Library Mysteries

The world is not what we think it is. The individuals whose experiences you are about to hear know that only too well, since nothing in their lives had prepared them for their encounters with things that are not supposed to happen - but did! Events like these remain hidden because those they happen to are afraid to speak out of a natural reluctance to have their sincerity or sanity questioned. Societies define their own realities and those who challenge them do so at their own peril. The moral seems to be that where these kinds of events are concerned, ignorance is the best policy.

Tessa is a Variant, able to absorb the DNA of anyone she touches and mimic their appearance. Shunned by her family, she’s spent the last two years training with the Forces with Extraordinary Abilities, a secret branch of the FBI. When a serial killer rocks a small town in Oregon, Tessa is given a mission: she must impersonate Madison, a local teen, to find the killer before he strikes again. Tessa hates everything about being an impostor - the stress, the danger, the deceit - but loves playing the role of a normal girl.

Cam's box camera disappears from the science fair, and valuable gold coins are missing from a coin shop. Can Cam's mental camera help catch the thief?

Milo Bolt is ready to be the hero of his own story. With Uncle Horatio trapped in an enchanted sleep by the power-hungry Alchemist, he sets off with his new friend Alessia to find a cure and save them all. Their journey leads them to the magical treehouse—home of the Botanist, the Alchemist’s sworn enemy. Against the clock, they hunt for the cure: foraging in the Secret Garden, challenging Robin Hood and confronting the mighty Jabberwock. But the Alchemist will stop at nothing to unlock the powerful secrets of The Book of Books.

Seventeen-year-old Aria Cayetano dreams of ghosts. She used to see them too, but thanks to a special tea brewed by her grandfather, Aria’s connection to the spirit world has been severed. Until a decades old rosebush suddenly dies across the street, convincing Aria that something supernatural is happening in her neighborhood. She aches to investigate it, but the rosebush sits on her ex-best friend Derek Johnson’s front lawn, and she can't question him because he hates her now.

For Jaime, returning to the tiny Vermont town of Saint Juniper means returning to a past he’s spent eight years trying to forget. After shuttling between foster homes, he hopes he can make something out of this fresh start. But every gossip in town already knows his business, and with reminders of his past everywhere, he seeks out solitude into the nearby woods, called Saint Juniper’s Folly, and does not return.

Bradley, Brian, Nate, and Lucy are looking forward to a New Year's Eve party. But someone is leaving clues that there might be more to this celebration than confetti and noisemakers. The year ends with a surprise in this exciting conclusion to the Calendar Mysteries series.

Alcatraz Island in the 1930s isn't the most normal place to grow up, but it's home for Moose Flanagan, his autistic sister, Natalie, and all the families of the guards. When Moose's dad gets promoted to Associate Warden, despite being an unlikely candidate, it's a big deal. But the cons have a point system for targeting prison employees, and his dad is now in serious danger. After a fire starts in the Flanagan's apartment, Natalie is blamed, and Moose bands with the other kids to track down the possible arsonist. Then Moose gets a cryptic note from the notorious Al Capone himself....

Not many kids have an island in their backyard, but suddenly, the Snolly sisters have three. They’re staying at Granddaddy’s seaside property for the summer, which includes the mysterious Fairy Islands: Fairy, Little Fairy, and Ghost. The people in Misty Cove call them “in-between places,” and say they’re full of magic—a magic that gets inside you. But ten-year-old Bee Snolly doesn’t believe in magic—she just wants to help her ill Granddaddy.

Eighteen-year-old Addie Blackwood regrets nothing more than one horrible, mistake-filled night last summer. Hours after she hurled the worst words she could think of at her sister, Fiona was found dead at the bottom of a ravine. The police ruled her death an accident, but Addie’s never bought it. Her ballet-prodigy sister didn’t slip and fall; she was pushed. And Addie’s number one suspect: Thatcher Montgomery, the rich kid down the street who always had a thing for Fiona. But when Thatcher is found dead in the same ravine, Addie must admit she was wrong.

An invitation from a liberal arts college to buy their mystery-novel collection comes as a welcome surprise for Raymond Ambler, crime-fiction curator at New York City's 42nd Street Library. But his pleasure quickly turns sour when the collection's curator—Sam Abernathy—tells him he plans to fight the acquisition tooth and nail. The collection would make a fine addition to his holdings, but Ambler's not looking for drama. But just a couple of weeks later, one of Abernathy's colleagues is shot dead from the library's roof, and all signs point to the crime-loving professor as the perpetrator.

It's 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma's reception there is a chilly one.

Danny didn’t know what she was looking for when she and her mother spread out a map of the United States and Danny put her finger down on Tempest, California. What she finds are the Grays: a group of friends who throw around terms like queer and witch like they’re ordinary and everyday, though they feel like an earthquake to Danny. But Danny didn’t just find the Grays. They cast a spell that calls her halfway across the country, because she has something they need.

Francie Vespertine has lived all her life in a supernatural town full of powerful witches, but her own magic is lackluster at best. The only place she fits in is the Magical Archives. Head librarian (and bookworm extraordinaire) might be a boring job . . . if it wasn't for the ghosts of fictional characters haunting the shelves.

Driven to the point of obsession to find his missing younger brother, Teddy, and wrapped up in a romance that may or may not be the real thing, Miles is forever chasing shadows. As Miles feels his world closing around him, he struggles to keep it open, but what you think you know about his world is actually a blur of gray, and the sharp focus of reality proves startling.

In the town of Placid, Wisconsin, in 1871, Georgie Burkhardt is known for two things: her uncanny aim with a rifle and her habit of speaking her mind plainly. But when Georgie blurts out something she shouldn't, her older sister Agatha flees, running off with a pack of "pigeoners" trailing the passenger pigeon migration. And when the sheriff returns to town with an unidentifiable body - wearing Agatha's blue-green ball gown - everyone assumes the worst.... Except Georgie.

A mysterious epidemic holds the city in its thrall and the chaos is contagious. Black oil spews from fire hydrants, rats have taken over Brooklyn, and every day more people disappear. But all that matters to Pearl, Moz, and Zahler is their new band. They ignore the madness around them and join forces with a vampire lead singer and a drummer whose fractured mind can glimpse the coming darkness. Will their music stave off the end of the world...or summon it?

After leaving the Sanguine Spa in pursuit of Edgaren't, the kids find themselves at a mysterious summer camp, Camp Creek. There are lake games and happy counselors, and there's even a tie-dye cabin. It's all very . . . normal. But if Theo and Alexander know one thing, it's that normal doesn't always mean good. When everyone around her starts acting strange, Theo wonders if maybe the fumes from the tie-dye cabin are seeping into their brains, and she resolves to investigate what's really going on at Camp Creek.

Every year, the senior class at Lincoln High plays assassin. Lia Prince has been planning her strategy for years, and she's psyched that not only does she finally get to play, she's on a team with Devon Diaz. But this year, the game isn't any fun - it's real. Abby Ascher, Ben Barnard, and Cassidy Clarke have all turned up...dead. Can Lia stop the ABC killer before he reaches D?

When a group of six strangers who have only ever spoken on a creepy Deddit thread decide to meet IRL, they have one plan in mind: they are going to play The Midnight Game and summon the Midnight Man. Rules of the game are simple: Do not turn on the lights. Do not go to sleep. Do not leave the building. And once you start the game, you must finish it—there's no other way out.