Country: Murder Mystery

Ann and I were obsessed with Nancy Drew mysteries. It's very possible that we have both read every single Nancy Drew book ever written. It started in her attic, where we found a big box of her mom's books. From there, it was a contest to see who could read more, and of course, who could read faster.
Nancy Drew inspired a side of myself that I had never known. Everything was a mystery. Broken glass behind the barn that we weren't allowed to enter? Diamonds. Hidden by a murdering bandit, making his way from Myrtle Beach (where Ann vacationed) to Boston (where my Aunt lived). We obviously weren't too interested in geography.
In the barn that we were not permitted to enter, we found stacks of old books, dating back well over a hundred years. They smelled like dirt and felt like dirt and even the boys stayed clear of these little wonders.
We had our first real life mystery. Who the hell left all of these books in this dirty old barn?
After much research and several coded letters that we wrote to each other in class, we discovered the family name that had lived on our property something like a billion years ago. And wouldn't you know that the name of that family was the same name of Ann's cousins. So now we had a personal stake in this mystery.
We made a home in the attic space above the garage and made lists, bought a map, and sat up there for hours attempting to decode the mystery. I don't know why it never occured to us that these people were just very old and had died. We attempted a family tree, but only had two names: Elizabeth and Phillip. They had to be lovers. And we were pretty sure that someone was murdered. Yes, someone was surely murdered. It was the butler, in the old barn, with the pitchfork that killed dear Elizabeth while she was practising ballet on the floor above.
During the Nancy Drew craze, I have a faint memory of walking around the yard, wearing raincoats and holding umbrellas, searching for clues.
It was not raining.
We found a few nice rocks, then decided that collecting pretty rocks was in. Murder Mystery out. Just like that. We didn't even have to change costumes.