Girl detective (genre)

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Girl detective is a genre of detective fiction featuring a young, often teen-aged, female protagonist who solves crimes as a hobby.

Contents

History

A professional female detective appeared in the popular stories Miss Madelyn Mack, Detective, written by Hugh Cosgro Weir in 1909. [1] But the earliest published version of a girl sought out as an amateur detective appears in the story collection The Golden Slipper and Other Problems for Violet Strange, by Anna Katharine Green, published in 1915. The latter featured a debutante who secretly solves crimes while taking part in New York high society. [2] [3]

Several novels for young readers by L. Frank Baum also had young female characters involved in crime solving, especially in cases involving protecting their family. Phoebe Daring was a 16-year old who took on the task of proving her twin brother's innocence in The Daring Twins: A Story for Young Folk, published in 1911. Baum's character of Mary Louise Burrows was a fifteen-year-old girl who works to reveal her grandfather's innocence in his book series begun in 1916 under the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne.

The term “girl detective” was a popular enough as a concept to appear in several book titles, for example New York Nell, the Boy-Girl Detective (1854) by Edward Wheeler, which featured a teenage girl who dresses as a boy to sell newspaper and solve crimes. Nick Carter’s Girl Detective a dime novel series about Roxy, a student in Nick's detective school, and Bobs: A Girl Detective’’ by Carol Norton (1928).

One of the best known and longest-running girl detective series was the Nancy Drew mystery series, started in 1930 and running under a number of subseries titles, including ‘’Nancy Drew: Girl Detective’’ (2004-2012) and the ‘’Nancy Drew Diaries’’ (started in 2013). She is often cited as the most influential of the girl sleuth characters. [4] The original series was published by the Stratemeyer publishing company. The books appeared under the author name of Carolyn Keene, a pseudonym used by a number of authors for the series over the years. [5] [6]

The popularity of the Nancy Drew series spawned many mid-20th-century detecting heroines such as Judy Bolton (1932 – 1967), created by Margaret Sutton; Kay Tracey (1934 to 1942); and Trixie Belden (1948 to 1986). (See the page List of fictional detective for younger readers for a fuller listing.)

The era of some of the earlier heroines was echoed in later historical fiction, as seen in detective series such as the Mary Russell novels, and the Maisie Dobbs series, both set in and just after World War I.

A subgenre with middle-school heroines also developed, starting with Louise Fitzhugh’s novel Harriet the Spy written in 1964, [7] [8] [9] and including the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley, begun in 2009 with the book The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie , and The Great Shelby Holmes by Elizabeth Eulberg, and Friday Barnes, Girl Detective by R.A. Spratt, both from 2016.

Film and television

In films of the early 20th century, this character type was already seen, as in The Girl Detective (1915), a series of 2-reel thrillers directed by James W. Horner which featured a society girl who served as a special investigator for the police. Ruth Roland starred as the girl detective who worked on cases where her unique talents could help to solve crimes. Each short film was a complete story episode. [10]

Multiple versions of Nancy Drew were filmed. In the '30s there were a number of Nancy drew films: Nancy Drew: Detective (1938); Nancy Drew... Reporter (1939); Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter (1939); Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (1939). On TV there were alternating episodes of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries from 1977 to 1979, starring Pamela Sue Martin as Nancy. [11] A Disney movie was made in 2002, starring Maggie Lawson as a college student Nancy. [12]

Related Research Articles

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Nancy Drew is a fictional character appearing in several mystery book series, movies, video games, and a TV show as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwritten by a number of authors and published under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene. Created by the publisher Edward Stratemeyer as the female counterpart to his Hardy Boys series, the character first appeared in 1930 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series, which lasted until 2003 and consisted of 175 novels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mildred Benson</span> American writer

Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson was an American journalist and writer of children's books. She wrote some of the earliest Nancy Drew mysteries and created the detective's adventurous personality. Benson wrote under the Stratemeyer Syndicate pen name, Carolyn Keene, from 1929 to 1947 and contributed to 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew mysteries, which were bestsellers.

The Dana Girls was a series of young adult mystery novels produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The title heroines, Jean and Louise Dana, are teenage sisters and amateur detectives who solve mysteries while at boarding school. The series was created in 1934 in an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of both the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories and the Hardy Boys series, but was less successful than either. The series was written by a number of ghostwriters and, despite going out-of-print twice, lasted from 1934 to 1979; the books have also been translated into a number of other languages. While subject to less critical attention than either Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, a number of critics have written about the series, most arguing that the Dana Girls' relative lack of success was due to the more dated nature of the series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mystery film</span> Genre of film

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franklin W. Dixon</span> House pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate

Franklin W. Dixon is the pen name used by a variety of different authors who were part of a team that wrote The Hardy Boys novels for the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Dixon was also the writer attributed for the Ted Scott Flying Stories series, published by Grosset & Dunlap.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bobbsey Twins</span> Series of American childrens novels

The Bobbsey Twins are the principal characters of what was, for 75 years, the Stratemeyer Syndicate's longest-running series of American children's novels, written under the pseudonym Laura Lee Hope. The first of 72 books was published in 1904, the last in 1979, with a separate series of 30 books published from 1987 through 1992. The books related the adventures of the children of the upper-middle-class Bobbsey family, which included two sets of fraternal twins: Bert and Nan, who were twelve years old, and Flossie and Freddie, who were six.

<i>The Mystery at Lilac Inn</i> Nancy Drew 4, published 1930

The Mystery At Lilac Inn is the fourth volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. It was first published in 1930 under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. Mildred Wirt Benson was the ghostwriter for the 1930 edition.

Super Mystery is a 36-volume series of crossover paperbacks, pairing The Hardy Boys with Nancy Drew. Earlier crossovers include a 1970s TV series, the novelization of one of the TV episodes, two SuperSleuths books, Campfire Stories, and the Be-A-Detective series.

<i>Nancy Drew: Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon</i> 2005 video game

Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon is the 13th installment in the Nancy Drew point-and-click adventure game series by Her Interactive. The game is available for play on Microsoft Windows platforms. It has an ESRB rating of E for moments of mild violence and peril. Players take on the first-person view of fictional amateur sleuth Nancy Drew and must solve the mystery through interrogation of suspects, solving puzzles, and discovering clues. There are two levels of gameplay, Junior and Senior detective modes, each offering a different difficulty level of puzzles and hints, however neither of these changes affect the actual plot of the game. The game is loosely based on a book entitled Mystery Train.

<i>Nancy Drew: Girl Detective</i> Book series

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<i>Kay Tracey</i> Book series featuring girl detective

The Kay Tracey Mysteries were published under the name Frances K. Judd, a house pseudonym of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book packager. The series was conceived as a response to the popularity of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories and likewise features a teenage girl detective. While the original entries in the series lasted only from 1934 to 1942, the books were updated, revised, and have been re-issued numerous times, most recently by Bantam Books in the 1980s, and have been translated into Swedish and French. Many critics see Kay Tracey as markedly inferior to Nancy Drew, but some find the series to be significant as one of a number of series that provided girls with a feminist role model prior to third-wave feminism.

The Bluebird Books is a series of novels popular with teenage girls in the 1910s and 1920s. The series was begun by L. Frank Baum using his Edith Van Dyne pseudonym, then continued by at least three others, all using the same pseudonym. Baum wrote the first four books in the series, possibly with help from his son, Harry Neal Baum, on the third. The fifth book is based on a fragment by Baum and written by an unknown author. The last five books were written by Emma Speed Sampson. The origin of the title is uncertain, but the books were all published in hardcover with blue cloth.

<i>Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice</i> 2008 video game

The Phantom of Venice is the 18th installment in the Nancy Drew point-and-click adventure game series by Her Interactive. The game is available for play on Microsoft Windows platforms. It has an ESRB rating of E for moments of mild violence and peril. Players take on the first-person view of fictional amateur sleuth Nancy Drew and must solve the mystery through interrogation of suspects, solving puzzles, and discovering clues. There are two levels of gameplay, Junior and Senior detective modes, each offering a different difficulty level of puzzles and hints, however neither of these changes affect the actual plot of the game. The game is loosely based on a book of the same name The Phantom of Venice (1985).

Cozy mysteries, also referred to as "cozies", are a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence occur off stage, the detective is an amateur sleuth, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community. Cozies thus stand in contrast to hardboiled fiction, in which more violence and explicit sexuality are central to the plot. The term "cozy" was first coined in the late 20th century when various writers produced work in an attempt to re-create the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

<i>Aunt Janes Nieces at Millville</i>

Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville is a 1908 young adult novel written by L. Frank Baum, famous as the creator of the Land of Oz. It is the third volume in "the successful Aunt Jane Series," following Aunt Jane's Nieces and Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad. These books for adolescent girls constituted the second greatest success of Baum's literary career, after the Oz books. Like the other books in the series, the Millville volume was released under the pen name "Edith Van Dyne," one of Baum's multiple pseudonyms.

<i>Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy</i> 2013 video game

The Silent Spy is the 29th installment in the Nancy Drew point-and-click adventure game series by Her Interactive. The game is available for play on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X platforms. It has an ESRB rating of E for moments of mild violence and peril. Players take on the first-person view of fictional amateur sleuth Nancy Drew and must solve the mystery through interrogation of suspects, solving puzzles, and discovering clues. There are two levels of gameplay, Amateur and Master sleuth modes, each offering a different difficulty level of puzzles and hints, however neither of these changes affect the actual plot of the game. The game is loosely based on a book entitled The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes (1964).

References

  1. ↑ "Great Mystery Stories". The Gazette Times. Pittsburgh. December 12, 1909. Illustrated Sunday Magazine, p. 20 – via newspapers.com.
  2. ↑ Stephanie Gorton Murphy, Smithsonian, March 8, 2016, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/secret-history-girl-detective-180958311/#u5jyvKPVylObzILW.99
  3. ↑ Erika Janik (2016). Pistols and Petticoats: 175 Years of Lady Detectives in Fact and Fiction. Beacon Press.
  4. ↑ Bobbie Ann Mason, (1975). The Girl Sleuth: A Feminist Guide. The Feminist Press, New York: SUNY.
  5. ↑ Jeannie A. Ferriss, A Sleuth of Our Own: A Historical View of Nancy Drew, Girl Detective, SLIS Connecting, Volume 3 Issue 1 Article 7 2014 https://aquila.usm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1057&context=slisconnecting
  6. ↑ Melanie Rehak (2005) Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her. New York: Harcourt, Inc.
  7. ↑ The Feminist Writer as Heroine in Harriet the Spy Lissa Paul - The Lion and the Unicorn, Vol 13 (1989): 67-73.
  8. ↑ Virginia L. Wolf, Harriet the Spy: Milestone, Masterpiece? Children's Literature Vol 4, 120-126 1975
  9. ↑ Karina Glaser “Middle Grade Girl Detective Books Beyond Harriet the Spy” BookRiot, 09-26-16 https://bookriot.com/2016/09/26/middle-grade-girl-detective-books-beyond-harriet-the-spy/
  10. ↑ "The Girl Detective (1915) - IMDb". IMDb .
  11. ↑ "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (TV Series 1977–1979) - IMDb". IMDb .
  12. ↑ ""The Wonderful World of Disney" Nancy Drew (TV Episode 2002) - IMDb". IMDb .
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