Ridiculous puzzles ruin the story.
For instance; at some point, you have to arrange stuffs such as; a skull, a couple of books, a hula dancer doll and a ventilator in the correct positions to make a scene, which hopefully leads into an instant situation where, whomever stands on the scale gets "sneezing powder" up in his nose. Yes, it does not make any sense at all. However, this is not the end of the nonsense actions to proceed further in the plot.
If you would like to get involved in Nancy Drew's world of mysteries, you should better look for another game in the series.