MTV.com – News -Is Alicia Keys The Next Nancy Drew? Singer Planning ‘Street Mystery’ Series
Alicia Keys, the singer, is working on a multi-book deal. One book of poetry and one book based on her diaries.
“But it’s her idea for “Alicia Keys’ Street Mysteries” that is the most unexpected portion of the proposal. The young-adult series, with each book titled after a Keys song, would present the singer as a 16-year-old attending a Harlem performing-arts high school, who dreams of being a singer but also has a “sometimes-dangerous penchant for investigating — and solving — heart-pounding whodunits.” So in between auditions, demo sessions and dating, the Alicia character would track down kidnappers or clear friends framed for murder. Recurring characters would be Alicia’s best friends, Lavinia “Lovey” Ramon, a Puerto Rican dancer whose father is a detective for the NYPD, and Schulyer “Skye” Franklin, an aspiring actress who helps bluff her way into almost any situation.
The series, which would combine “the hipness and diversity of the ‘Cheetah Girls’ and the timeless appeal of ‘Nancy Drew,’ ” would be written by the husband-and-wife writing team of Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld, whose work includes writing for the WB’s “Smallville” series, as well as mass-market book tie-ins to “Smallville” and “Dawson’s Creek.””