7 Supersleuthy Books For Grown-Up Fans of Nancy Drew

The delightfully cunning Precious Ramotswe is the proprietor of Botswana's premier women's detective agency in The No. 1 ladies Detective Agency. In this charming series, Precious—with help from her loyal associate, Grace Makutsi—navigates her cases and her personal life with wisdom, good humor, and the occasional cup of tea.

If Nancy had a bright, fearless young protégée, she would be 11-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce. In her first mystery, aspiring chemist Flavia is both appalled and delighted when she discovers a dead man in a cucumber patch. Much to the police's chagrin, she sets out to crack the case herself in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

Maisie Dobbs is a former maid whose prodigious intellect led her aristocratic suffragette employer to help her earn admission to the prestigious Girton College in Cambridge. In the wake of World War I, Maisie sets up shop as a private sleuth. Her first mystery, seemingly a simple case of infidelity, will force her to confront the ghost that has haunted her for more than a decade.

If Nancy grew up in the Jazz Age, she would be Phryne Fisher from Cocaine Blues. Socialite flapper Phryne Fisher is bored of English high society and decides to try her hand at being a lady detective in Melbourne, Australia. The clever and spunky sleuth's first case involves poisoned wives, cocaine smuggling rings, corrupt cops, and communism.

Mei Wang is a modern, independent woman whose intuition and curiosity make her Beijing's first successful female private investigator. In The Eye of Jade, Mei is hired to find a Han dynasty jade of great value. The search leads her through banquet halls and back alleys, seedy gambling dens, and cheap noodle bars near the Forbidden City.

Hanne Wilhelmsen is a brilliant but conflicted Norwegian police officer in The Blind Goddess. She is called in to investigate when a small time drug dealer is found battered to death on the outskirts of Oslo. When a shady lawyer is shot a few days later, Hanne and her partner, Hakon, suspect that the cases may be connected.

Described as part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry, Izzy Spellman is a talented sleuth with a checkered past working for her dysfunctional family of private investigators. Finally, in The Spellman Files Izzy decides that she needs to get out of the family business, but not before taking one last investigation—a fifteen-year-old, ice-cold missing person case.

Here are more great book recommendations from our friends at Off the Shelf:

13 Books to Read After A Man Called Ove
Pass the Popcorn: 10 Books to Read Before They Hit the Big Screen
Nancy Drew Meets Jack Daniels