The Clue of the Broken Locket is the eleventh volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. It was first published in 1934, and was written by Mildred Benson under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. It was later revised by Harriet Stratemeyer in 1965, and the story was mostly changed with a few elements of the original.

Summary (original edition)

In The Clue of the Broken Locket, a fractured gold locket washed ashore during a summer storm pulls Nancy Drew into a decades-old mystery of swapped identities and stolen inheritance in this atmospheric seaside tale. The story begins with Nancy vacationing at Misty Lake, where the reclusive Dalton family’s boarded-up summer estate looms over the beach. When local orphans find the broken locket half-buried in tidal sands—its jagged edge still clutching a water-stained photograph of twin babies—Nancy recognizes the engraved initials match those of a famous singer whose infant daughters supposedly died in a boating accident years earlier.

The investigation reveals how the lake’s peculiar currents preserve artifacts in its sandy bottom, why the Daltons’ abandoned music room still has fresh piano sheet music, and what connects the ghostly lullabies heard at midnight to a current kidnapping plot. Nancy deciphers clues hidden in the locket’s intricate filigree, follows a trail of Depression-era pawn tickets to a Chicago tenement, and discovers the crumbling lake house hides a secret nursery with two cribs—one conspicuously newer than the other.

The 1934 original pulses with post-Prohibition tension—smugglers use the lake’s fog cover to run contraband, while the local “haunted house” reputation keeps prying eyes away from their operations. Unlike later revisions, this version retains Nancy’s heart-stopping escape from a locked root cellar filling with icy groundwater, and the gut-wrenching moment when she realizes the locket was deliberately broken to divide twin sisters. The lake itself becomes a character—its deceptive calm hiding undercurrents that both preserve and destroy evidence, much like the wealthy family’s polished facade conceals generations of cruelty.

This novel stands out for its unflinching portrayal of class divides during the Depression, where Nancy must navigate between the wealthy exploiting their privilege and the poor exploited for their desperation. The broken locket serves as both literal clue and metaphor—its separated halves representing lives torn apart by greed, yet its sturdy chain suggesting an unbreakable connection waiting to be repaired.

Nancy Drew #11 –The Clue of the Broken Locket First Edition Book Identification Guide

Only the first few printings of the first/second year are shown. Printings codes are based on the Farrah Guide, 12th printing. Please refer to the guide for later printings.

Note: Glossy+: Glossy frontis + 3 glossy internals.

Nancy Drew #11 –The Clue of the Broken Locket First Edition Dust Jacket Identification Guide

Reference:

• Farah’s Guide to Nancy Drew, 12th printing