
- 64/100
- Players11 ratings
More scores
- Metacritic usersuser score
- 63/100
- GameFAQsEasy-Just Right
- 3.66/5
- Player reviews
- 78% positive327 reviews
- Steam Deck
- Playable
- Runs on
- Windows, Mac
- Price
- US$19.99
Where to get it

1998 · Her Interactive · Adventure · Point-and-click adventure
Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill
Secrets Can Kill is the first of many instalments in the Nancy Drew point-and-click adventure game series by HeR Interactive. Players take on the first-person view of fictional amateur sleuth Nancy Drew and solve the mystery by interrogating suspects, solving puzzles, and discovering clues.
- Released
- 23 December 1998
- Platforms
- WindowsmacOS
- Genres
- AdventurePoint-and-click adventurePuzzle
- Developers
- Her Interactive
- Publishers
- DreamCatcher Interactive
- Series
- Nancy Drew
- Modes
- Single-player
- Perspective
- First personBird view / Isometric
- Themes
- Thriller
- Country
- United States
- Age ratings
- ESRB E
- Languages
- English
- Time to beat
- 3hmain story5hcompletionist
About
Secrets Can Kill is the first installment in the Nancy Drew point-and-click adventure game series, released on November 23, 1998 by HeR Interactive. Players take on the first-person view of fictional amateur sleuth Nancy Drew and solve the mystery through interrogation of suspects, solving puzzles, and discovering clues. The game features pre-rendered 3D environments, but unlike later games, the characters are animated in 2D. There are three levels of gameplay: Junior, Senior, and Master detective modes.
Each mode offers a different difficulty level of puzzles and hints, however, none of these changes affect the actual plot of the game. The game is loosely based on a Nancy Drew Files book of the same name, Secrets Can Kill (1986).
Players say
Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception
Story
Nancy Drew takes a semester off of school to visit her Aunt Eloise in Florida. A student named Jake Rogers is murdered at the local high school, where Eloise works as a librarian. Eloise asks Nancy to investigate, so Nancy goes undercover as a new student and attempts to solve the mystery. Throughout the game, Nancy discovers that Jake Rogers was blackmailing several of the other characters by videotaping their misdeeds:
Hal Tanaka took on additional coursework to be approved for a scholarship. He knew that if he didn't get the scholarship, his family would send him back to Japan. He slowly became overwhelmed and buried in work, so he decided to plagiarize an English essay from a school library book, which Jake caught on camera. Jake blackmailed Hal into doing his homework for the remainder of the semester, otherwise Jake would reveal the plagiarism to Hal's family.
Development
Nancy Drew - Nancy is an 18-year-old amateur detective from the fictional town of River Heights in the United States. She is the only playable character in the game, which means the player must solve the mystery from her perspective.
Daryl Gray – Daryl is the one who found the victim's body. He works part-time as a short-order cook at Maxine's Diner, and he is the school's student council president (taking the position after his father who was a Florida state senator). He is known as a rich, popular, pretty boy who drives a Porsche 911. He tends to be a bit of a flirt, but is he as wholesome as he seems?
Releases by platformdates and regions as published
Editions and related releases
- Included in
- Nancy Drew 75th Anniversary Edition
- Followed by
- Nancy Drew: Stay Tuned for Danger
- Remastered as
- Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill Remastered
- Built on it
- Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill Remastered
In the same series
62Nancy Drew: Stay Tuned for Danger
1999 · Windows
Her Interactive
Nintendo exclusive60Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion
2000 · Game Boy Advance, Windows
Her Interactive
67Nancy Drew: The Final Scene
2001 · Windows
Her Interactive
70Nancy Drew: Treasure in the Royal Tower
2001 · Windows
Her Interactive
64Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake
2002 · Windows
Her Interactive
67Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand
2002 · Windows
Her Interactive
60Nancy Drew: Danger on Deception Island
2003 · Windows
Her Interactive
66Nancy Drew: The Haunted Carousel
2003 · Windows
Her Interactive
80Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor
2004 · DVD Player, Windows
Her Interactive
64Nancy Drew: The Secret of Shadow Ranch
2004 · Windows
Her Interactive
70Nancy Drew: Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon
2005 · Windows
Her Interactive
80Nancy Drew: Secret of the Old Clock
2005 · Windows
Her Interactive
63Nancy Drew: Danger by Design
2006 · Windows
Her Interactive
70Nancy Drew: The Creature of Kapu Cave
2006 · Windows
Her Interactive
79Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull
2007 · Windows
Her Interactive
Nintendo exclusive70Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek
2007 · Wii, Windows
Her Interactive
50Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights, Camera, Curses
2008 · Windows
Her Interactive
69Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
2008 · Windows
Her Interactive
61Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice
2008 · Windows
Her Interactive
69Nancy Drew Dossier: Resorting to Danger
2009 · Windows
Her Interactive
60Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships
2009 · Windows
Her Interactive
70Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy
2009 · Windows
Her Interactive
61Nancy Drew: Shadow at the Water's Edge
2010 · Windows, macOS
Her Interactive
69Nancy Drew: Trail of the Twister
2010 · Linux, Windows +1
Her Interactive
Games like this
86The Rise of the Golden Idol
2024 · Android, Nintendo Switch +7
Adventure · Point-and-click adventure
88Black Dahlia
1998 · Windows
Adventure · Point-and-click adventure

Obsidian
1996 · Linux, Windows +1
Adventure · Point-and-click adventure
59Art of Murder: FBI Confidential
2008 · Windows
Adventure · Point-and-click adventure

The Labyrinth of Time
1993 · Amiga, Amiga CD32 +5
Adventure · Point-and-click adventure
71Police Quest: Open Season
1993 · MS-DOS, Windows +1
Adventure · Point-and-click adventure
Timed Nintendo55Dream Chronicles
2007 · Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3 +4
Adventure · Point-and-click adventure

Dream Chronicles: The Chosen Child
2009 · Windows, macOS
Adventure · Point-and-click adventure
Collections3 collections
Series and characters
- Nancy Drew gamesComputer games › Nancy Drew series
- Nancy Drew gamesComputer games › Nancy Drew series
Genres
Themes
Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.