Books That Inspired My Top 10 Nancy Drew Video Games List

This page lists the Nancy Drew books that inspired my picks of the best Nancy Drew PC adventure games. The ten books detailed below have been used loosely as a basis for the plot, characters and events in the video game adaptations. And with crime-solving and point-and-click adventure game play make these brilliant mystery game adaptations! The books as Nancy Drew fans, will know were written over the years by a number of writers. All writing under the pen name or pseudonym of Carolyn Keene.

Books Adapted into My 10 Best Nancy Drew Games

Each book detailed below, has a link to where you can buy it online – in varying formats – ebook, paperback or hardcover. I’ve also included a link to my review of the game adaptation.

For more top 10 detective books and games lists, see the posts included below.

Phantom of Venice

Published: 1985 | Publisher: Simon and Schuster/Wanderer | #78 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories Series.

Video (PC) Game Adaptation: This top Nancy Drew book inspired the Nancy Drew 18: Phantom of Venice game (read my review).

Plot: In this thrilling adventure rife with romance and danger, Nancy travels to Venice to investigate the kidnapping of a famous glassblower and the disappearance of an artist.

*Phantom of Venice available from: US Amazon and UK Amazon.

Whispers In the Fog

Published: 2000 | Publisher: Simon and Schuster/Minstrel | #153 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories Series.

Video (PC) Game Adaptation: This top Nancy Drew book inspired the Nancy Drew 09: Danger on Deception Island game (read my review).

Plot: Katie Firestone, champion kayaker and owner of a whale-watching tour boat, has invited George, along with Nancy, Ned, and Bess, to vacation north of San Francisco in Seabreak.

But when Katie’s boat is vandalized, suspicion falls on fisherman Holt Scotto, who may be trying to run Katie out of business.

The menace doesn’t stop there: a bike accident, a stalker, danger at an abandoned lighthouse, and a terrifying kayak trip lead Nancy to a hidden sea cave. Inside, Nancy discovers a dangerous secret.

Soon her fearless instincts plunge her deeper into trouble—and it will take all her courage, daring, and wits to get herself and her friends out of it alive!

*Whispers In the Fog available from: US Amazon and UK Amazon.

Message in a Haunted Mansion

Published: 2000 | Publisher: Simon and Schuster/Minstrel | #122 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories Series.

Video (PC) Game Adaptation: This top Nancy Drew book inspired the Nancy Drew 03: Message in a Haunted Mansion game (read my review).

Plot: Nancy, Bess and George have joined the Drews’ housekeeper, Hannah Gruen, on a trip to San Francisco.

They have come at the invitation of Hannah’s friend Rose Green, who has asked their help in renovating a charming old Victorian mansion. But there may be other, uninvited guests as well: visitors from the past … spirits who want the place all to themselves.
Nancy suspects that there is another force at work — greed.

According to legend, a fortune in long-lost gold is hidden on the property, and someone is determined to take it. But in a house full of trapdoors and secret tunnels, falling glass and suspicious fires, finding the truth won’t be easy. One misstep, and Nancy won’t stand a ghost of a chance!

*Message in a Haunted Mansion available from: US Amazon and UK Amazon.

Treasure in the Royal Tower

Published: 1997 | Publisher: Simon and Schuster/Minstrel | #128 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories Series.

Video (PC) Game Adaptation: This top Nancy Drew book inspired the Nancy Drew 04: Treasure in the Royal Tower game (read my review).

Plot: Anticipating a fun-filled winter skiing vacation in Wisconsin, Nancy Drew and her friends soon learn that the lodge harbors scary secrets and a hidden treasure…

And the teen sleuth is out to discover the truth.

*Treasure in the Royal Tower available from: US Amazon and UK Amazon.

Mystery Train

Published: 1990 | Publisher: Simon and Schuster/Archway | #8 in the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super Mystery.

Video (PC) Game Adaptation: This top Nancy Drew book inspired the Nancy Drew 13: Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon game (read my review).

Plot: Nancy Drew joins some of the best minds in the mystery field to help crack a famous unsolved case: the theft of the Comstock diamond. A private train will take the elite group from Chicago to San Francisco, the same route taken by the jewel thief fifteen years before. But someone is out to derail the search for clues and send Nancy on a chilling cross-country ride to terror.

Meanwhile… Frank and Joe Hardy climb on board, lured by the promise of a $25,000 reward for whoever finds the diamond. Instead they find trouble: an open-air fist fight atop the speeding train, a runaway locomotive, and a beautiful gem of a different kind — actress Kate Harkins. Joe is dazzled by her entrance — and stunned by her exit.

The teen detectives suspect she’s been kidnapped, and it soon becomes clear they’ve all been ticketed for disaster… on the Mystery Train!

*Mystery Train available from: US Amazon and UK Amazon.

Mystery by Moonlight

Published: 2002 | Publisher: Simon and Schuster/Aladdin | #167 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories Series.

Video (PC) Game Adaptation: This top Nancy Drew book inspired the Nancy Drew 07: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake game (read my review).

Plot: A charming lakeside cottage should be the perfect vacation spot for Nancy and her friends … until Bess becomes convinced that they’re sharing the place with ghosts.

Strange thumps in the attic put them all on edge – except there is no attic. And worse, their neighbors, who are definitely alive, are giving them grief.

To add to the chaos, a pair of bird-watching photographers sets dangerous traps in the woods, a summer camp director chases Nancy and Ned off his property, and the assistant curator of a nearby Native American museum warns them to stay away from an ancient burial ground. Then a surprising discovery reveals a long-lost mystery -and a family secret as black as night.

*Mystery by Moonlight available from: US Amazon and UK Amazon.

The Bluebeard Room

Published: 1985 | Publisher: Simon and Schuster/Wanderer | #77 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories Series.

Video (PC) Game Adaptation: This top Nancy Drew book inspired the Nancy Drew 11: Curse of Blackmoor Manor game (read my review).

Plot: Romance and adventure await Nancy on the craggy coast of Cornwall, England.There to help a friend who could be in danger, Nancy finds more than she bargained for!

*The Bluebeard Room available from: US Amazon and UK Amazon.

Uncivil Acts

Published: 2005 | Publisher: Simon and Schuster | #10 in the Nancy Drew: All New Girl Detective Series.

Video (PC/Mac) Game Adaptation: This top Nancy Drew book inspired the Nancy Drew 28: Ghost of Thornton Hall game (read my review).

Plot: A Civil War reenactment should be fun, right? Not in our town! It feels like war fever’s taken over. The tension started to build when we all chose sides.

Confederate and Union sympathizers never did mix. And if that wasn’t enough to heat things up, someone started to secretly dig large holes in the battlefield.

Pretty odd – and very suspicious. Is someone waging a little war of their own, and trying to cheat? And if so, the bigger question is why?

*Uncivil Acts available from: US Amazon, UK Amazon and UK Bookshop.org.

Lights, Camera…

Published: 2004 | Publisher: Simon and Schuster | #5 in the Nancy Drew: All New Girl Detective Series.

Video (PC) Game Adaptation: This top Nancy Drew book inspired the Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights, Camera, Curses game (read my review).

Plot: I’m a detective, not an actor, so who would think I’d be involved in a crime both offscreen and on?

A producer has come to River Heights to film a reenactment of the heist that gave our town it’s name, and he thinks I’m perfect for the part of Esther, the sister of the thieving Rackham boys. So I figure, why not give it a try?

But once the cameras start rolling, the trouble begins. Food poisoning. Broken generators. And worse! If I don’t sniff out some suspects soon, this might be my final act.

*Lights, Camera… available from: US Amazon and UK Amazon.

The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes

Published: 1964 | Publisher: Grosset and Dunlap | #41 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories Series.

Video (PC/Mac) Game Adaptation: This top Nancy Drew book inspired the Nancy Drew 29: The Silent Spy game (read my review).

Plot: Warnings not to go to Scotland can’t stop Nancy Drew from setting out on a thrill-packed mystery adventure. Undaunted by the vicious threats, the young detective – with her father and her two close friends – goes to visit her great-grandmother at an imposing estate in the Scottish Highlands, and to solve the mystery of a missing family heirloom.

Books Adapted into 10 Best Nancy Drew Games - The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes — Books Adapted into Top Nancy Drew Games – The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes

And there is another mystery to be solved: the fate of flocks of stolen sheep. Baffling clues challenge Nancy’s powers of deduction: a note written in the ancient Gaelic language, a deserted houseboat on Loch Lomond, a sinister red-bearded stranger in Edinburgh, eerie whistling noises in the Highlands. Startling discoveries in an old castle and in the ruins of a prehistoric fortress, lead Nancy closer to finding the solution to both mysteries.

*The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes available from: US Amazon and UK Amazon.