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

History

A professional female detective appeared in the popular stories '' Miss Madelyn Mack, Detective'', written by Hugh Cosgro Weir in 1909. 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. Several novels for young readers by

L. Frank Baum Lyman Frank Baum (; May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author best known for his children's books, particularly ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and its sequels. He wrote 14 novels in the ''Oz'' series, plus 41 other novels (not includ ...

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 The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions. The term ''dime novel'' has been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, r ...

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 Nancy Drew is a fictional character appearing in several mystery book series, movies, 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. Crea ...

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. The original series was published by the Stratemeyer publishing company. The books appeared under the author name of

Carolyn Keene Carolyn Keene is the pseudonym of the authors of the Nancy Drew mystery stories and The Dana Girls mystery stories, both produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. In addition, the Keene pen name is credited with the Nancy Drew spin-off, ''River ...

, a pseudonym used by a number of authors for the series over the years. The popularity of the Nancy Drew series spawned many mid-20th-century detecting heroines such as

Judy Bolton The Judy Bolton Mystery Series, written by Margaret Sutton, follows a realistic young woman who solves mysteries. Although the series was not quite as popular as Nancy Drew, Judy Bolton has been called a more complex and believable role model f ...

(1932 – 1967), created by

Margaret Sutton Margaret Sutton (January 22, 1903 - June 21, 2001) was the pen name of Rachel Beebe, an American author and teacher who is famous as being the author of the Judy Bolton Series of mystery books, 38 volumes published between 1932 and 1967. In a ...

; Kay Tracey (1934 to 1942); and

Trixie Belden Trixie Belden is the title character in a series of "detective" mysteries written between 1948 and 1986. The first six books were written by Julie Campbell Tatham, who also wrote the Ginny Gordon series; the stories were then continued by variou ...

(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 ''Harriet the Spy'' is a children's novel written and illustrated by Louise Fitzhugh that was published in 1964. It has been called "a milestone in children's literature" and a "classic". In the U.S., it ranked number 12 in the 50 Best Books fo ...

written in 1964, and including the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley, begun in 2009 with the book ''

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie ''The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie '' is a 2009 mystery by Alan Bradley. Set in the English countryside in 1950, it features Flavia de Luce, an 11-year-old amateur sleuth who pulls herself away from her beloved chemistry lab in order to c ...

'', 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 Ruth Roland (August 26, 1892 – September 22, 1937) was an American stage and film actress and film producer. Early life and career Roland was born in San Francisco, California to Elizabeth Lillian Hauser and Jack Roland. Her father managed a t ...

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. 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 1977–1979, starring

Pamela Sue Martin Pamela Sue Martin (born January 5, 1953) is an American actress, who is best known for starring as Nancy Drew on the television series ''The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries'' and as socialite Fallon Carrington Colby on the ABC soap opera ''Dyna ...

as Nancy. A Disney movie was made in 2002, starring

Maggie Lawson Margaret Cassidy Lawson (born August 12, 1980) is an American actress who is best known for her role as Detective Juliet "Jules" O'Hara in the TV show '' Psych''. From 2018 to 2019, she held the recurring role of Nathalie Flynn on Fox's ''Leth ...

as a college student Nancy.

References

{{Crime fiction Crime fiction Detective fiction Fictional amateur detectives Juvenile series Literary genres Women in fiction