A review by hawthornm
Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak

5.0

A great exploration of the history of the popular girl detective novels and the women who wrote them. I learned a couple of surprising things -- that Nancy Drew was far and away the most popular of the Stratmeyer Syndicate's kid book series, blowing away the Hardy Boys by a mile. I was also surprised to learn how much the Syndicate actually contributed to the novels. I was always under the impression that the ghostwriters, like Mildred Wirt Benson, got a raw deal because they wrote all the books but never got credit. But in reality the writing was more of a collaboration between the Syndicate (which was primarily Harriet Stratemeyer Adams) who created all the characters and wrote detailed plots; and the ghostwriters, who filled in the details and dialog. That's kinda cool -- I'm terrible at working out a plot, but I can write great scenes and dialog.