Nancy Drew: Girl Detective is a 2004–2012 book series which replaced the long-running Nancy Drew mystery series. This new series is written in first person narration, from Nancy's point of view, and features updated versions of the main Nancy Drew characters. New secondary characters are introduced to populate River Heights and appear over multiple books, adding a framework to Nancy's world.
Though this series has many improvements over the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, the drastic change in the main characters' personalities was hard for many readers to accept. The series was negatively reviewed by many fans of the series, mainly over the change in Nancy's character. In 2008, the series was changed into a trilogy format, which gained even more negative reviews than before. Simon & Schuster cut back to 4 books a year in 2010, before low sales finally forced the cancellation of the Girl Detective series in 2011. In 2013, the Nancy Drew Diaries series was launched as the replacement for Girl Detective.
In the 90s and early 2000s, sales of the Nancy Drew novel series began to drop. At a Nancy Drew conference held in early 2005 in New York, a Simon and Schuster representative said that the digests had been selling about 30,000 copies. In order to boost sales, the original series was ended and the Nancy Drew series re-launched.
This new incarnation of Nancy Drew was initially supervised by Bonnie Bryant (Jacobson), with three ghost writers writing the initial six books.[1] The first volume of the new series, Without a Trace, reached the New York Times bestseller list in the Children's Series category and #113 on USA Today's Top 150 sellers list due to the .99 cents introductory price.[2]
The publisher describes the series in the following way:
Nancy Drew in this version is a less than perfect teenage girl prone to forgetfulness, an object of jokes, and interested in other subjects over mysteries. Bess Marvin has gained skills in mechanics and computers and is no longer slightly overweight, and described as fashionable and trendy. George Fayne has become moody and sloppily dressed in this series, always more interested in tech and sarcastic retorts than solving mysteries. Bess and George also gain siblings and family members with careers. Ned now lives in River Heights, working part-time for his father's newspaper The River Heights Bugle.
The Nancy Drew: Girl Detective novels are usually based in the fictional town of River Heights, which is located in Illinois. Other fictional cities that are mentioned are Silver Creek, East Bank, Cutler Falls, and Trib Falls, which are all near River Heights and the Muskoka River. River Heights is a 1-hour drive west of the real city, Chicago, which has been mentioned frequently.
Books in the Nancy Drew: Girl Detective series were released in paperback format by Simon & Schuster.[3] From 2008 to 2012, the stories were presented in three-book arcs, drawing the mystery out over three separate, but linked, titles. The re-designed covers feature model Jessica Silverman as Nancy Drew.
| Trilogy | Title | Publication date | Author | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Without a Trace | March 1, 2004 | rowspan="11" | |
| 2 | A Race Against Time | |||
| 3 | False Notes | |||
| 4 | High Risk | |||
| 5 | Lights, Camera... | May 1, 2004 | ||
| 6 | ...Action! | July 1, 2004 | ||
| 7 | The Stolen Relic | September 1, 2004 | ||
| 8 | The Scarlet Macaw Scandal | November 1, 2004 | ||
| 9 | Secret of the Spa | January 1, 2005 | ||
| 10 | Uncivil Acts | March 1, 2005 | ||
| 11 | Riverboat Ruse | May 1, 2005 | ||
| 12 | Stop the Clock | July 1, 2005 | George Edward Stanley | |
| 13 | Trade Wind Danger | September 1, 2005 | rowspan="2" | |
| 14 | Bad Times, Big Crimes | November 1, 2005 | ||
| 15 | Framed | January 1, 2006 | George Edward Stanley | |
| 16 | Dangerous Plays | March 1, 2006 | rowspan="32" | |
| 17 | En Garde | May 1, 2006 | ||
| 18 | Pit of Vipers | July 1, 2006 | ||
| 19 | The Orchid Thief | September 1, 2006 | ||
| 20 | Getting Burned | October 24, 2006 | ||
| 21 | Close Encounters | December 26, 2006 | ||
| 22 | Dressed to Steal | February 27, 2007 | ||
| 23 | Troubled Waters | April 24, 2007 | ||
| 24 | Murder on the Set | May 8, 2007 | ||
| 25 | Trails of Treachery | August 21, 2007 | ||
| 26 | Fishing for Clues | October 27, 2007 | ||
| 27 | Intruder | December 26, 2007 | ||
| 28 | Mardi Gras Masquerade | February 5, 2008 | ||
| 29 | The Stolen Bones | April 22, 2008 | ||
| Perfect Mystery Trilogy | 30 | Pageant Perfect Crime | June 3, 2008 | |
| 31 | Perfect Cover | July 29, 2008 | ||
| 32 | The Perfect Escape | October 7, 2008 | ||
| Identity Mystery Trilogy | 33 | Secret Identity | December 16, 2008 | |
| 34 | Identity Theft | January 27, 2009 | ||
| 35 | Identity Revealed | March 24, 2009 | ||
| Model Mystery Trilogy | 36 | Model Crime | June 2, 2009 | |
| 37 | Model Menace | August 4, 2009 | ||
| 38 | Model Suspect | October 6, 2009 | ||
| Eco-Mystery Trilogy | 39 | Green-Eyed Monster | December 1, 2009 | |
| 40 | Green with Envy | February 9, 2010 | ||
| 41 | Seeing Green | April 6, 2010 | ||
| Sabotage Mystery Trilogy | 42 | Secret Sabotage | June 8, 2010 | |
| 43 | Serial Sabotage | October 12, 2010 | ||
| 44 | Sabotage Surrender | February 8, 2011 | ||
| Malibu Mayhem Trilogy | 45 | California Schemin | June 14, 2011 | |
| 46 | Mystery at Malachite Mansion | October 18, 2011 | ||
| 47 | Stalk, Don't Run | February 21, 2012 | ||
| Title | Publication date | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Where's Nancy? | June 1, 2005 |
| 2 | Once Upon a Crime | June 1, 2006 |
| 3 | Real Fake | July 10, 2007 |
| 4 | Ghost Stories | August 5, 2008 |
See main article: Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew. Starting in 2006, Aladdin Paperbacks published a new series to replace the Nancy Drew Notebooks series for younger readers; it exists in the same universe as the Nancy Drew: Girl Detective series.
It features Nancy Drew, George Fayne, and Bess Marvin as eight-year-olds in the third grade at River Heights Elementary School, and solving kid sized mysteries, from finding a stolen ice cream formula entry to the culprit who cut the cake before the bride. This series also sets George's mother working her own catering company, and reveals George's real name to be Georgia. This series ended in 2015 to be replaced by the Nancy Drew Clue Book series.
| Title | Publication date | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sleepover Sleuths | June 1, 2006 |
| 2 | Scream for Ice Cream | June 1, 2006 |
| 3 | Pony Problems | August 1, 2006 |
| 4 | The Cinderella Ballet Mystery | October 3, 2006 |
| 5 | Case of the Sneaky Snowman | December 5, 2006 |
| 6 | The Fashion Disaster | February 6, 2007 |
| 7 | The Circus Scare | April 10, 2007 |
| 8 | Lights, Camera... Cats! | May 8, 2007 |
| 9 | The Halloween Hoax | August 7, 2007 |
| 10 | Ticket Trouble | September 25, 2007 |
| 11 | Ski School Sneak | November 27, 2007 |
| 12 | Valentine's Day Secret | December 26, 2007 |
| 13 | Chick-napped! | March 4, 2008 |
| 14 | The Zoo Crew | May 6, 2008 |
| 15 | Mall Madness | July 1, 2008 |
| 16 | Thanksgiving Thief | September 9, 2008 |
| 17 | Wedding Day Disaster | November 4, 2008 |
| 18 | Earth Day Escapade | January 6, 2009 |
| 19 | April Fool's Day | March 10, 2009 |
| 20 | Treasure Trouble | May 19, 2009 |
| 21 | Double Take | July 21, 2009 |
| 22 | Unicorn Uproar | September 8, 2009 |
| 23 | Babysitting Bandit | November 10, 2009 |
| 24 | Princess Mix-up Mystery | December 29, 2009 |
| 25 | Buggy Breakout | March 9, 2010 |
| 26 | Camp Creepy | May 4, 2010 |
| 27 | Cat Burglar Caper | September 14, 2010 |
| 28 | Time Thief | January 4, 2011 |
| 29 | Designed for Disaster | May 3, 2011 |
| 30 | Dance Off | September 13, 2011 |
| 31 | The Make-a-Pet Mystery | January 3, 2012 |
| 32 | Cape Mermaid Mystery | May 1, 2012 |
| 33 | The Pumpkin Patch Puzzle | September 25, 2012 |
| 34 | Cupcake Chaos | March 5, 2013 |
| 35 | Cooking Camp Disaster | July 9, 2013 |
| 36 | The Secret of the Scarecrow | November 12, 2013 |
| 37 | The Flower Show Fiasco | March 25, 2014 |
| 38 | A Musical Mess | July 8, 2014 |
| 39 | Museum Mayhem | November 4, 2014 |
| 40 | Butterfly Blues | March 24, 2015 |
A crossover with series. The stories are told in first person, alternating chapters, between Frank's or Joe's, and Nancy's perspective. The first title in the series acts as an introduction between the characters. This series published one title per year until the end of the Girl Detective and Undercover Brothers series in 2012.
| Title | Publication date | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Terror on Tour | June 5, 2007 |
| 2 | Danger Overseas | May 6, 2008 |
| 3 | Club Dread | May 5, 2009 |
| 4 | Gold Medal Murder | July 6, 2010 |
| 5 | Bonfire Masquerade | July 12, 2011 |
| 6 | Stage Fright | July 10, 2012 |
Beginning in 2005, Papercutz began issuing a new series of Nancy Drew graphic novels as an offshoot of the Girl Detective series. The series is edited by Jim Salicrup, written by Stefan Petrucha, and illustrated by Sho Murase. All the storylines are completely new. The manga-style illustrations and technical allusions (Nancy's hybrid car, George's tablet PC) give Nancy and her friends a 21st-century spin.
There are several nods and tie-ins to other Nancy Drew media. In The Old Fashioned Mystery of The Haunted Dollhouse, the citizens of River Heights dresses up as if they were in the 1930s to celebrate an event. In Global Warming, Dr. Craven from Her Interactive's PC game The Creature of Kapu Cave appears. The Dana Girls and their friends appear in both High School Musical Mystery and High School Musical Mystery Part 2: The Lost Verse, initially as rivals to Nancy, though they eventually team up to solve the mystery.
The series also has continuity, and several multi-issue cases. Issues #9-11 (Ghost in the Machinery, The Disoriented Express, Monkey-Wrench Blues) form "The High Miles Mystery" trilogy; Issues #17 and #18 (Night of the Living Chatchke and City Under the Basement) form a two-part storyline; and Issues #20 and #21 (High School Musical Mystery and High School Musical Mystery Part 2: The Lost Verse) form The High School Musical Mystery, which also features fellow Stratemeyer Syndicate series The Dana Girls.
In 2010, the series was rebooted as Nancy Drew: Girl Detective - The New Case Files. These new novels center around a River Heights that has become obsessed with vampire books. The third novel of this new series, Together with the Hardy Boys, featured a crossover with The Hardy Boys, who also had their own graphic novel series at that time. This ended up being the last issue, and the series was cancelled after that. In 2014, the series began being re-released as an offshoot of the new Nancy Drew Diaries series, containing two volumes per issue.
| Title | Publication date | Re-release date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Demon of River Heights | October 13, 2005 | February 11, 2014 |
| 2 | Writ in Stone | October 13, 2005 | |
| 3 | The Old Fashioned Mystery of The Haunted Dollhouse | November 29, 2005 | July 29, 2014 |
| 4 | The Girl Who Wasn't There | January 24, 2006 | |
| 5 | The Fake Heir | April 18, 2006 | October 21, 2014 |
| 6 | Mr. Cheeters is Missing | August 8, 2006 | |
| 7 | The Charmed Bracelet | November 28, 2006 | February 24, 2015 |
| 8 | Global Warning | March 6, 2007 | |
| 9 | Ghost in the Machinery | May 5, 2007 | July 7, 2015 |
| 10 | The Disoriented Express | August 7, 2007 | |
| 11 | Monkey-Wrench Blues | November 13, 2007 | December 1, 2015 |
| 12 | Dress Reversal | January 22, 2008 | |
| 13 | Doggone Town | May 27, 2008 | May 17, 2016 |
| 14 | Sleight of Dan | August 19, 2008 | |
| 15 | Tiger Counter | November 25, 2008 | November 8, 2016 |
| 16 | What Goes Up | February 3, 2009 | |
| 17 | Night of the Living Chatchke | April 28, 2009 | July 25, 2017 |
| 18 | City Under the Basement | July 31, 2009 | |
| 19 | Cliffhanger | November 24, 2009 | December 12, 2017 |
| 20 | High School Musical Mystery | June 8, 2010 | |
| 21 | High School Musical Mystery Part 2: The Lost Verse | August 17, 2010 | |
| Title | Publication date | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nancy Drew: Vampire Slayer | September 14, 2010 |
| 2 | A Vampire's Kiss | October 21, 2010 |
| 3 | Together with the Hardy Boys | August 2, 2011 |