- This page is for the video game character. For the CW TV version of Nancy's mother, see Katherine Drew.
Kate Drew (nee Austin) is Nancy Drew's deceased mother and Carson Drew's late wife.
Biography[]
Timeline One[]
In Timeline #1 (games 1-15), Nancy's mother is mentioned twice, both of them being optional conversation choices.
In The Haunted Carousel, when Joy Trent mentions her mother died when she was four, one of Nancy's responses is "My mother died when I was really young too."
In Secret of the Old Clock, Nancy mentions her mother has died when comforting Emily Crandall, who has also recently lost her mother.
Timeline Three[]
In Timeline #3 (games 26-32), Nancy's mother has been more fleshed out, mostly from The Silent Spy.
Kate was an intelligent, kind woman, who loved her family very much. She loved to make and hide puzzles, and taught both herself and Nancy to play the piano. She composed a song for Carson during their courtship, and later added a part for Nancy after her birth.
A journalist for the Glasgow Standard, she became known for being extremely observational, and able to could cut through high volumes of information very quickly. At college, she befriended classmate Moira McRae, who initially disliked her; after college, Kate got her a job at the Standard, where they became very good friends and colleagues. Kate gained notice from Cathedral after a series of articles, and they gave her an interview in which the applicant is supposed to differentiate between fact, assumption, and disinformation. During the interview, Kate noticed the organization's hidden cameras and microphones, and discovered the true purpose of the interview. She was hired on the spot, soon joined by Moira (now Chisholm) and her husband Michael.
In the early-to-mid-1990s, Kate met and married Carson Drew, and gave birth to Nancy soon after. Following her marriage, Kate left the spy world to raise Nancy, a promise made to Carson; as such, they decided to keep Kate's past as a spy from Nancy. She did, however, continue her friendship with the Chisholms, with Moira frequently visiting after the tragic death of Michael during a mission. Moira tried to convince Kate to come back multiple times, leading to Carson losing trust in Moira.
In July 2005, when Nancy was about ten years old, Moira convinced Kate to help her stop the Colony Operation. To do this, Moira lied to Kate about having round-the-clock protection. Kate was able to hide the formula in a set of playing cards and relocate the scientist and his family to safety. However, despite the success of the mission, Kate died in a car accident in Glasgow, on July 14. For many years, Nancy believed Kate died in a car accident while visiting a friend. For many years, the death remained a painful subject for Nancy and Carson, who were both aggravated by her leaving and fought with her before she left.
In Tomb of the Lost Queen, when Nancy is talking on the phone to Bess towards the end of the game, Bess confesses she thinks Nancy's obsession with solving mysteries is because of her mother's death and "the way it happened" (foreshadowing The Silent Spy).
In Ghost of Thornton Hall, while talking to Harper Thornton - lost her entire immediate family before she was an adult, and continues to mourn the tragic death of her sister - Nancy mentions her mother died as well.
In Sea of Darkness, when Elisabet Grimursdottir mentions her mother died when she was a young girl, Nancy mentions hers did as well (though no mention of the events of The Silent Spy are made).
In Mystery of the Seven Keys, when Elka Strojník mentions her mother's passing to Nancy, Nancy gives her condolences and offers support given that she and Elka went through similar trauma. When Elka and Nancy meet in the St. Vitus Cathedral, Elka further presses Nancy on their mothers' mysterious deaths, pointing out how, like Nancy in The Silent Spy, Elka found out the truth behind her mother's death and kept pursing despite her close ones preventing her from doing so.
Note[]
- For continuity sake, Nancy's mothers in both Timeline #1 and Timeline #3 can be assumed to be different women. The mother of Timeline #1 would correspond more to the books, where Nancy's unnamed mother died when she was three years old from a long illness.
- Since the maiden name of Nancy's mother is unknown from the original book series . The game writers picked "Austin" to honor the titular character from The Search for Cindy Austin.
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