5 Favorite Female Sleuths from Middle Grade Mystery Books

I love middle grade mysteries and capers — they are the reason I fell in love with books. It started with Nancy Drew, who became the inspiration for my two careers: first, in the law, as a district attorney (like Nancy’s dad, actually) seeking to restore a sense of justice to crime victims, and later, in literature, aiming to create characters that will live in the imagination of readers of series fiction. To celebrate the genre, and the lovely leading ladies within it, here are my five favorite female sleuths in kids’ books:

1. Nancy Drew
(Nancy Drew Mystery Stories Series by Carolyn Keene)

My strongest memory of reading the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories as a kid remains my desire to want to climb into the pages of the books so that I could run alongside Nancy and her friends as they embarked on adventures and solved crimes together. I longed to help them discover the secret of the old clock and figure out the mystery of the Lilac Inn, to decode the password to Larkspur Lane and learn what was inside the brass bound trunk. I devoured each book in the series and anxiously awaited the next one.

2. Cam Jansen
(Cam Jansen Series by David A. Adler)

I felt the very same way when I was introduced by a young friend to the capers of David Adler’s Cam Jansen mysteries. How could you not love a fifth-grader who earns the nickname “The Camera” because she has a photographic memory? Like my first literary heroine, Cam has a keen sense of justice and the desire to make things right. Her first case involves the theft of diamonds from a jewelry store, and when Cam realizes the police are mistaken about the identity of the thief, she uses her intelligence and her secret weapon — that camera in her mind’s eye — to set things straight. I wanted to be part of her investigative team, too.

3. Claudia Kincaid
(From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg)

One of the books that I have gifted to middle grade readers over many years now is From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg. While I never had the urge to run away as a kid, I was, and am still, drawn in by Claudia Kincaid. When Claudia rebels against the variety of chores that burdens her home life and decides to run away, she isn’t planning to hit the road and bum it along the way. She is smart enough to want to escape to a place that is elegant as well as comfortable, and she wisely chooses the famed Metropolitan Museum of Art. I really get attached to smart kids, and I loved the fact that Claudia is sensible enough to want to bathe while in this self-imposed exile — in the museum fountains no less! — and to sleep soundly — in a bed that once belonged to royalty. Of course, the element of suspense always makes a story more engaging to me, so once Claudia encounters the museum’s new sculpture and the mystery surrounding the piece, she begins the search that leads her to Mrs. Basil Frankweiler. I have gone back to this story over and over again for both fun and intrigue in the art world from Claudia’s point of view. Its ability to appeal to so many of us has made the book an enduring classic.

4. Theodora Tenpenny
(Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald)

Mystery and history are always a fascinating combination for me, so Laura Marx Fitzgerald’s Under the Egg is another book that hits all those sweet spots. Theodora, a 13-year-old with great spirit, has a lot of responsibility thrust on her after the death of her grandfather. He leaves a clue that refers to a treasure that would be a welcome find for Theodora and her mother. Theo’s hunt takes her to some New York City landmarks that every reader should love, and gives the book a true sense of place, which is another trait I look for in a good story. The mix of Theo’s curiosity and resilience, and the gentle education provided to the reader who follows her trail of discovery make this a winning entry on my library shelf.

5. Devlin Quick
(The Devlin Quick Mysteries Series by Linda Fairstein)

The above books and so many more prompted me to create my own middle grade series, featuring a 12-year old sleuth named Devlin Quick. Dev is smart and quirky, and very much a city kid. In the first entry of the series, Into the Lion’s Den, one of Dev’s friends witnesses a theft involving a rare book in the map room at the great New York Public Library (no less elegant a place to live than Claudia Kincaid’s Metropolitan Museum). When the adults around them don’t believe any crime has been committed, it’s left to Dev and her crew — Booker Dibble, her best guy friend, and Liza de Lucena, an exchange student from Argentina — to see that justice is done. It helps a good bit that Dev’s mother, Blaine, is New York City’s first female police commissioner, so our young detective knows how to navigate the police headquarters pretty well.

Just as I longed to run along with Nancy Drew and her pals, I am hoping that kids — and their parents — will want to jump inside these pages and share the excitement I have for Devlin Quick.