Kid Mystery Thrillers

Kidnapped by a cult of religious fanatics, an Austin school bus driver and 11 of his young charges have been held underground at the group's highly fortified compound for 46 days. While a team of federal negotiators begins to lose all hope of rescuing the hostages, crime reporter Molly Cates sets out to discover everything she can about the cult's iron-willed leader, Samuel Mordecai.

Turn back the clocks! Your sweet child has morphed into a teen. And it's no longer just a messy bedroom or an attitude with a capital "A" causing concern. There's a whole new range of issues on the horizon. What if your daughter texts a naked picture to a "boyfriend" ...which he then forwards to the entire class? What if your son becomes increasingly withdrawn...Or your child is being bullied online? Would you know what to do? You could read a whole book on teen psychology - but who has the time!

Two little girls were out playing a game of dares. Only one returned home. The 10-year-old told police what she saw: village loner Bill ‘Creepy’ Cawley dragged her friend into his truck and disappeared. No body was found, but her testimony sent Cawley to prison for murder. An open and shut case, the right man behind bars. The village could sleep safe once again. Now. Anna thought she had left Mapledon and her nightmares behind, but a distraught phone call brings her back to face her past. Thirty years ago, someone lied.

Young listeners are invited into a world where shadows dance and whispers echo through the night. This spine-tingling collection features ten chilling stories, each crafted to thrill and delight. From the mysterious figure lurking in the attic to the ghostly giggles heard in the woods, every tale is designed to send shivers down your spine while igniting your imagination.

When yet another attack leaves the students of Guilder University looking for answers, Aria decides to take matters into her own hands. Armed with a set of powers she'd vowed never to use, she follows the clues to the killer—only to find that nothing is as it seems.

Ellie “Scaredy Bat” Spark is a tween vampire that loves solving mysteries, but is afraid of...everything. She's afraid of spiders, clowns, and deep water, to name a few. And her pesky sister Penny never lets her forget it. But with a little courage and help from her friends, Ellie just might achieve her dream of becoming a real detective.

Scary Stories for Kids presents two classic chillers certain to spark the imaginations of boys and ghouls everywhere. "Staley Fleming's Hallucination" tells the story of a murderer and the ghostly image of the victim's loyal dog that seeks unspeakable revenge. "The Bottle Imp" recounts the story of Keawe, a young Hawaiian who comes into possession of a bottle that grants his every wish, but at a cost that may be higher than he wants to pay.

Beak-a-boo, it sees you! Cooper Klavan and his sister Anna are fishing with their parents at a woodland pond when they come across an injured bird. Anna, a huge animal lover, insists on taking it home to rehabilitate. But the bird really does not want to be rescued. It bites Anna, and scares Cooper. Soon, Anna is behaving very strangely. She's perching high up in trees, gathering sticks to hide in her room, and refusing to eat eggs-- once one of her favorite foods. Cooper doesn't want to jump to any conclusions, but his sister seems to be going to the birds.

Time is running out on a desperate rescue mission.... After an argument with her father, a sullen Lila Cooper boards an Air Force flight from Japan to the U.S. Her brooding is interrupted when a sudden hijacking leads to a scuffle and an explosion, causing the plane to plummet toward the Pacific Ocean. Trapped inside a secret weapons pod on the ocean floor, Lila can do nothing but pray that rescuers will find her before her oxygen supply runs out. Meanwhile, Jay Cooper and his father team up with journalist Meaghan Flaherty in a frantic struggle to beat a group of angry terrorists to the pod.

Daniel Redmayne is fast asleep on the first night of a white water rafting trip when he's awoken by screams. The dam has failed. The river is surging, and their camp will be under water in a matter of moments. As the shrieking roar of the river rushes closer, the kids scramble to higher ground. They make it; their counselors do not. Now they're on their own, with barely any food or supplies, in the middle of the Montana wilderness. Do Daniel and his four classmates have what it takes to stay alive until they can get rescued?

Thirteen-year-old Jack knows it’s his fault his baby sister almost died, and he also knows what saved her—Dr. Kingsbury’s “Miraculous Tonic.” Guaranteed to relieve maladies for man or beast, Dr. Kingsbury’s potion can cure everything from pimples to hearing loss to a broken heart, and Jack himself is a witness to the miraculous results and the doctor’s kindness.

The year is 1910. Nate Cooper is an old-school cowboy. He sees the change brought by the turn of the century and reckons none of it to be good. Even after spending nearly 30 years in a Montana prison for a wrongful murder conviction, Nate’s moral compass is true and unwavering: He does all the wrong things for all the right reasons. So when he returns to his northern Montana ranching town to find the Blackfoot Indians - the people he went to prison trying to defend - are still being cheated out of their territory by ranchers, Nate can’t rest on his laurels.

In this, the second of the Paul Jacobson geezer-lite mystery series, crotchety octogenarian Jacobson must solve two murders while struggling with the problems of his short-term memory loss. As Paul ends up suspiciously close to a bank robbery, kidnapping and drug bust, his granddaughter, Jennifer, helps him track down the real perpetrators.

The Game of Halloween in the Lost NeighborHood: The Cul-De-Sac Kids is a Creature Feature Romantic Adventure based on the screenplay inside the course book Prolific Screenwriter, a simple five-step outline reformatting course developed at UCLA Extension and taught at IUPUI.

Although his work is technically illegal, Hubie Schuze has no qualms with digging up ancient Native American artifacts. The government calls him a thief, but Hubie thinks of himself as a treasure hunter - and his latest quest could be his last. After lowering himself into a cave in search of Anasazi pottery, Hubie uncovers a long-dead corpse, buried where the Anasazi would never have left a body. As he puzzles over this discovery, he hears a chilling sound: his truck, left behind on the cliff face, being driven away.

An intricate twisted plot with moral ambiguity. Considered one of his best stories.

On Max's birthday, he finds a kind of magic mirror in the attic. It can make him invisible. So Max and his friends start playing "now you see me, now you don't." Until Max realizes that he's losing control. Staying invisible a little too long. Having a harder and harder time coming back. Getting invisible is turning into a very dangerous game. The next time Max gets invisible, will it be...forever?

You’re home alone, and there’s a knock on the door. You find two kids on the doorstep, and they demand you let them inside. But something is very wrong because their eyes are completely black. College professor and paranormal investigator Rand Casey doesn’t believe in the black-eyed kids. Stories of the alleged sinister, otherworldly kids knocking on doors and tricking people into letting them inside are unsubstantiated.

Bonnie Montgomery is the world’s greatest detective. Not that anyone—other than Grampa Banks—has heard of her. But they will have heard of Montgomery Bonbon, the gentleman detective with the bristly mustache, fashionable beret, and accent that’s hard to place. Montgomery Bonbon is responsible for solving many high-stakes crimes, including unmasking the Emmental Bandit, restoring the Rusakova diamonds to their rightful owner, and busting an international owl-smuggling ring, resulting in the arrest of over twelve owls.

In this audio collection of the complete Rayne Tour series, YA listeners and lovers of seatbelt suspense will enjoy the mysteries, secrets, and hazardous experiences of Shaley, the daughter of a rock star who finds herself in the midst of danger after a tour gone wrong. The Rayne Tour Audio Collection includes: Always Watching, Last Breath, and Final Touch.