ACPL's Books for Teens

 

Mysteries

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Mysteries

Entries marked with a ♥ are staff favorites

♥ Bloor, Edward Tangerine

Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness and slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged his eyesight.  (M,J)

Byars, Betsy The Dark Stairs

Mystery is in Herculeah Jones’s blood. How could it not be, with a father on the police force and a mother who’s a private eye? So when Herculeah notices a man hanging around the "Dead Oaks" mansion, she can’t resist doing some investigating of her own. Legend has it the old estate was the site of a murder, and now it looks like there’s something even more nefarious going on. Can Herculeah crack the case before the mystery man closes in on her?  (M)

Cross, Gillian Tightrope

When she begins receiving bizarre threatening messages from someone who seems to know her every move, teenage Ashley, after seeking help from the neighborhood tough guy, comes to realize that she alone can end the stalker's reign of terror.  (J,S)

Dahl, Michael Finnegan Zwake: The Horizontal Man

Thirteen-year-old Finnegan Zwake is staying with his Uncle Stoppard. Life with his uncle is fairly normal -- until the day Finn discovers a body in the basement. A dead body. It's in the storage area where Finn's parents left behind gold treasure from their last expedition. And missing from the storage space is a magnificent Mayan gold figure, the Horizontal Man.  (M)

Delaney, Mark Misfits, Inc. #1: The Vanishing Chip

When Mattie's grandfather becomes a suspect in the theft of a valuable computer chip, Peter, Byte, Jake, and Mattie, four high school students who consider themselves misfits, pool their talents to try to discover who really stole the chip and how.  (M,J)

Dexter, Catherine I Dream of Murder

A teenage boy is haunted by a dream from his childhood in which a young woman is murdered in the park across from his house. But he soon discovers that his nightmare is all too true, in this spine-tingling mystery.  (M)

♥ Ferguson, Alane The Christopher Killer

On the payroll as an assistant to her coroner father, seventeen-year-old Cameryn Mahoney uses her knowledge of forensic medicine to catch the killer of a friend while putting herself in terrible danger.  (M,J)

♥ Greene, Michele Dominguez Chasing the Jaguar

After having unsettling dreams about the kidnapped daughter of her mother's employer, fifteen-year-old Martika learns that she is a descendant of a long line of curanderas--Mayan medicine women with special powers. Includes glossary of Spanish words.  (J,S)

♥ Hoobler, Dorothy and Thomas The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn

While attempting to solve the mystery of a stolen jewel, Seikei, a merchant's son who longs to be a samurai, joins a group of kabuki actors in eighteenth-century Japan.  (M,J,S)

♥ Jaffe, Michele Bad Kitty

Meet Jasmine, forensic supersleuth and unwitting victim of a naughty feline. All Jasmine wants is to enjoy her vacation in Las Vegas. And avoid her evil cousin Alyson. And show her suspicious dad that she can be a Model Daughter. And meet the hot poolboy she's been eyeing. Is that too much to ask? Apparently, yes. One moment she's an innocent bylounger, the next the central figure in a mystery. Fortunately, Jasmine is both a forensics enthusiast and possessed of some very special friends, who crash her vacation, Bedazzle Jasmine's wardrobe, and find themselves key players in the most outrageous adventure Las Vegas has ever seen. All because of a very bad kitty.  (J,S)

L'Engle, Madeleine Troubling a Star

As she tries to stay alive after being left on an iceberg in the Antarctic, sixteen-year-old Vicky recalls the series of events that brought her to the bottom of the world and involved her in a dangerous mystery.  (M,J,S)

♥ Madison, Bennett Lulu Dark Can See Through Walls

When someone steals her purse and her identity, high-school junior and reluctant girl sleuth Lulu Dark investigates.  (J,S)

McNamee, Graham Acceleration

Duncan works the lost-and-found in the Toronto subway system. One day he finds the diary of someone who is stalking women, preparing to kill them. When the police don’t take him seriously, Duncan sets out to stop the wannabe serial killer on his own.  (J,S)

Nixon, Joan Lowery The Name of the Game Was Murder

When she visits her great-uncle, a successful and self-centered author, at his fortress-like home on Catalina Island, fifteen-year-old Samantha becomes involved in his manipulative game that leads to murder.  (M,J)

Plum-Ucci, Carol The Body of Christopher Creed

Torey Adams, a high school junior with a seemingly perfect life, struggles with doubts and questions surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the class outcast.  (J,S)

♥ Qualey, Marsha Close to a Killer

At Daria Dupree's hair salon, Killer Looks, all of the stylists, including Daria herself, are convicted murderers who have served their time and are now trying to make new lives for themselves. Seventeen-year-old Barrie Dupree isn't thrilled by the prospect of staying with her ex-con mom while her dad and his wife spend a year in Europe, but she tries to make the best of a bad situation. When two of the salon's wealthiest customers are murdered, Barrie's settled routine is disrupted. Immediately, suspicion falls on Daria and her staff. Barrie is sure they are not to blame and begins to do a little sleuthing. When Barrie discovers a forgotten receipt and combines that with the slip of a book clerk's tongue, she thinks she may have discovered the killer. But will Barrie be the next victim?  (J,S)

♥ Rabb, M.E. Missing Person #1: Rose Queen

The Chief of Police thinks Noelle is dead, and all the evidence points to Sophie. If she and Sam can't find out soon what really happened, they're in big trouble!  (M,J,S)

♥ Rushford, Patricia H. Jenny McGrady Mysteries #1: Too Many Secrets

Jennie McGrady loves to read mysteries, drive her mom's Mustang, and think about Ryan Johnson. Her summer seems perfect until her grandmother disappears with a million dollars in stolen diamonds.  (M,J,S)

Shepard, Sara Pretty Little Liars

After one of their tightly-knit group mysteriously disappears, four high school girls find their friendship difficult to maintain when they begin receiving taunting messages from someone who seems to know everything about their past and present secrets.  (S)

Springer, Nancy The Case of the Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery

Enola Holmes, the much younger sister of detective Sherlock Holmes, must travel to London in disguise to unravel the disappearance of her missing mother.  (M)

Sternberg, Libby Uncovering Sadie's Secrets

Seventeen-year-old Lacey is seeing a therapist to help her cope with her problems at school and with her lawyer sister, but she needs even more help when she is charged with the murder of a friend.  (M,J,S)

Van Draanen, WendelinSammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy

Sammy Keyes is serving her school detention time at St. Mary's Church when Father Mayhew's valuable cross is stolen. This is only the first of several robberies at the church, and Sammy is drawn into a mystery in which all the suspects are religious figures and seemingly above suspicion. Sammy juggles her detecting with her junior high softball tournament, which pits her against Heather, her nemesis, in a battle that is quickly escalating out of control.  (M)

Voigt, Cynthia The Vandemark Mummy

When, as the new Classics professor at Vandemark College, their father is made responsible for a collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts, twelve-year-old Phineas and his older sister Althea try to find out why the collection is the target of thieves, especially when the mummy disappears.  (M,J)

Werlin, Nancy Black Mirror

Frances is mourning the suicide of her brother Daniel. She was always wary of Unity, the strange organization that Daniel belonged to. When she starts to investigate Unity after his death, a new question pops up: Did Daniel really kill himself, or was he murdered?  (J,S)

Zindel, Paul P.C. Hawke Mysteries: The Scream Museum

When their friend Tom is accused of murdering the chief biologist at the Museum of Natural History, P.C. and Mackenzie discover a mystery involving a world-famous necklace, an anthropologist trained in hypnosis, and a fat hairy tarantula named Aristotle.  (J)

 

  Grade Level Interest
M Middle School (defined as grades 6-8).
J Junior High (defined as grades 7-9).
S Senior High (defined as grades 10-12).
A/YA Adult-marketed book recommended for teens.

 

 

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