The Secret of the Old Clock

Nancy’s father, Carson Drew is a local lawyer with a good reputation who is described as handsome and distinguished. His wife died years earlier, leaving him to raise Nancy alone. He shares a strong bond with his daughter and respects both her intelligence and her intuition. Drew is frequently called to assist his daughter in her investigations by providing leads or arranging contacts for her with his legal associates.

While he worries for his daughter’s safety, Drew doesn’t attempt to control her actions and encourages her efforts to bring justice to those who have been denied it. Drew occasionally enlists his daughter’s aid in delivering documents for him or discussing the finer points of his cases. He represents a stabilizing influence and is proud of Nancy’s success in apprehending criminals.

A matronly middle-aged woman, Hannah Gruen is the Drews’ housekeeper. Along with Carson Drew, she helped raise Nancy after her mother’s death and takes a maternal interest in the girl’s welfare. Hannah occasionally participates in discussions of Nancy’s investigations and sometimes offers a clue if she has heard some relevant information. Hannah is a comforting presence who provides hot meals and consolation when things aren’t going well for the detective. Like Carson Drew, Hannah is proud of Nancy’s detective exploits, but she worries about her young charge’s safety too. Hannah is an ongoing character in the series.

Although Josiah Crowley is deceased when the novel begins, his presence looms large in the plot development. Over his lifetime, he amassed a fortune of $100,000, a huge sum of money by 1930s standards. Crowley wished to bequeath this sum to various friends and relatives who had been kind to him after his wife’s death. Although Crowley was a kindly old man, he had an eccentric streak and thus drafted a will himself rather than having one drawn up by a lawyer. Then, he hid the document where no one could find it. These actions later create great difficulty for the people he intended to benefit. Because of the missing will, greedy relatives nearly claim his entire fortune until Nancy Drew steps in to set things to rights.

An elderly woman, Abby Rowen is the cousin of Josiah Crowley’s deceased wife and is among the intended recipients of his fortune. When Abby first appears in the story, she’s poverty-stricken and has just fallen and sprained her ankle. Unable to call for help, she’s isolated in her home until Nancy comes to her aid. Initially, Abby faces an uncertain future because her memory is failing. Fortunately, however, she provides a useful clue about a notebook and a clock related to the missing will. By the end of the novel, the money she inherits allows for home care to ensure that her material needs are met.

A five-year-old girl, Judy sets the plot in motion by darting in front of a van and falling into a stream. When Nancy comes to her rescue, Judy is returned to her great-aunts and indirectly draws Nancy into the misfortune that has befallen her family. Always playful, Judy enjoys badminton and engages Nancy in her games whenever the latter comes to visit. Nancy hopes that the family’s newfound wealth at the end of the novel will enable Judy to get a quality education when she grows older.

Note: The following characters are grouped as duos because they possess few individual characteristics and function in the novel as a unit.

Edna and Mary Turner are the maiden great-aunts of young Judy. Josiah was their father’s cousin. They never married because they assumed the responsibility of raising Judy’s mother when she was orphaned. After Judy’s parents were killed in a boating explosion, the Turner sisters decided to rear Judy too. The women support themselves as seamstresses but worry that their meager income won’t be enough to provide for Judy as she grows older. Fortunately, Josiah’s inheritance solves this problem for them.

Allison and Grace Hoover are orphaned sisters whose parents have died and who struggle to keep the family farm going. While not related to Crowley, they were once neighbors and called him “Uncle Josiah.” He returned their affection and said he’d leave them something in his will. Allison has a fine voice and aspires to be a professional singer. However, the girls can’t afford vocal lessons. Nancy intervenes to arrange an audition with a local singing coach, and Josiah’s money eventually provides the means to pay for these lessons and help support the farm. At the end of the novel, the girls inherit the old man’s personal possessions, and they give his clock to Nancy as a memento of her first detective adventure.

Fred and William Mathews are older men who run a local fruit farm and are the former suitors of the Turner sisters. The women rejected their marriage proposals because of their responsibility as the guardians of Judy’s mother and, later, Judy herself. Now lifelong bachelors, the brothers’ sole remaining ambition is to travel. The money Josiah leaves them allows them to fulfill this dream by the end of the story.

Ada and Isabel are the greedy, social-climbing daughters of the novel’s villain. They were once high school classmates of Nancy’s but took a dislike to her. Both girls behave in a haughty manner toward those they don’t consider their social equals. They fret continuously that Josiah’s second will might be discovered and disinherit them, and their worst fears come true. By the end of the novel, the girls are forced to find jobs and work for a living.