The Secret in the Old Attic is the twenty-first volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. It was first published in 1944 under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. The actual author was ghostwriter Mildred Wirt Benson.

Summary (original edition)

In The Secret in the Old Attic , a haunting melody drifting from a boarded-up attic leads Nancy Drew into a wartime mystery of lost musical genius and family betrayal in this poignant World War II-era story. Penned by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams as Carolyn Keene, the novel opens with elderly Civil War veteran Philip March pleading for Nancy’s help—his deceased son’s beautiful symphonic compositions are being stolen and published under another’s name, while his granddaughter Susan suffers from a mysterious “accident” that left her unable to speak.

The crumbling March mansion holds its secrets tightly, from the locked attic where ghostly piano music plays at midnight to the wine cellar concealing a vault of unpublished scores. Nancy discovers how wartime paper shortages mask the thefts, how hidden compartments in antique furniture hold musical codes, and why someone wants Susan silenced permanently. The danger becomes personal when Nancy uncovers a draft-dodging scheme intertwined with the plagiarism plot, leading to a violent confrontation in the attic’s shadowy recesses where unfinished sonatas become deadly weapons.

The 1944 original pulses with homefront tension—ration books hide financial clues, blackout curtains conceal peepholes, and Nancy uses her knowledge of wartime printing regulations to expose the fraud. Unlike later revisions, this version retains the heartbreaking subplot about a composer’s wartime breakdown and preserves Nancy’s tearful discovery of a Gold Star banner folded inside a piano bench. The attic itself emerges as one of the series’ most emotionally charged settings, its dust-laden music stands and yellowed sheet music testifying to creativity crushed by greed.

This novel stands out for its sensitive portrayal of artistic integrity amid national crisis, with Nancy defending a soldier’s legacy while navigating the gray morality of wartime survival. The mystery crescendos in a midnight recital where Nancy uses the stolen symphony itself to entrap the villains—proving that some secrets, like great music, demand to be heard.

Nancy Drew #21 –The Secret in the Old Attic First Edition Book Identification

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.

Nancy Drew #21 –The Secret in the Old Attic First Edition Dust Jacket Identification

Reference:

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