Image: Glen A. Larson Productions / Universal Television
About This Quiz
It's time for a complete confession. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys had us seriously considering a career as a private eye. Fast-forward to adulthood, and we ended up in more mainstream career fields, but we still have a serious longing for the adventure and intrigue that filled the lives of our favorite fictional sleuths.
Can you believe it's been almost nine decades since Nancy Drew's character was first introduced? (She's still doing some good detective work at the ripe ol' age of 90!) And the Hardy Boys have been around even longer; they were first introduced to audiences in 1927.
Titles like "The Secret in the Dark" and "The Prime-Time Crime," both released in 1991, have since been joined by books for a new generation, like "Hunting for Hidden Gold" and "The Sign in the Smoke." More current interpretations of the teen detectives have evolved with the times, including things like graphic novels and even TV spinoffs.Â
But all of it harkens back to the original Carolyn Keene and Franklin Dixon (those were pseudonyms, by the way) titles and characters — Nancy, Frank and Joe. Can you guess which books in this quiz belong to which sleuth series? Can you solve "The Case of this Quiz's Hidden Clues?" (We made that one up.) Channel your inner detective and get to the bottom of these questions!
Nancy Drew
"The Secret in the Old Attic" is part of the Nancy Drew collection, and details a case in which Nancy helps an elderly man find an attic treasure that could net him a lot of money. Suddenly, the attic is not nearly as scary.
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew goes on a trip to Florida and visits Crocodile Island to help track down evil poachers. Things don't quite go as planned when Drew's group is kidnapped. "Mystery of Crocodile Island" was first published in 1978.
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
Frank and Joe had their work cut out for them in this book, dealing with spies, smuggling and top-secret information. Luckily, they're just the team for the case, and the bad guy goes down as usual.
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
In fairness, the mask itself came to be after the coins melted, so it all ties in together. The Hardy Boys are on the case, though, helping to find the missing Native American mask and return it to its rightful owners.
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Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew's on tap for this one, working to help find a missing will to make sure the Turner family, rightfully, can lay claim to Josiah Crowley's estate. This story is one of the best-selling Nancy Drew mysteries of all time.
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
The Hardy Boys are summoned to help find a will (sound familiar?) after a boarding school headmaster dies and leaves his grandson with unanswered questions. Presumably, the will holds the key to it all.
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
"The Flickering Torch Mystery" is something of a mystery in itself. The original book involves the disappearance of silkworms from a lab while the revised edition delves into a plane crash and a nightclub. Either is a good read, though!
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Nancy Drew
You just knew Nancy Drew had to be involved if there was a diary to explore, didn't you? "The Clue in the Diary" involves the appearance of a mysterious diary and both the clues from the book and the fire itself.
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
It's the Hardy Boys again, back in "The Crisscross Shadow" to help foil a plot to steal from a Native American village. The boys locate a missing deed (and a host of valuables) and save the day.
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Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew jets off to Hawaii in "The Secret of the Golden Pavilion" to get to the bottom of an inheritance that may fall into the wrong hands and to figure out the secrets of the Kaluakua estate.
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
Don't get excited; "The Password to Larkspur Lane" has nothing to do with the internet and a missing website password. Instead, it involves a message delivered by a carrier pigeon and the kidnapping of a whole group of people.
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
Is it odd that the Hardy Boys are breaking into a house at the same time they thwart a break-in attempt by someone else? If you like to read about burglary, kidnapping, getaway attempts and plane crashes, this is the mystery for you.
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
A military general is seeking to clear his name in "The Secret of the Lost Tunnel" with Frank and Joe's help. All the Hardy Boys have to do is locate the missing gold that has long since been buried. Easy-peasy.
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Nancy Drew
The events of "The Sign of the Twisted Candles" take place at a roadside inn of the same name. There's lots of family strife, even for Nancy herself, in this ninth entry of the Nancy Drew chronicles.
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
"The Sinister Signpost" is a Hardy Boys mystery that involves proprietary information about a car engine potentially being stolen from its rightful owner. A horse farm also plays into the plot of the story. Seriously.
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
Frank and Joe are on the case of a criminal and an illegal drug smuggling ring. The house mentioned in the book's title provides a good location for the Hardy Boys to keep an eye on things.
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Nancy Drew
Blackwood Hall just sounds like a place where there would be ghostly sightings and unusual paranormal activities, doesn't it? Don't worry, though, Nancy Drew will figure out what's going on.
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
"The Hidden Staircase" is double the work for Nancy Drew thanks to two mysteries, one involving a haunted house and the other involving her own father. A woman's work is never done.
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
The Hardy Boys claim "A Figure in Hiding," which tells the story of a glass eye, a dastardly group known as the Goggler Gang, and Frank and Joe's attempt to tie all of the unusual events together.
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Nancy Drew
Nancy's problems could've been solved immediately if she'd had GPS to rely on. Of course, "The Quest of the Missing Map" was written well before GPS was even a thing. The book is entertaining, though!
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
We know, the idea of a disappearing floor seems pretty preposterous, but the Hardy Boys are taking it quite seriously in the book of the same name. They also work to take down a jewel thief — all in a day's work.
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
What seems like some innocent pieces of furniture creates a mystery that the Hardy Boys have to untangle. Oh, and there's a tie to Guatemala and a gang of hooligans from little old Bayport as well.
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Nancy Drew
Of course, Nancy Drew has friends who want to go ghost-hunting and — of course — Nancy agrees to go. That IS her schtick, after all. Along the way, they encounter a haunted home, boat and horse. Really!
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew lends her sleuthing skills to Madame Alexandra in this title to help her find a missing relative. A secret in the jewel box and an old photo are all Nancy has to help her solve the case.
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
As commonly done in the Nancy Drew series, "The Mystery at the Moss-Covered Mansion" produces two different storylines — an original (this one written in 1941) and a revision (created 30 years later). Exploding oranges only appear in the 1971 edition, in case you were wondering.
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
The Hardy Boys must solve a mystery, this time, in the midst of a storm at sea. Clouding the clues are a wallet that appears suddenly and, well, of course, a wailing siren that drives everyone crazy.
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
You had to figure if the Rocky Mountains were involved, that is probably including some type of camping, which is more suited to Frank and Joe than Nancy. The real crime here involves credit card theft, which sounds a lot more 2019 than 1971.
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Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew finds out she has an imposter in "The Mystery at Lilac Inn," with someone going as far as forging her signature around town. Interesting fact: The original version of this book was reconstructed in the early 1960s to remove potentially racist language.
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
Frank and Joe must find clues in nature in the Pocono Mountains, including shrieking noises terrifying people during the night. Luckily, the boys encounter a pup who helps them out.
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Nancy Drew
Other than that whole "haunted showboat" thing, we're pretty OK with a storyline that involves a trip to New Orleans and a Mardi Gras party. It won't be any party for Nancy, though, who must put together the clues to solve the case.
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
Nancy gets a moonstone in the mail from an anonymous sender, a great foreshadowing of what Nancy will go through as the book, "The Moonstone Castle Mystery," proceeds. Of course, it begins by Nancy trying to figure out where the mystery gift came from.
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
The Hardy Boys are working the crowds at a traveling circus, trying to thwart pickpockets in the act. Whale tattoos are used to eventually help identify the bad guys in this 1968 works.
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Nancy Drew
Hardy Boys
The Hardy Boys receive the case titled, "While the Clock Ticked," and find themselves dealing with an abandoned house and death threats left to their client in a protected room inside the house. Creepy.
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Nancy Drew
Nancy tags along with her father on a trip to Scotland and, of course, finds herself embroiled in mystery while she's there. Of course, she also gets to meet her great-grandmother, so there's a feel-good moment there.
Hardy Boys
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Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew tackles strange symbols and rumors that Nancy herself is a witch (what!) in "The Witch Tree Symbol." She manages to escape without being burned at the stake and solves the mystery, too.
Hardy Boys
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You Got:
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