List of Nancy Drew books explained

The character of Nancy Drew  - ghostwritten and credited to the pseudonymous Carolyn Keene  - has appeared in a number of series over the years.

613 Nancy Drew books have been published as of July 2021 over thirteen different series, as follows:

Series overview

For young adults

For children

Graphic novels

Comic books

Published by Dynamite Entertainment.

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories (1930–2003)

See main article: Nancy Drew Mystery Stories.

Titles, authorship, and publication dates[1]
No.TitlePub./Rev.Publisher
1The Secret of the Old Clock1930/1959Grosset & Dunlap
2The Hidden Staircase1930/1959
3The Bungalow Mystery1930/1960
4The Mystery at Lilac Inn1930/1961
5The Secret Of Shadow Ranch1931/1965
6The Secret of Red Gate Farm1931/1961
7The Clue in the Diary1932/1962
8Nancy's Mysterious Letter1932/1968
9The Sign of the Twisted Candles1933/1968
10The Password to Larkspur Lane1933/1966
11The Clue of the Broken Locket1934/1965
12The Message in the Hollow Oak1935/1972
13The Mystery of the Ivory Charm1936/1974
14The Whispering Statue1937/1970
15The Haunted Bridge1937/1972
16The Clue of the Tapping Heels1939/1969
17The Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk1940/1976
18The Mystery at the Moss-Covered Mansion1941/1971
19The Quest of the Missing Map1942/1969
20The Clue in the Jewel Box1943/1972
21The Secret in the Old Attic1944/1970
22The Clue in the Crumbling Wall1945/1973
23The Mystery of the Tolling Bell1946/1973
24The Clue in the Old Album1947/1977
25The Ghost of Blackwood Hall1948/1967
26The Clue of the Leaning Chimney1949/1967
27The Secret of the Wooden Lady1950/1967
28The Clue of the Black Keys1951/1968
29The Mystery at the Ski Jump1952/1968
30The Clue of the Velvet Mask1953/1969
31The Ringmaster's Secret1953/1974
32The Scarlet Slipper Mystery1954/1974
33The Witch Tree Symbol1955/1975
34The Hidden Window Mystery1956/1975
35The Haunted Showboat1957
36The Secret of the Golden Pavilion1959
37The Clue in the Old Stagecoach1960
38The Mystery of the Fire Dragon1961
39The Clue of the Dancing Puppet1962
40The Moonstone Castle Mystery1963
41The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes1964
42The Phantom of Pine Hill1965
43The Mystery of the 99 Steps1966
44The Clue in the Crossword Cipher1967
45The Spider Sapphire Mystery1968
46The Invisible Intruder1969
47The Mysterious Mannequin1970
48The Crooked Banister1971
49The Secret of Mirror Bay1972
50The Double Jinx Mystery1973
51Mystery of the Glowing Eye1974
52The Secret of the Forgotten City1975
53The Sky Phantom1976
54The Strange Message in the Parchment1977
55Mystery of Crocodile Island1978
56The Thirteenth Pearl1979
57The Triple Hoax1979Wanderer
58The Flying Saucer Mystery1980
59The Secret in the Old Lace1980
60The Greek Symbol Mystery1980
61The Swami's Ring1981
62The Kachina Doll Mystery1981
63The Twin Dilemma1981
64Captive Witness1981
65Mystery of the Winged Lion1982
66Race Against Time1982
67The Sinister Omen1982
68The Elusive Heiress1982
69Clue in the Ancient Disguise1982
70The Broken Anchor1983
71The Silver Cobweb1983
72The Haunted Carousel1983
73Enemy Match1984
74The Mysterious Image1984
75The Emerald-Eyed Cat Mystery1984
76The Eskimo's Secret1985
77The Bluebeard Room1985
78The Phantom of Venice1985
79The Double Horror of Fenley Place1987Minstrel
80The Case of the Disappearing Diamonds1987
81The Mardi Gras Mystery1988
82The Clue in the Camera1988
83The Case of the Vanishing Veil1988
84The Joker's Revenge1988
85The Secret of Shady Glen1988
86The Mystery of Misty Canyon1988
87The Case of the Rising Stars1989
88The Search for Cindy Austin1989
89The Case of the Disappearing Deejay1989
90The Puzzle at Pineview School1989
91The Girl Who Couldn't Remember1989
92The Ghost of Craven Cove1989
93The Case of the Safecracker's Secret1990
94The Picture-Perfect Mystery1990
95The Silent Suspect1990
96The Case of the Photo Finish1990
97The Mystery of Magnolia Mansion1990
98The Haunting of Horse Island1990
99The Secret at Seven Rocks1991
100A Secret in Time1991
101The Mystery of the Missing Millionairess1991
102The Secret in the Dark1991
103The Stranger in the Shadows1991
104The Mystery of the Jade Tiger1991
105The Clue in the Antique Trunk1992
106The Case of the Artful Crime1992
107The Legend of Miner's Creek1992
108The Secret of the Tibetan Treasure1992
109The Mystery of the Masked Rider1992
110The Nutcracker Ballet Mystery1992
111The Secret at Solaire1993
112Crime in the Queen's Court1993
113The Secret Lost at Sea1993
114The Search for the Silver Persian1993
115The Suspect in the Smoke1993
116The Case of the Twin Teddy Bears1993
117Mystery on the Menu1994
118Trouble At Lake Tahoe1994
119The Mystery of the Missing Mascot1994
120The Case of the Floating Crime1994
121The Fortune Teller's Secret1994
122The Message in the Haunted Mansion1994
123The Clue on the Silver Screen1995
124The Secret of the Scarlet Hand1995
125The Teen Model Mystery1995
126The Riddle in the Rare Book1995
127The Case of the Dangerous Solution1995
128The Treasure in the Royal Tower1995
129The Baby-Sitter Burglaries1996
130The Sign of the Falcon1996
131The Hidden Inheritance1996
132The Fox Hunt Mystery1996
133The Mystery at the Crystal Palace1996
134The Secret of the Forgotten Cave1996
135The Riddle of the Ruby Gazelle1997
136The Wedding Day Mystery1997
137In Search of the Black Rose1997
138The Legend of the Lost Gold1997
139The Secret of Candlelight Inn1997
140The Door-to-Door Deception1997
141The Wild Cat Crime1998
142The Case of Capital Intrigue1998
143Mystery on Maui1998
144The E-mail Mystery1998
145The Missing Horse Mystery1998
146The Ghost of the Lantern Lady1998
147The Case of the Captured Queen1999
148On the Trail of Trouble1999
149The Clue of the Gold Doubloons1999
150Mystery at Moorsea Manor1999
151The Chocolate-Covered Contest1999
152The Key in the Satin Pocket2000
153Whispers In the Fog2000
154The Legend of the Emerald Lady2000
155The Mystery in Tornado Alley2000
156The Secret in the Stars2000
157The Music Festival Mystery2000
158The Curse of the Black Cat2001
159The Secret of the Fiery Chamber2001
160The Clue on the Crystal Dove2001Aladdin
161Lost in the Everglades2001
162The Case of the Lost Song2001
163The Clues Challenge2001
164The Mystery of the Mother Wolf2002
165The Crime Lab Case2002
166The Case of the Creative Crime2002
167Mystery By Moonlight2002
168The Bike Tour Mystery2002
169The Mistletoe Mystery2002
170No Strings Attached2003
171Intrigue at the Grand Opera2003
172The Riding Club Crime2003
173Danger on the Great Lakes2003
174A Taste of Danger2003
175Werewolf in a Winter Wonderland2003

Specials

The first four works were published by Grosset & Dunlap. The Nancy Drew Cookbook contained recipes and short stories. Both titles under the Nancy Drew Picture Book banner were illustrated picture books aimed at younger readers. The Nancy Drew Sleuth Book contained short stories that involved Nancy teaching a group of younger girls how she solves her mysteries, and gives lessons to the reader on the techniques used.

The first Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: Super Sleuths book was published in 1981, after switching over to Simon & Schuster. The book contained seven short stories in which Nancy Drew crosses over to solve mysteries with The Hardy Boys; both the Carolyn Keene pseudonym and The Hardy Boys' Franklin W. Dixon pseudonym are used. The story was so popular, that it spawned a sequel, a spin-off series, and a Campfire Stories companion.

In 1983, Nancy Drew Ghost Stories was published, also containing seven short stories. It, too, spawned a sequel in 1985. Unlike other specials, though, the first volume was reprinted by the later Minstrel and Aladdin imprints.

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: Be a Detective Mystery Stories (1984–1985)

These titles feature a level of reader-interaction in a manner similar to the Choose Your Own Adventure books. The series was published by Wanderer.

Two more volumes, Jungle of Evil and Ticket to Intrigue, were planned and advertised, but were unpublished after the sale of the Stratemeyer Syndicate to Simon & Schuster.[2]

Titles and publication dates
TitlePub.
1The Secret of the Knight’s Sword1984
2Danger on Ice
3The Feathered Serpent
4Secret Cargo
5The Alaskan Mystery1985
6The Missing Money Mystery

Nancy Drew Notebooks (1994–2005)

See main article: Nancy Drew Notebooks.

The Nancy Drew Notebooks were aimed at younger readers and featured a Nancy who was still in grade school. The series was published from 1994 to 2005.

The Nancy Drew Files (1986–1997)

See main article: The Nancy Drew Files.

In 1986, Simon & Schuster, Inc. began publishing a spin-off series, The Nancy Drew Files, running concurrently with the main Nancy Drew Mystery Stories line. The Nancy Drew Files were aimed at an older, teenage audience, and is similar in style, target audience, and sensibilities with The Hardy Boys Casefiles.

Starting in January 2014, Simon & Schuster began releasing this series as eBooks.

Nancy Drew Files Volume I and Nancy Drew Files Volume II were published September 24, 2019 under the Simon Pulse imprint. These are reprints of the first six titles in the series, books 1, 2, and 3 in volume I and books 4, 5 and 6 in volume II. Cover art by Fernanda Suarez.

Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super Mystery (1988–1998)

See main article: Super Mystery.

The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew teamed up in this 36 volume series of paperbacks. This series follows the formula of the main characters and their friends typically involved in separate mysteries that end up being connected. The sleuths join forces to solve the overall mystery. This series is based in the Nancy Drew Files and Hardy Boys Casefiles continuity, so murder, romance, and flirtation between the series regulars are common. Nancy Drew and Frank Hardy share an attraction in this series, though after a brief kiss in "The Last Resort" this attraction is not acted on. Subsequent books focus on the respect and friendship that developed between the two and their continued feelings for Ned Nickerson and Callie Shaw. Several spin-off series were cancelled by Simon and Schuster at the end of 1997, including the series Super Mystery (also called Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Super Mystery).

River Heights

See main article: River Heights (Nancy Drew).

This series does not feature Nancy Drew beyond a cameo appearance in a couple of books, but is set in her fictional hometown and still written under the Carolyn Keene pseudonym. The series focused on romance and lasted for only 16 titles.[3]

Nancy Drew on Campus

See main article: Nancy Drew on Campus.

The Nancy Drew on Campus series, like The Nancy Drew Files, is targeted at an older teen audience. Nancy and her friends Bess Marvin and George Fayne go to college; the series focused on college life and romance, rather than all solving mysteries.[4]

Nancy Drew, Girl Detective (2004–2012)

See main article: Nancy Drew: Girl Detective. Nancy Drew, Girl Detective replaced the long-running Nancy Drew mysteries series. This new series is written in first person narration, from Nancy's point of view, and features updated and overhauled versions of the main Nancy Drew characters. In addition, new secondary characters are introduced to populate River Heights and appear over multiple books, adding a framework to Nancy's world.

The drastic changes in the main characters' personalities, and a perception in quality decline, earned the series negative reviews from long-time fans. A switch to trilogies gave even more negative reviews, before low sales forced the series to be cancelled in 2011. In 2013, Nancy Drew, Girl Detective was replaced with the Nancy Drew Diaries series.

Papercutz graphic novels (2005–2010)

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. The manga-style illustrations and technical allusions (Nancy's hybrid car, George's tablet PC) give Nancy and her friends a 21st-century spin.

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. However, the series was cancelled not long after. In 2014, the series began being re-released as an offshoot of the Nancy Drew Diaries series, with two volumes per issue.

Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew (2006–2015)

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 series. This series ended in 2015 to be replaced by the Nancy Drew Clue Book series.

Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew 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.

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Super Mystery (2007–2012)

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Super Mystery is a crossover spin-off with The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers series. The stories are told in first person, alternating chapters, between Frank's, Joe's, and Nancy's perspective. The first title in the series acts as an introduction between the characters in their new universes. This series published one title per year until the end of the Girl Detective and Undercover Brothers series in 2012.

Nancy Drew Diaries (2013–current)

This series, which began in 2013, is a reboot of the Nancy Drew: Girl Detective series. The series continues to follow Nancy and her friends' cases, with first-person narration by Nancy. The series was created to move away from the trilogy format of Girl Detective (besides the first two books, all titles are now individual mysteries), make books longer than its predecessor, and have a cover artist. The new series also attempted to fix some of the more criticized aspects of Girl Detective, with arguable success.

This is the first series to be available in three different formats; paperback, hardcover (with dust jacket), and eBooks. When the series was first launched, three new titles were expected to come out per year (with the exception of 2013 and 2015, which produced four new titles), but was later reduced to two titles per year in 2016. The first four titles had an initial printing of 25,000 copies in paperback and 2,500 copies in hardcover; books five through seven had an initial print run of 25,000 in paperback and 5,000 in hardcover; and books eight through eleven had an initial print run of 10,000 in paperback and 5,000 in hardcover. Though Simon and Schuster do not release sales information for these properties, online sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble indicate their sales are lackluster to poor.

Books 1-4 were released in a box set in November 2013, and a boxed set of the first ten books was released in August 2016. In addition, the first three titles were packaged in a single paperback book in June 2016. Also available are unabridged audio books for CD or downloads for the first 24 books and the Christmas special, read by Jorjeana Marie.

Artist Erin McGuire has served as the cover artist since the start of the series.

Titles

Titles and publication dates
TitleReleasedManuscriptEditor
1Curse of the Arctic StarMargaret Wright
2Strangers on a TrainKekla Magoon
3Mystery of the Midnight Rider
4Once Upon a Thriller
5Sabotage at Willow Woods
6Secret at Mystic Lake
7The Phantom of NantucketAmy Cloud
8The Magician's Secret
9The Clue at Black Creek Farm
10A Script for DangerAmi Boghani[5]
11The Red Slippers
12The Sign in the Smoke
13The Ghost of Grey Fox Inn
14Riverboat Roulette
15The Professor and the Puzzle
16The Haunting on Heliotrope Lane
A Nancy Drew ChristmasReuben SackFiona Simpson
17Famous Mistakes
18The Stolen Show[6] [7] Anna Parsons
19Hidden Pictures[8] [9]
20The Vanishing Statue[10]
21Danger at the Iron Dragon
22A Capitol Crime
23The Blue Lady of Coffin Hall
24Captain Stone's Revenge
25What Disappears in Vegas . . .
26Superstitions of 'The Scottish Play

Notes

Nancy Drew Clue Book Series (2015–current)

This is a reboot of the Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew series published by Aladdin Paperbacks. This is an interactive series, as readers may write down their clues and predictions. A page before the final chapter has questions the reader can answer regarding suspects, clues, and solutions. The first two titles were published July 7, 2015, in paperback, hardcover, and eBook editions written by Carolyn Keene with covers and internal illustrations by Peter Francis. The first three titles have had an initial print run of 35,000 in paperback and 5,000 in hardcover.

Titles and publication dates
TitleReleased
1Pool Party Puzzler
2Last Lemonade Standing
3A Star Witness
4Big Top Flop
5Movie Madness
6Pets on Parade
7Candy Kingdom Chaos
8World Record Mystery
9Springtime Crime
10Boo Crew
11The Tortoise and the Scare
12Turkey Trot PlotSeptember 3, 2019
13Puppy Love Prank
14The Big Island Burglary
15The Great Goat Gaffe
16Duck Derby Debacle
17Recipe Ruckus
18Bird Bonanza
19Chimpanzee Spree

Other books/resources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: McDaniel . C. J. . 2020-05-22 . The Full List of Nancy Drew Books in Order . 2024-03-06 . Adazing . en-US.
  2. Web site: Finnan. R. W.. The Hardy Boys Unofficial Home Page. March 3, 2019.
  3. Web site: Fisher . Jennifer . Nancy Drew Sleuth . 15 March 2009.
  4. White
  5. Web site: Books: The Nancy Drew Diaries #10: A Script for Danger (2015) . Ami Boghani.
  6. Web site: LC Catalog: The stolen show . . . LOC Catalog . . January 1, 2019.
  7. Book: The Stolen Show (Nancy Drew Diaries): Carolyn Keene: Amazon.com: Books. 978-1534405776. Keene. Carolyn. 2019-09-24. Simon and Schuster .
  8. Book: Hidden pictures. Nancy Drew diaries . 2020 . Aladdin . 978-1-5344-2104-2 .
  9. Web site: Hidden Pictures (Nancy Drew Diaries Book 19). Amazon. June 29, 2019.
  10. Web site: LC Catalog - No Connections Available.
  11. Web site: Nancy Drew Diaries #17 Famous Mistakes – Details. Ann. November 16, 2017. June 29, 2019.