise in Florida, trying to find out who killed student Jake Rogers at Paseo del Mar high school. During the case she will be in contact with Detective Beech. He was not a character in the original game. His name is a sort of a joke, referring to the ending of the first game, when Nancy went to a beach, called "Detective Beach".

When Detective Beech first calls Nancy in the game, she asks him how she should call him. This confuses the detective, but Nancy explains to him that they should use a cover not to arouse suspicion among the students. Detective Beech then agrees that he will be her Uncle Steve. Nancy can find him at Maxine's Diner, where she can consult with him on the case.

Soon it becomes apparent that Detective Beech is very keen on finding Jake Rogers' note book, that is missing. It turns out that Detective Beech is not a real detective at all. He is working for an organisation trading military secrets. Detective Beech received them through Mitch Dillon, who bought them from Darryl Gray himself. Darryl did an internship at this father's company Gray Enterprises. Jake Rogers had found about the scheme and gathered information about this. This is why Detective Beech wanted to find the notebook. Nancy finds the notebook in the end and Detective Beech threatens her at Aunt Eloise's house. Nancy manages to trap him using her aunt's burglar alarm system.