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Mystery Books for Middle Grade and YA Readers

Mysteries to challenge your sleuthing skills. 

Middle Grade Titles

Cover of The Carrefour Curse
Dianne K.
Salerni

The Addams Family meets The Westing Game in this mystery about a modern magical dynasty trapped in the ruins of their once-grand, now-crumbling ancestral home.Twelve-year-old Garnet regrets that she doesn't know her family, but when Garnet finally gets summoned to the Crossroad House, it isn't quite what she hoped for. Her relatives are strange and quarrelsome and each room is more dilapidated than the last. Is she part of the curse or is she meant to break it?

Cover of Daybreak on Raven Island
Fleur
Bradley

Tori, Marvin, and Noah would rather be anywhere else than on the seventh grade class field trip to Raven Island prison. When the three of them stumble upon a dead body in the woods, miss the last ferry back home, and then have to spend the night on Raven Island, they find that they need each other now more than ever. They must work together to uncover a killer, outrun a motley ghost-hunting crew, and expose the age-old secrets of the island all before daybreak.
 

Cover of Don't Want to Be Your Mons
Deke
Moulton

Ten-year-old Adam knows he has a better purpose in his life (well, immortal life) than just drinking blood, but fourteen-year-old Victor wants to accept his own self-image of vampirism. Everything changes when bodies start to appear all over town, and it becomes clear that a vampire hunter may be on the lookout for the family. Can Adam and Victor reconcile their differences and work together to stop the killer before it's too late?

Cover of Lalo Lespérance Never For
Phillippe
Diederich

Lalo Lespérance is dealing with long-repressed memories of his father as he learns about his Mexican and Haitian heritage while spying on a mysterious stranger during the first weeks of COVID lockdown.

Cover of The Lost Library
Rebecca Stead and
Wendy Mass

When a mysterious Little Free Library guarded by a large orange cat appears overnight, eleven-year-old Evan plucks two weathered books from its shelves, never suspecting that his life is about to change.

Cover of Montgomery and the Case of
Tracy Occomy
Crowder

In 2008 Chicago, in the Southside community of Washington Park, Montgomery "Monty" Carver had hoped for the best summer ever! Unfortunately, things aren't going as planned. When Monty finds a golden key, he decides he's going to unravel the key's mystery. It leads him to discover the rich history of his community and a ghost hanging out behind their apartment building?!

Cover of The Storyteller
Brandon
Hobson

Ziggy's mother disappeared ten years ago, one of the many Native women who have mysteriously gone missing, and Ziggy believes a secret cave may hold the key--so with his sister, Moon, and friends Alice and Corso, he sets out to find the cave and solve the mystery of his family's origins.

Cover of The Swifts: A Dictionary o
Beth
Lincoln

Shenanigan is getting ready for the big Swift Family Reunion and plotting her next great scheme: hunting for Grand-Uncle Vile's long-lost treasure. She's excited to finally meet her arriving relatives--until one of them gives Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude a deadly shove down the stairs. Shenanigan's determined to follow the twisty clues and catch the killer.

 A celebration of words and individuality, it's packed with games, wordplay, and lots and lots of mischief as Shenanigan sets out to save her family and define herself in a world where definitions are so important.

Cover of Turtles of the Midnight Mo
Marí­a José
Fitzgerald

Twelve-year-olds Barana and Abby come together to solve a sea turtle egg poaching mystery plaguing Barana's Honduran coastal village, and learn the true meaning of friendship, courage, and community along the way.

Cover of What Happened to Rachel Ri
Claire
Swinarski

Anna Hunt uses social media posts, passed notes, and other clues to find out why a formerly popular girl is now the pariah of her new school.

 

Middle Grade Series

Cover of Ali Cross
James
Patterson

Ali Cross has always looked up to his father, former detective and FBI agent Alex Cross. While solving some of the nation's most challenging crimes, his father always kept his head and did the right thing. Does Ali have what it takes to be a great detective?

Cover of Blackthorn Key
Kevin
Sands

Following a series of murders, Christopher Rowe, an apothecary's apprentice, must solve puzzles and decipher codes in pursuit of a secret that could destroy the world.

Cover of Funjungle
Stuart
Gibbs

Teddy Fitzroy is FunJungle’s resident zoo sleuth. He solves mysteries and strives to protect the animals at the zoo. 

Cover of Spy School
Stuart
Gibbs

Twelve-year-old Ben Ripley leaves his public middle school to attend the CIA's highly secretive Espionage Academy, which everyone is told is an elite science school.

Cover of Kudo Kids
Maia Shibutani, Alex Shibutani and
Michelle Schuster
Yaoyao Ma Van As

The brother and sister duo, Andy and Mika, solve mysteries on their travels in this action-packed series.

Cover of Mighty Muskrats Mystery
Michael
Hutchinson

Sam, Otter, Atim, and Chickadee are four inseparable cousins growing up on the Windy Lake First Nation. Nicknamed the Mighty Muskrats for their habit of laughing, fighting, and exploring together, the cousins find that each new adventure adds to their reputation.

Cover of Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery
Elizabeth C.
Bunce

Myrtle Harcastle is a wickedly smart 12-year-old with a keen interest in the new tools of criminology and a nose for murder in the Victorian English village where her father is the local prosecutor.

Cover of Mysteries of Trash and Tre
Margaret Peterson
Haddix

Colin and Nevaeh, whose parents own rival junk-removal businesses, uncover mysteries hidden in attics and basements and discover how trash can become treasure.

Cover of The Mysterious Benedict So
Trenton Lee
Stewart

Dozens of children respond to a peculiar ad in the newspaper and are then put through a series of mind-bending tests, which readers take along with them. Only four children--two boys and two girls--succeed. Their challenge: to go on a secret mission that only the most intelligent and inventive children could complete. 

Cover of The Sinister Summer
Kiersten
White

Twins Theo and Alexander and their sister Wil are abruptly dropped off at their Aunt Saffronia's house, where they learn they must complete a series of tasks in order to see their parents again.

 

Middle Grade Graphic Novels

Cover of Enola Holmes: The Graphic
Serena Blasco and
Tanya Gold (Translator)

Sherlock Holmes' brilliant, strong-willed younger sister takes center stage in this delightfully drawn graphic novel based on Nancy Springer's bestselling mystery series.

Cover of The Pathfinders Society
Francesco Sedita and
Prescott Seraydarian
Steve Hamaker

Summer camp just became a whole lot more interesting when five curious kids accept a mysterious project: work together as a team to uncover a series of strange clues, reveal a secret path--and follow its twists and turns to a legendary treasure!

Cover of The Rez Detectives: Justic
Steven Paul Judd and
Tvli Jacob
M.K. Perker

This summer, Tasembo just wants to chill. But that's not an option when it's ascorching day on the Reservation and the Ice Cream Man is a no-show. In anbattempt to impress his crush by solving the mystery, Tasembo joins forces with his neighbor, Nuseka, and his dog, Billy Jack, to take on their first case as the Rez Dog Detectives. 

Cover of Shirley and Jamila series
Gillian
Goerz

When Shirley and Jamila meet, Jamila is simply hoping for a friend in her new neighborhood but Shirley is a detective and together they form a crime-solving partnership and also discover what it means to be a friend. 

Cover of Student Ambassador: The Mi
Ryan
Estrada
Axur Eneas

A student ambassador is sent on a high-stakes diplomatic mission to a far-away land, where he and a newly crowned boy king are thrust into a globe-trotting action-adventure mystery.

Cover of Zatanna and the House of S
Matthew
Cody
Yoshi Yoshitani

Welcome to the magical, mystical, topsy-turvy world of the House of Secrets, where Zatanna embarks on a journey of self-discovery and adventure with her pet rabbit, Pocus, at her side.

 

YA Titles

Cover of A Guide to the Dark
Meriam
Metoui

Stranded at the Wildwood Motel while on their spring break road trip, Mira and Layla discover eight people died in their room and set out to find the connection between the deaths and the unexplainable things that keep happening inside Room 9.

Cover of The Hills of Estrella Roja
Ashley Robin
Franklin

In this delightfully creepy and unapologetically queer horror romp of a graphic novel, sometimes dreams do come true. Nightmares are technically dreams, after all. When college freshman Kat Fields receives a mysterious email urging her to visit a relatively unknown Texas town, she ditches her plans for spring break and takes a solo road trip to Estrella Roja to investigate for her podcast.

Cover of My Flawless Life
Yvonne
Woon

A 17-year-old works as her high school's undercover fixer, solving her classmates' problems, although she can't solve her own.

Cover of The New Girl
Jesse Q.
Sutanto

A transfer student and scholarship recipient, sophomore Lia Setiawan is angered when she discovers a cheating ring, but by the time she finds a dead body and shuts down the campus drug dealer, she fears she might be the biggest snake in the Draycott Academy nest of vipers.

Cover of Play the Game
Charlene
Allen

From debut author Charlene Allen comes a captivating YA contemporary mystery and coming-of-age story, celebrating the power of friendship, first love, and exploring the criminal justice system from the lens of restorative justice. Perfect for fans of Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, and Maureen Johnson.

Cover of Promise Boys
Nick
Brooks

J.B., Ramón, and Trey, students of the Urban Promise Prep School, must follow the school's strict rules, but when their principal is murdered, the three boys must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested.

Cover of Shadow Sister
Lily
Meade

When Casey's sister goes missing, Casey is forced to pretend Sutton was a perfect sister despite their dislike for each other, and when Sutton mysteriously returns with no memory of where she was Casey starts uncovering her sister's secrets.

Cover of Stateless
Elizabeth
Wein

Stella North is one of twelve young pilots competing in a 1937 air race meant to promote peace in Europe, but when one of her competitors is sabotaged, Stella races to determine who is capable of murder, and who might be the next victim.

Cover of A Study in Drowning
Ava
Reid

Effy Sayre has always believed in fairy tales. Her tattered copy of Angharad--Emrys Myrddin's epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, then destroys him--is the only thing keeping her afloat. So when Myrddin's family announces a contest to redesign the late author's estate, Effy feels certain it's her destiny.

Part historical fantasy, part rivals-to-lovers romance, part Gothic mystery, and all haunting, dreamlike atmosphere, Ava Reid's powerful YA debut will lure in readers who loved The Atlas Six, House of Salt and Sorrows, or Girl, Serpent, Thorn.

Cover of Threads That Bind
Kika
Hatzopoulou

In a world where the children of the gods inherit their powers, Io, a descendant of the Greek Fates, must solve a series of impossible murders to save her sisters, her soulmate, and her city.

 

YA Series

Cover of An Agathas Mystery
Kathleen Glasgow and
Liz Lawson

How do you solve a murder? Follow the lessons of the master--Agatha Christie! Iris and Alice find themselves in the middle of Castle Cove mysteries. 

Cover of A Good Girl’s Guide to M
Holly
Jackson

As her senior capstone project, Pippa Fitz-Amobi is determined to find the real killer in a closed, local murder case, but not everyone wants her meddling in the past.

Cover of The Inheritance Games
Jennifer Lynn
Barnes

When a Connecticut teenager inherits vast wealth and an eccentric estate from the richest man in Texas, she must also live with his surviving family and solve a series of puzzles to discover how she earned her inheritance.

Cover of Jane Austen Murder Mysteri
Tirzah
Price

The Jane Austen Murder Mysteries series are clever retellings of Austen's beloved novels that reimagines the iconic settings, characters, and romances in a thrilling and high-stakes whodunit.

Cover of Project Nemesis
Brendan
Reichs

As the Anvil, an enormous asteroid, threatens to end all life on Earth, sixteen-year-old Min begins to uncover a lifetime of lies, a sinister conspiracy involving all students in her sophomore class in Fire Lake, Idaho.

Cover of One of Us Is Lying
Karen M.
McManus

When the creator of a high school gossip app mysteriously dies in front of four high-profile students all four become suspects. It's up to them to solve the case.

Cover of Seven Faceless Saints
M.K.
Lobb

During Ombrazia's Second War of Saints, former friends Rossana Lacertosa and Damian Venturi--she is a rebel who wants to dismantle the corrupt system responsible for her father's death while he is the young head of security who serves the city and the saints with unswerving devotion--must work together to investigate murders within the city.

Cover of Truly Devious
Maureen
Johnson

The Truly Devious case--an unsolved kidnapping and triple murder that rocked Ellingham Academy in 1936--has consumed Stevie Bell for years. It's the very reason she came to the academy.