UPDATED: March 1, 2008!

The scan above shows the new style of Girl Detective covers that will debut next summer. This is scanned from the pages of the Aladdin catalog--see in color the cover below for Pageant Perfect Crime. See color covers below. This new makeover for Nancy Drew will feature her on the cover instead of just her nose/eyes/mouth as has been featured since this series debuted in the Spring of 2004--which is a welcome return to the style of older covers that featured Nancy in full. The new style is a miniseries format that takes place over three books. The first two books in this miniseries format are: Pageant Perfect Crime and Perfect Cover.

Pageant Perfect Crime: Nancy goes undercover as a contestant in a beauty pageant to find out why a former reigning queen was framed and dethroned. But with so many young women vying to be queen, is there anyone Nancy can trust?

Perfect Cover: Nancy, Bess, and George head to New York City for the next round of competition. But when protesters show up to boycott the pageant sponsor's new makeup line and someone suddenly goes missing, things are looking anything but perfect.

A new ghost stories book will be released in the style of the Girl Detective series.

The blurb, "She's a pro at catching criminals, but is Nancy Drew any match for a ghost? In these four spooky stories, Nancy Drew and her friends encounter a haunted house, a strange new visitor to River Heights, a peculiar trip to Japan, and the revival of an old carnival...which probably should have remained closed for good.

America's favorite girl detective meets classic, campfire-and-s'mores ghost stories in Nancy Drew Ghost Stories. The result is a book that is sure to keep readers up late and under their covers with flashlights!

To promote the new Warner Brothers Nancy Drew movie, some of the Nancy Drew: Girl Detective books have been showing up in bookstores featuring a circular ad on the cover about the movie. Shown above are one of the books and the logo. Books found in this format so far include: 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 24.

May 2007: Girl Detective book sets! 1-8, 9-16, and 17-24 were issued. Also, audio CDs for Framed and Dressed to Steal. These CDs will be produced by Blackstone Audio, Inc. The cover features a model that looks similar to Emma Roberts.

Nancy Drew® sighting in Hardy Boys® Undercover Brothers volume 7, Operation: Survival!

Nancy Drew®/Hardy Boys® Cross Over books: June 2007: Terror on Tour. Next summer we will have Danger Overseas.

Synopsis of Danger Overseas:

Frank and Joe have been sent to Rome by ATAC to infiltrate a gang of teens who've been raiding ruins and stealing precious artifacts. Meanwhile Nancy Drew is tagging along on Bess and George's vacation with their eccentric aunt. But when Nancy finds an American teenage girl wandering around the Trevi Fountain with no memory, Nancy's suddenly got more than a vacation on her mind: She's got a mystery to solve! And when Nancy runs into Frank and Joe, it begins to seem as if their separate cases might not be so separate after all...

To read an Op-ed that I wrote on the new Nancy Drew: Girl Detective series published February 21st, 2004 in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, click here.

Titles:

• 1, Without a Trace (Mar 2004)
• 2, A Race Against Time (Mar 2004)
• 3, False Notes (Mar 2004)
• 4, High Risk (Mar 2004)
• 5, Lights...Camera... (May 2004)
• 6, Action! (July 2004)
• 7, The Stolen Relic (September 2004)
• 8, The Scarlet Macaw Scandal (November 2004)
• 9, Secret of the Spa (January 2005)
• 10, Uncivil Acts (March 2005)
• 11, Riverboat Ruse (May 2005)
• 12, Stop the Clock (July 2005)
• 13, Trade Wind Danger (September 2005)
• 14, Bad Times, Big Crimes (November 2005)
• 15, Framed (January 2006)
• 16, Dangerous Plays (March 2006)
• 17, En Garde (May 2006)
• 18, Pit of Vipers (July 2006)
• 19, The Orchid Thief (September 2006)
• 20, Getting Burned (November 2006)
• 21, Close Encounters (January 2007)
• 22, Dressed to Steal (March 2007)
• 23, Troubled Waters (May 2007)
• 24, Murder on the Set (May 2007)
• 25, Trails of Treachery (August 2007)
• 26, Fishing for Clues (October 2007)
• 27, Intruder! (December 2007)
• 28, Mardi Gras Masquerade (February 2008)
• 29, Stolen Bones (April 2008)
• 30, Pageant Perfect Crime (June 2008)
• 31, Perfect Cover (July 2008)
• Nancy Drew Ghost Stories (August 2008)
• 32, Perfect Escape (October 2008)
• 33, Secret Identity (December 2008)
• 34, Identity Theft (February 2009)
• 35, Identity Revealed (April 2009)

Girl Detective Super Mysteries & Hardy Boys®/Nancy Drew® Crossovers: (these will be published one per year) #1 (Jun. 2005) Where's Nancy? Nancy goes missing while investigating something at the River Heights University Museum. Bess, Ned, and George, through the first person voices of George and Bess, must search for their missing friend, using clues and their knowledge gained helping Nancy solve crimes over the years. Dubbed, "The Case of the Missing Friend," Bess laments, "Why did I have the feeling we were turning into the Three Stooges of amateur sleuthing?" (pg. 39) #2 (Jun. 2006) Once Upon a Crime A clever retelling of "Cinderella," Nancy Drew style! When Nancy catches wind of an opportunity to meet her hero, mystery writer Hazel Perrault, and get involved with a local charity to build a community center for teen girls, she knows she has to go for it. Instead of building and decorating, though, she soon finds herself stuck doing all the cooking and cleaning for the other volunteers! Worse yet, she begins to suspect that someone is trying to sabotage the project--and the big fund-raising gala at the end of it. As Nancy's fairy-tale adventure starts to turn into a nightmare, she realizes it'll be up to her to help her fellow volunteers live happily ever after... ND/HB Terror on Tour (June 2007) Synopsis: There's a huge Rockapazooma concert being held near River Heights, and Nancy and her friends are psyched to score tickets! Meanwhile, over in Bayport, Frank and Joe receive their new assignment: Check out the Rockapazooma concert and watch for suspected foul play. Before you can say "coolest mystery ever," Nancy has started her own investigation, and through sheer luck the trio joins forces and brings down the culprit--but not before lots of action, mystery, and adventure! #3 (Jul. 2007) Real Fake Nancy is selected to compete on Mystery Solved!, a reality TV show being taped in Paris! She tried out for the show on a dare from George and Bess and was sure she wouldn't be chosen, but now she's looking forward to testing her detective skills against her fellow contestants. But it doesn't take long for Nancy to realize that there's as much intrigue among the show's cast and crew and the other competitors as in the made-up mystery. it's hard to know what's real, what's fiction, and whom she can trust. Can Nancy prevail onscreen and off?

Cover Previews of 29, 30 and 31:

Brief Synopses for book #28 and 29:

Mardi Gras Masquerade:
A masked Mardi Gras ball turns spooky when revelers are tormented by what they think are ghosts. When Deirdre Shannon's antique tiara is snatched, Nancy is certain the crook is a guest--not a ghoul.

The Stolen Bones:
Nancy, Bess, and George join a paleontology dig. The girls discover an important fossil, but the next morning it's missing! Nancy's making no bones about it; she's going to dig out this thief.

Check out the cover for False Notes, a UK version--neat cover art! Several of the books have new UK art:

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