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The Revised Text (RT) of The Sign of the Twisted Candles is the same story as the Original Text (OT), some parts just revised, other parts completely rewritten. Sadie becomes Carol (although later it is revealed her original name is Sadie), the Semitts are now the Jemitts, and Bess and George know Asa Sidney is a distant relative at the start of the story, as opposed to finding out later. Ned also makes an appearance instead of a cameo in the OT.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I usually like the RT's better than the OT's. The story is better crafted, with no loose ends at the conclusion of the story. Sure, the writing is tighter and there's more action because there are 30 less pages, but that keeps the story moving along. There's more sleuthing involved, rather than just stumbling along and finding clues. The other thing I liked about the RT is that the crooks are actually caught being crooked, more than once in this book, instead of just being suspected of wrong doing. There's no question who the bad guys are in this version of the book.

In both versions, Carson Drew is not merely a shadow figure in the stories, he's there to conduct business at several junctures which was nice to see. Too often in books he's called away to another state, leaving Nancy on her own with only Hannah around to worry about her.

So far of the

zenithharpink's review

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2.0

This was SO tedious! If this weren't a Nancy Drew mystery, I would have given it one stare, but the beloved book serious gets an extra star. "Mystery" is vastly overstating things in this story. People basically just sucked in this book, most notably Bess and George-they were wretched! Truly they do not redeem themselves, although I never cared much for George anyway. This is the story of a family squabbling over a family fortune-everything is immediately apparent in the first chapter. I basically just skimmed the other 19. I would only recommend this book if you love Nancy Drew and are aiming for a complete reading of the series, NOT if you're looking for an enjoyable book.