The Crooked Banister

Infobox Book |
name = The Crooked Banister


image_caption =
author = Carolyn Keene
country = United States
language = English
series = Nancy Drew stories
genre = Detective, Mystery novel
publisher = Grosset & Dunlap
release_date = 1971
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages =
isbn = ISBN 0-448-09548-3
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Crooked Banister" is the forty-eighth volume in the Nancy Drew mystery series. It was first published in 1971 under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. The actual author was ghostwriter Harriet Stratemeyer Adams.

Plot summary

Nancy and her friends, Bess Marvin and George Fayne, spend an exciting week exploring a mysterious zigzag house with its fantastically crooked staircase, its bizarre serpent picture , and un unpredictable robot that nearly causes the young detective to lose her life. But despite the threat of danger from the robot, Nancy is determined to solve the mystery of the weird house and to locate the missing owner by a means of a few tapes inserted in the robot, who is wanted by the police.

It takes keen logic and quick thinking for the young detective to plow through the tangled thicket of clues and find the key to this complex puzzle. With the help of her friends, Nancy captures an elusive swindler, taking money in the name of poor Indian children who never receive the donations and uncovers the secret of the crooked banister, but not before they have several hair-raising adventures, one on a broken bridge over flaming water, another in a hidden room with poisoned portraits! It's up to them to figure out the mystery. But who will?