Nancy Drew Walkthrough: Secrets Can Kill

Nancy Drew is a long and standing mystery game series created by Her Interactive, inspired by the novels of Carolyn Keene involving a teenage female detective, Nancy Drew. Each mystery game is a unique and puzzling story that follows one major event (usually seen at the beginning of the game through a cutscene) that the young Nancy has to solve. Oftentimes, she will be undercover - posing as a student, assistant or Nanny as she tries to get to the bottom of each mystery.

Each Nancy Drew game involves a heinous crime being committed and the player, through the point and click system has to solve various puzzles and investigate each event thoroughly in order to get to the bottom of things.

 The Secrets Can Kill mystery is the first in a long line of mystery games created by Her Interactive that will feature teen sleuth, Nancy Drew. A big difference in this game, is that you'll notice that everywhere you look, there are clues that just seem to jump at you. If your goal is to finish the game fast, then you don't really need to look at the clues that you find around the game. However, if you really want to get a feel for solving a crime, then go ahead and poke around!

For your very first case, help Nancy solve a murder case in the Paseo Del Mar High School where her Aunt Eloise is the librarian of. It seems that a student has been murdered. But whether it was foul play or mere accident, no one knows for sure. It is up to Nancy, once again to figure things out! Nancy is vacationing with her aunt in Florida when a high school student is murdered. The principal of the school has asked Nancy's help due to the referral of her aunt.

 Your source throughout this game will be Daryl Gray, the high school's Student Council President. A suave high schooler, who's gifted with the gift of a silver tongue, you can always approach him whenever you're in a pinch and are unsure of what to do next. He'll be working at the local diner so you can check up with him whenever you want.

 The game starts with Nancy rummaging around her Aunt Eloise's apartment. Take your time and try to look at every clickable item you can find. In reality, you would only need to look for several items in this game - however, since a detective must be thorough, carefully look at all the pictures, books and drawers in the house.

The Hallway will display a clock in your near vicinity. Beside it is a note from your Aunt Eloise. She's left you the key to the library in the safe and the combination to it, somewhere in her apartment. To figure out where the safe is, you'll merely have to lift that tapestry by the corner of the hallway to reveal it.

Aside from the note on the desk, there are drawers that you can peruse through. In one of them, a phone card that you'll be using in case you might want to call someone in the game.

Once you're done with the Hallway, go to the other room where you'll be doing most of your grunt work. There's a jewelry box in the coffee table you can look at, books on the sidetable where noticeably, the name Mitch will pop out. This clue is just one in many clues that will help you out throughout the game. In fact, one of the books on that desk (aptly titled "Hidden Clues are Everywhere") will tell you that.

 Look for a drawer in this room that will give you three significant items to take note of. One is a talk about a book sale and the bulletin board (negligible), two is the TV remote control that will turn the TV and VCR in this room and finally, a special invitation to the grand sorority reunion of the Sigma Phi Kappa Delta. The Greek letters representing the sorority is something you should make a note of, as it opens the safe by the hallway.

Now, its time to look through the bookcases in this room. In the middle is of course the TV (which you can turn on with the remote control, although it's not really needed right now). One of those books have been hollowed out and contains a key. Now before you leave the room to accsess the safe, use the key you have on you to open the chest by the entryway. Inside it, is a quarter that you can repeatedly use - for what purpose? You'll know later.

Now head back out to the safe, parting the tapestry to reveal. Remember the Sorority insignia you found in the other room? Well that's the combination to the safe, so it's good that you've taken note of that. However, if you haven't well... this is what this guide is for. (insert greek alphabets). Press these symbols in sequence to open up the safe. The library key is hanging there for you to grab. Now this wooden box contains a slider puzzle. You know, those irritating cubes that will reveal a picture if they're in the right spot? This is probably the only distinction with the Senior and Junior detective levels, as the Senior Detective will have a more difficult slider puzzle to complete.

Refer to the image below for the completed image of the Puzzle. If however, you have no patience for this sort of thing, then you're not supposed to be playing this game! Just kidding. Inside this box is the username and password to your Aunt's school computer. You'll need that, but luckily Her Interactive does not require to see the clue before accessing it (YET anyway). The username is Eloise Drew and the password is O Wise Elder, which is an anagram of her name. Cool huh?

Ok so now we've managed to rummage all through Aunt Eloise's house. Rest assured we've left no stone unturned, no drawer unopened and no book unread! Since it's pretty much obvious that there's nothing else to do here, why don't we move on to the next article and the next area?

Agreed? Agreed!