History Main / KidDetective

%%* True to her literary counterpart, ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'' is one in the series of games. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)

* Lily from ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten}}'' becomes this in ''VideoGame/Kindergarten2''. While she does do some snooping in the first game, it's for personal reasons, namely to find her missing brother Billy. In the second game though, despite not having any personal stakes anymore, she more actively stakes out her new school for secrets along with [[spoiler:the now-rescued Billy]]. They find out that [[spoiler:the kids that were "rezoned" to make room for the first game's cast in the new school were actually kidnapped by the principal to be turned into mutant monsters for use in her evil plans]]. To really drive home the point, her [[AndYourRewardIsClothes unlockable outfit]] is called the "Sleuth's Dress".

* Subverted in the 1970s TV version of ''Series/TheHardyBoys'', where the Boys are allowed to grow up in the final season and become professional detectives for the US Department of Justice.

There are some notable differences between the Kid Detective and adult detectives, however, that make the Kid Detective a unique character. For example, while an adult can go straight to the authorities with evidence, a kid often [[NotNowKiddo has difficulty convincing adults of what s/he experienced]]. Hence, the kid often has to let the adults know what's going on in a roundabout way, or expose it somehow. Sometimes the kid is in fact trusted by detectives, and can go to them directly.

* Hajime Kindaichi and Miyuki Nanase from ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'' are 17 year old amateur sleuths, with Hajime solving crimes [[BornDetective in the name of his grandfather,]] who was a famous Japanese detective.

* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': Tim Drake was a detective at an early age, sneaking around Gotham with a camera and using subtle clues to put together big secrets like ComicBook/{{Batman}}'s identity. His training for becoming Robin leads to him becoming an even more effective one.

** Kindaichi's sibling show, ''The Files of Silver Wolf'' has Kousuke Fuwa, his stepsister Kaeko, and their entire friend group as amateur sleuths for their high school's newspaper club. [[AdaptationDeviation Which is interesting, because the manga it was based on was an adventure manga with no crimes and mysteries in sight.]]

%%* ''Literature/TheHardyBoys'', who, at 17 and 18, are two of the oldest examples of "kid" detectives out there, though they were originally 15 and 16. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; what sort of detective work do they do?)

* ''Liteature/AngiesFirstCase'': Angie Zane is a twelve-year-old Floridan who (aided by her friend Jess) is looking around town for clues about a local group of burglars so that her police officer sister Kit can be the one to arrest them. In the process, she learns that there is more than one mystery in her hometown, though, and that some of them involve some very clever and/or menacing people.

* ''Literature/TheBakerStreetIrregulars'' by Creator/TerranceDicks is about a Literature/SherlockHolmes fan who ([[YouMeddlingKids with the help of his school friends]]) solvew crimes. The first mystery he only takes on after the school bully dares him to, but he finds that he's actually quite good at it.

* Johnny in ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts: From The New World'' runs a detective agency despite looking like he might be at most 14-16 years old. [[spoiler:He's actually much older than he looks.]]

%%* Max the Wolf from ''Literature/DownTheMysterlyRiver'' is this. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)

** Kyoko Kirigiri of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' may be the most extreme application of this trope: as the Ultimate Detective, she's essentially the best in the world for her age-group, and as a requirement of that title, is a professional in her daily life (which can be seen in her [[LightNovel/DanganronpaKirigiri prequel novels]] where she's taking on cases while still in junior high). She also comes from an entire family of lifelong detectives, with her father being the black sheep of the family simply for leaving the business to be Headmaster of Hope's Peak, the school at the center of the franchise. How competent he was at his job is... debatable. [[spoiler:With the world outside the academy [[ApocalypseHow/Class0 gone to hell with so few people left alive]], she may actually be the best in general by default, although that depends on if her grandfather was killed [[VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls in Towa City]], which is never resolved.]]

* The ten-year-old members of the [=McGurk=] Detective Agency from ''Literature/TheMcGurkMysteries'', led by the clever if perhaps overly-impetuous Jack P. [=McGurk=].

* ''Anime/LupinIIIPartII'' has Baranco, a one-episode character who's the son of the famous Columbo. The entire police force is willing to follow his plans.