The Case of the Good-for-Nothing Girlfriend: A Nancy Clue and Cherry Aimless Mystery (Maney, Mabel)

Let me be the first to state plainly that Miss Mabel Maney is a pernicious influence on American boys and girls. Her dangerous spoofs of the 1950s surely threaten the morale of impressionable young people, who must learn to accept and appreciate their proper places in life. Nancy Clue, the famous girl detective, may be able to solve exciting mysteries without displacing her shiny Titian locks, but why does her friend Midge dress like a boy, use curse words, and smoke cigarettes? And why does Nancy's sweet new girlfriend, Cherry Aimless, tremble under her starched white nurse's cap as she admires the bulging biceps of police detective Jackie Jones? I suspect that in her private life, the author freely mixes plaids with stripes and wears white after Labor Day. As for her devilish success at demeaning the finest epoch in American manners, I can only say, "Darn and double darn." --Regina Marler