YA Mystery and Crime Fiction

 

Whether your interests are in solving a mystery or getting into the mind of a criminal, these titles have something for you, from missing persons to murder to a touch of the supernatural.


Compiled by:
Chris H.
Ace of Spades

Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Abike)

Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, two students at Niveus Private Academy, are selected to be part of the elite school's senior class prefects and struggle against an anonymous bully who reveals all of their secrets.


After the Fire

Will Hill
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Hill)

Moonbeam, seventeen, survives a devastating confrontation between government forces and the cult she grew up in, but will need a lot of help to heal mentally, emotionally, and physically.


All Your Twisted Secrets

Diana Urban
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Urban)

What do the queen bee, star athlete, valedictorian, stoner, loner, and music geek all have in common? They were all invited to a scholarship dinner, only to discover it's a trap. Someone has locked them into a room with a bomb, a syringe filled with poison, and a note saying they have an hour to pick someone to kill, or else everyone dies.


The Athena Protocol

Shamim Sarif
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Sarif)

Jessie Archer is a member of the Athena Protocol, an elite organization of female spies who enact vigilante justice around the world. Athena operatives are never supposed to shoot to kill--so when Jessie can't stop herself from pulling the trigger, she gets kicked out of the organization, right before a huge mission to take down a human trafficker in Belgrade. Jessie needs to right her wrong and prove herself, so she starts her own investigation into the trafficking.


The Blackthorn Key

Kevin Sands
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Sands)

In 1665 London, fourteen-year-old Christopher Rowe, apprentice to an apothecary, and his best friend, Tom, try to uncover the truth behind a mysterious cult, following a trail of puzzles, codes, pranks, and danger toward an unearthly secret with the power to tear the world apart.


Burn Our Bodies Down

Rory Power
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Power)

Margot doesn't know anything about her family, beyond her quiet life with her mother. But she wants more and when she finds a clue that leads her to a town called Phalene, she leaves to investigate. Only Phalene and her family history are full of secrets, some that may prove more dangerous and deadly than Margot ever could have bargained for.


The Case of the Left-Handed Lady: An Enola Holmes Mystery

Nancy Springer
(Juvenile Fiction - J Springe)

Pursued by her much older brother, famed detective Sherlock Holmes, fourteen-year-old Enola, disguised and using false names, attempts to solve the kidnapping of a baronet's sixteen-year-old daughter in nineteenth-century London.


The Cheerleaders

Kara Thomas
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Thomas)

Five years ago all the Sunnybrook cheerleaders died. The faculty and students at want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But Monica just wants to forget, her sister Jen was the last to die. Whatever happened five years ago isn't over, some people in town know more than they're saying, and no-one else is safe.


City of Saints and Thieves

Natalie Anderson
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Anderso)

Sixteen-year-old Tina and two friends leave Kenya and slip into the Congo, from where she and her mother fled years before, seeking revenge for her mother's murder but uncovering startling secrets.


Contagion

Erin Bowman
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Bowman)

After receiving a distress call from a drill team on a distant planet, a skeleton crew is sent into deep space to perform a standard search-and-rescue mission. When they arrive, they find the planet littered with the remains of the project including its members dead bodies. As they try to piece together what could have possibly decimated an entire project, they discover that some things are best left buried.


The Diviners

Libba Bray
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Bray)

17-year-old Evangeline O'Neill can divine information from objects, something that embarrasses her Midwestern parents, and is therefore promptly sent to stay with her uncle who owns a museum of folklore and the occult in 1920s Manhattan. Evie enjoys both the speakeasy nightlife and being involved in the other-worldly murders.


Firekeeper's Daughter

Angeline Boulley
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Boulley)

Daunis, who is part Ojibwe, defers attending the University of Michigan to care for her mother and reluctantly becomes involved in the investigation of a series of drug-related deaths.


Ghost Wood Song

Erica Waters
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Waters)

Shady Grove inherited her father's ability to call ghosts from the grave with his fiddle, but she also knows the fiddle's tunes bring nothing but trouble and darkness. But when her brother is accused of murder, she can't let the dead keep their secrets.


A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Holly Jackson
(Young Adult Fiction - Y 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.


Greenglass House

Kate Milford
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Milford)

At Greenglass House, a smuggler's inn, twelve-year-old Milo, the innkeepers' adopted son, plans to spend his winter holidays relaxing but soon guests are arriving with strange stories about the house, sending Milo and Meddy, the cook's daughter, on an adventure.


I Hope You're Listening

Tom Ryan
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Ryan)

Dee secretly hosts a popular true-crime podcast but when a missing child seems linked to the disappearance of her best friend ten years ago, she considers revealing her identity to uncover the truth.


I Know You Remember

Jennifer Donaldson
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Donalds)

After moving back to Anchorage and discovering the mysterious disappearance of her best friend, high school senior Ruthie embarks on a search that reveals dark secrets.


The Inheritance Games

Jennifer Lynn Barnes
(Young Adult Fiction - Y 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.


The Initial Insult

Mindy McGinnis
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Mcginni)

Ostracized by the elite community of Amontillado, Ohio, after the disappearance of her parents, Tress organizes a Halloween costume party at an abandoned house, where she launches a macabre plan to force a popular former friend to confess what she knows.


It Ends With You

SK Wright
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Wright)

Everyone loves Eva, so when her dead body is found in a ditch in the local woods the only thing anyone wants to know is: Who could have done this? Even though the picture is incomplete, the pieces fit. But as time passes, stories change


The Last Confession of Autumn Casterly

Meredith Tate
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Tate)

When Autumn Casterly goes missing after a drug deal gone wrong, her estranged younger sister, Ivy, searches for her, uncovering dark secrets along the way.


The Marvelous

Claire Kann
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Kann)

Chosen to compete in a mystery treasure hunt at the private estate of the creator of a massively popular video-sharing app, three girls soon realize that they are playing for more than just money--they are playing for their lives.


Monday's Not Coming

Tiffany Jackson
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Jackson)

When her friend Monday Charles goes missing and Monday's mother refuses to give her a straight answer, Claudia digs into her disappearance.


The Murderer's Ape

Jakob Wegelius
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Wegeliu)

When her best friend, the sailor Henry Koskela, is falsely accused of murder, a gorilla named Sally Jones visits therun-down docks of Lisbon, embarks on a dizzying journey across the seven seas, and calls on the Maharaja of Bhapur's magnificent court--all in an attempt to clear Henry's name.


The Name of the Star

Maureen Johnson
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Johnson)

This creepy and atmospheric mystery follows Rory who leaves her Louisiana home to attend boarding school in modern-day London. Recent Jack the Ripper-like murders have been taking place and Rory gets caught up in this supernatural investigation.


No True Believers

Rabiah York Lumbard
(Juvenile Fiction - J Lumbard)

High school senior Salma Bakkioui, who has a connective tissue disorder, faces prejudice and hidden danger, especially after being framed for a Muslim terrorist act she did not commit.


People Like Us

Dana Mele
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Mele)

Kay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet, but the past is past, and she's reinvented herself entirely. Now she's a star soccer player whose group of gorgeous friends run their private school with effortless popularity and acerbic wit. But when a girl's body is found in the lake, Kay's carefully constructed life begins to topple. 


The Riverman

Aaron Starmer
(Juvenile Fiction - J Starmer)

The first book in a trilogy about a girl who claims she is visiting a parallel universe where a nefarious being called The Riverman is stealing the souls of children and the boy she asks to write her biography because she fears her soul may be next.


Shelter

Harlan Coben
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Coben)

Coben writes a popular mystery series for adults featuring Myron Bolitar. In this series for teens, Coben focuses on Bolitar's nephew Mickey who has come to live with him after a tragic accident. Mickey's new girlfriend goes missing and in the course of his investigation he discovers that everything he thought he knew about her was false.


She's Too Pretty to Burn

Wendy Heard
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Heard)

When Veronica's photograph of her introverted girlfriend goes viral, they are sent into a spiral of fame and lethal danger as they navigate the turbulent waters of their relationship, secrets, acclaim, and the underground San Diego art scene.


Six of Crows

Leigh Bardugo
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Bardugo)

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction--if they don't kill each other first.


The Starlight Claim

Tim Wynne-Jones
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Wynnejo)

Four months after his best friend, Dodge, disappeared near their families' camp in a boat accident, Nate secretly decides to brave the trip solo in a journey that's half pilgrimage, half desperate hope he will find his missing friend when no one else could. What he doesn't expect to find is the camp occupied by strangers.. As things spiral out of control, Nate finds himself dealing with questions even bigger than who gets to leave the camp alive


A Study in Charlotte

Brittany Cavallaro
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Cavalla)

Jamie Watson has always been intrigued by Charlotte Holmes; after all, their great-great-great-grandfathers are one of the most infamous pairs in history. She’s inherited Sherlock’s volatility and some of his vices—and when Jamie and Charlotte end up at the same Connecticut boarding school, Charlotte makes it clear she’s not looking for friends. But when a student they both have a history with dies under suspicious circumstances, Jamie can no longer afford to keep his distance. Danger is mounting and nowhere is safe—and the only people they can trust are each other.


The Sullivan Sisters

Kathryn Ormsbee
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Ormsbee)

The once tight bond among sisters Murphy, Claire and Eileen, disappears as each deals with a personal setback. A letter arrives informing them of a dead uncle and an inheritance they knew nothing about. Now they must band together in the face of a sinister family mystery... and possibly murder.


The Taking of Jake Livingston

Ryan Douglass
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Douglass)

When a murderous ghost begins to haunt sixteen-year-old Jake Livingston, high school soon becomes a different kind of survival game.


Truly Devious

Maureen Johnson
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Johnson)

When Stevie Bell, an amateur detective, begins her first year at a famous private school in Vermont, she sets a plan to solve the cold case involving the kidnapping of the founder's wife and daughter shortly after the school opened. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym "Truly, Devious."


What Beauty There Is

Cory Anderson
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Anderso)

Jack Dahl has nothing left except his younger brother, Matty. Now with their mother gone, and their funds quickly dwindling, Jack needs to make a choice: lose his brother to foster care, or find the drug money that sent his father to prison.


When the Ground is Hard

Malla Nunn
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Nunn)

At Swaziland's Keziah Christian Academy, Adele is forced to share a room with Lottie, the school pariah, but the two eventually bond over a copy of Jane Eyre. Together they take on bullies and protect each other from the vindictive and prejudiced teachers. Then a boy goes missing on campus and Adele and Lottie must rely on each other to solve the mystery.


Wild and Crooked

Leah Thomas
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Thomas)

Kalyn, living under a pseudonym, and Gus, who has cerebral palsy, get caught in an uproar in Samsboro, Kentucky as the truth about the brutal murder of Gus's father by Kalyn's comes to light.