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Younger Sleuths (part 2) image

Younger Sleuths (part 2)

S8 E15 · Clued in Mystery Podcast
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122 Plays18 days ago

In past episodes, Brook and Sarah have discussed examples of younger sleuths such as Nancy Drew. In today's episode, Brook and Sarah explore other early examples of younger sleuths including Trixie Belden; Nell, the Boy-Girl Detective; and Violet Strange.

Discussed and mentioned

Read New York Nell Niblo: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/deadwood_dick/37

The Golden Slipper (1915) Anna Katherine Green

The Rivals (2013) BBC Radio

The Bobbsey Twins, Mystery at Snow Lodge (1960) Laura Lee Hope

The Bobbsey Twins, Mystery at School (1962) Laura Lee Hope

The Bobbsey Twins, Mystery of the Deep Blue Sea (1965) Laura Lee Hope

Trixie Belden in the Red Trailer Mystery (1950) Julie Campbell

The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective (1893) C.L. Pirkis
read it here: https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/pirkis/brooke/brooke.html

You might also like

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys (released March 21, 2023)

Anna Katharine Green (released May 3, 2022)

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For a full episode transcript, visit https://cluedinmystery.com/young-sleuths-part-2/


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Transcript

Introduction to Hosts and Love for Mystery

00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Hi Brooke. Hi Sarah, how are you doing today? I'm doing really well, how about you? Yeah, I'm i'm great and it's always fun when it's time to talk about mystery.

Reminiscing about Popular Young Sleuths

00:00:31
Speaker
And you know our listeners will remember that back in March of 2023, we discussed some of the most popular young sleuths that many of us grew up reading, such as Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. And during our research for that episode, you and I discovered several other young fictional detectives, and we knew that we wanted to come back and talk about them as well. So today, we'll cover four more younger sleuths, um or or possibly more than that,
00:00:58
Speaker
that have helped shape mystery for kids and adults alike.

New York Nell Nibleau: Introducing a New Detective

00:01:03
Speaker
First up is New York Nell Nibleau, the boy-girl detective. And Edward Lighten Wheeler created this young detective, and the story that she is featured in is called Old Blakeslee's Money. And this was published in March of 1899 in an American dime novel called The Deadwood Dick Library.
00:01:24
Speaker
And this story is available to read online via digital comments and we can link that for you so you can go out and look at it. It's great because it's an actual PDF image of the dime novel and you get to see the typesetting and it's really fun too to look at.
00:01:40
Speaker
But New York Now Niblo is a 17-year-old female character who dresses as a boy in order to work as a newspaper salesman. She's extremely scrappy, stubborn, and independent. When we first meet her, she's having a conversation with old Blakeslee, and she explains to him that she poisoned a dog And the police were after her back in New York. And so that's why she's here in Philadelphia. And in the story, it goes back and forth between the two cities. But she tells Blakeslee at that time that she is a detective.
00:02:13
Speaker
And she does end up saving him from an inheritance fraud that is being placed against him and reinstates the rightful heir. um It's an incredibly adventurous story, including her rowing out to a burning boat to rescue a woman. And you know the other characters do describe her as a daredevil as well as a detective.
00:02:35
Speaker
ah She does save the day and old Blakeslee's money. um So Sarah, did you get time to read at least in part the Nell Nibleau story?

Speculating on Nell Nibleau's Sequel

00:02:45
Speaker
I did and I thought it was really interesting. So she has all of this independence throughout the story until the end. hu Right. It gets all turned on its head, doesn't it?
00:03:00
Speaker
Absolutely. Which, you know, I think is probably indicative of the time, right? That we can't allow this woman to be, or this young woman to be completely independent. Right. And we look at it and think, Oh, she lost her independence, but perhaps in that timeframe that that would have been like the happy ending, right? That she gets married and it put like a little bow on her story.
00:03:30
Speaker
Um, so Brooke, you mentioned that it, the New York nail story was published in 1899, but I found a version from 1880. So I wonder if that might've been a reprint. Oh, interesting. And, and, uh, New York nail was that popular apparently that like, you know, they wanted to republish it in another dime novel. How fun.
00:03:54
Speaker
But interestingly, I think that's the only New York now story. So, you know, it may have been very popular. I wonder why there wasn't a follow up. Right. And, you know, Edward Lighten Wheeler did write other adventurous characters, whether any of those were detectives. Maybe we'll have to poke around and find that out.
00:04:18
Speaker
Well, and so I really like that the story opens with her already being a detective, even though she ends up getting married at the end of this story. There could have been other stories. You know, he could have written prequels to ah to this story. And it's interesting that that doesn't appear to have happened. Exactly. Yeah. And I love that she's a self-proclaimed detective. She tells him, you know, that this is what I do. I love her.

Violet Strange: A Debutante Detective

00:04:49
Speaker
All right, next we have Anna Catherine Green's Girl Detective, Violet Strange. And um you'll remember that we have a whole episode on Anna Catherine Green who is known as the mother of the detective story. So you won't want to miss that. But it's really not hard to believe that she's earned that title since she did create a spinster amateur detective in her character Amelia Butterworth decades before Agatha Christie ever imagined Miss Marple. And here in Violet Strange, we have the first debutante detective, a type of Victorian era Nancy Drew. So Violet Strange appeared in nine short stories contained in a collection called The Golden Slipper, and it was published in 1915. The stories are interconnected but can be read as standalones as well.
00:05:40
Speaker
Violet Strange comes from an affluent family, but she took work from a detective agency in order to earn her own money and have some of that autonomy and independence. She's described as a strong girl who's always able to figure out the truth. In her cases, ah because she is a younger person, mostly involved lost items or missing people rather than any violent crimes.
00:06:04
Speaker
The BBC radio series The Rivals adapted one of the Violet Strange stories, The Intangible Clue, in 2013. And I listened to a part of that in preparation for today. And i I really enjoyed this character. I can see why she would have been really popular.
00:06:24
Speaker
So do you know, Brooke, if Violet Strange was written, intended for younger audiences? I'm guessing that it was not just by, you know, the way that the language that's used, I mean, it's, you know, I believe written for adult readers, you know, it's not simple so that a child could read it themselves. Um, and I guess that is something that she has in common with New York. Now these were stories about younger people solving crimes, but not necessarily for younger readers.
00:06:59
Speaker
haha When I was reading some of the Violet Strange ah short stories, i thought of a lot of the characters that we see from, say, the 1920s written today as historical fiction, but those strong, independent women, sometimes of means, sometimes not. But I i think that there's a line that you can draw between Violet and some of these other characters.
00:07:31
Speaker
I agree, and I've shared on a previous shows that I really enjoyed the PBS ah series, Miss Scarlet and the Duke. And when I was reading and un learning about Violet Strange, it made me wonder if the producers of that show were at all influenced. I think that they would have to be because that it's even the the correct era, right? But um I think we see again this, um just like in Nell, this opportunity this time in their lives that these young women had to do all these adventurous, independent things before they settled down because I don't believe that Anna Catherine Green ever marries ah Violet Strange off, but there is like a bromance going on and the assumption that you know one day she'll settle down, but she'll have these adventures to look back on.

The Bobsy Twins: Non-Violent Adventures

00:08:23
Speaker
Next, we'll talk about the Bobsy twins.
00:08:26
Speaker
The Bobsy twins are two sets of fraternal twins, Bert and Nan Bobsy, who begin the series at age eight. and Flossy and Freddie Bobsy, who are four when the stories begin. The children aged as the series continued until they finally remained perpetually 12 and six. There were 72 books published featuring the siblings from 1904 to 1979, and then a separate 30 book series with the twins published from 1982 to 1992.
00:09:01
Speaker
It's not surprising that the series was so successful or prolific as it is another of the Stratumire syndicate productions. You'll remember that Edward Stratumire was the mastermind behind this commercial way of producing lots of titles and lots of series, including Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. And just like those series, the Bobsy twins were written by a variety of in-house authors under one pen name, Laura Lee Hope.
00:09:28
Speaker
The stories began as action-adventure tales, but once Strademeier recognized the popularity of his detective series, the Bobsy twins began to solve mysteries as well, and some of their titles include Mystery at Snow Lodge, Mystery at School, and Mystery of the Deep Blue Sea.
00:09:47
Speaker
Again, their cases center on missing objects or stolen money, no violent crimes, but many of the titles were still rewritten over the years to account for changing social standards.
00:10:01
Speaker
and then the new technology. These stories began when they were in Horse and Buggy and by the 60s and 70s that seemed to odd. So things got changed to automobiles. so um I did read these as a kid because i've I've shared before that at my grandparents' house they had a shelf in the basement with my dad and his sisters.
00:10:23
Speaker
children's books and the Bobsy twins were there. So i I did get a chance to read those as a kid. um And a twist on what we've been talking about, these obviously were intended for children. However, the way they were written would have been meant to be read to children, not the children reading them themselves. They weren't easy readers, in other words.
00:10:46
Speaker
So I'm like you, Brooke, I have read some, ah you know, i I read some of the Bobsy twins when I was younger and very similar to you. I think it was a stack of books that were either at my grandmother's house or one of my aunt's houses. um And, you know, spent some summer afternoons reading these stories. I didn't remember that the kids were so young.
00:11:10
Speaker
I didn't either. And I didn't remember there were two sets of twins. I was thinking it was just a set of twins and a family. So obviously, even though I read them, maybe they didn't stick with me really, really well. Yeah, I wonder how they would um how they would read now, even the the versions that were updated in the 1960s. I wonder how they would read now.

Trixie Belden: A Relatable Sleuth

00:11:34
Speaker
but Finally, we have Trixie Belden. and Of today's list, Trixie is likely the sleuth most people will recognize. But even her books are more difficult to find than, say, Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys. One reason for this is likely that Trixie is not a creation of the Stratumire Syndicate, but a competing brand.
00:11:56
Speaker
Julie Campbell wrote the first six books featuring this young sleuth and her friends, and then 33 more were written by in-house writers of Western Publishing Company under the pen name Catherine Kenny. And Western Publishing Company, I thought this was interesting, is the company that ah created little golden books.
00:12:17
Speaker
But later, Random House obtained rights to the Trixie Belden series and republished the first 15 books ah from 2003 to 2006. Many readers find Trixie Belden more relatable than Nancy Drew. um you know In part, this is because Trixie's younger and comes from an average middle-class family.
00:12:40
Speaker
um I also think the friendships that Trixie has with her best friend Honey Wheeler and all the members of their club called the Bob Whites of the Glen are just very wholesome and likable. This week I read the red trailer mystery from 1950 and it is very 1950.
00:13:00
Speaker
It was pretty dated, but as you said about the Bobsy twins, I would like to see what Random House did in the 2003 version and see if you know it felt a little more a little more up to date.
00:13:15
Speaker
So I really struggled to find a copy of any Trixie Belden books. And I will admit that until we started this podcast, I had never heard of Trixie Belden. She wasn't one of the series that was you know at my grandmother's house. And as you say, it probably was a result of not being part of the Stradmyer Syndicate.
00:13:41
Speaker
ah So I went to a couple of local used bookstores and ah the booksellers told me, oh, you know, they're very rare when they come in, they go out right away. So I think people have a lot of nostalgia for them.
00:13:56
Speaker
I did manage to find a copy at my library, but it was in the special collection room where I had to request it. They brought it to me. It couldn't leave the room. So I spent an afternoon skimming through.
00:14:13
Speaker
skimming through the story. you It just was really, really interesting that it was so difficult to to get my hands on. I did think, you know, ah the book that I read was later in the series. um So it talked about her reputation for attracting trouble and and ah kind of the hijinks that her her group of friends who, as you say, Brooke, were were very likable, but the you know kind of trouble that they would would find themselves in.
00:14:41
Speaker
And yet, their parents had no qualms about sending these kids on a trip. They were staying in a hotel. ah They boarded a boat to New Orleans. Precisely. I loved the independence that these kids had.
00:15:02
Speaker
Yes, the red trailer mystery is book two in the series and that's the one that I happened to get my hands on. and The very beginning is Trixie's asking her dad if she can go on this RV trip with the governess. Honey's governess is going to be taking them because they're going to go look for their friend who ran away. Again, i'm like there these are young young people and her dad says, sure, I know you'll have have a great time. and they Likewise, do some very adventurous things that are, uh, maybe that's what made it feel like 1950s to me. But as you mentioned, this was even later in the series. So anyway, I liked it. Um, and I could see what, um, what would have made it quite popular at the time. And just unfortunately it's, it's not very easy to get, um, to get a hand on.

Uncovering Love Day Brooke

00:15:56
Speaker
I knew what we were going to be talking about today and I i was doing a little bit of of research and I came across Love Day Brooke who actually mystery man and mentioned um in a previous episode and I had not come across Love Day Brooke before. She is a little bit older. She's in her 30s.
00:16:17
Speaker
Um, so not necessarily a young sleuth, but she is this independent female detective. She's joined a detective agency. I thought it was really interesting. Had you come across any Love Day Brooke books, Brooke?
00:16:36
Speaker
No, and until Mystery Manon mentioned her, she was not a character that I had on my radar. Her book, The Experiences of Lev Daybrook, Lady Detective, was written by C. L. Perkis and was ah published as so many books of the time were published serially in 1893.
00:16:59
Speaker
um But her author, the the the author, C.L. Perkiss, stopped writing after 1894. So this is, I think, the only time that Love Day Brooke appeared.
00:17:14
Speaker
How interesting. um It's like a one-hit wonder. Yeah, yeah. But I i mean, i I read a little bit of um ah the stories, and I think I'd i'd like to read more. and And this is, again, another one of those ah characters that I would like to learn a little bit more about. And I think there were, I think this is not the only example of a female detective that appears once or twice. I mean, we talked about New York now, same thing, right? Who um have this opportunity to ah solve crimes and then disappear.
00:17:56
Speaker
Yes. Yes. So interesting. And I love the fact that um she's being kept alive because Mystery Manon was discussing for her gift list that and it's a game, right? So um someone has been a fan of this character and now reimagined it into like ah a mystery game that you can play. So that's really that's really fascinating. And you think about the impact that that author who wrote for just a short period of time has continued to have on mystery fans. It's pretty great. Yeah, exactly.

Conclusion and Future Excitement

00:18:32
Speaker
Well, Brooke, this has been really fun to talk about some early detectives, some of them young, some of them for young readers. And I'm sure we're going to continue part of this conversation at some point in the future.
00:18:46
Speaker
Yes, as we discover more, we'll definitely need to revisit the idea of young sleuths in in fictional mystery. And thank you all for joining us today on Clued in Mystery. I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery.
00:19:02
Speaker
Clued In Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers. If you liked what you heard, please consider telling a friend, leaving a ri review, or subscribing with your favorite podcast listening app. Visit our website at cluedinmystery.com to sign up for our newsletter, The Clued In Chronicle, or to join our paid membership, The Clued In Cartel. We're on social media at Clued In Mystery.