Library Mysteries

Beginning readers are introduced to the detective mystery genre in these chapter books. Perfect for the Common Core, kids can problem-solve with Nate, using logical thinking to solve mysteries!

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.

It was all too frighteningly familiar. For the second time in his life, Alex Penn wakes up in an alcoholic daze in a cheap hotel room off Times Square and finds himself lying next to the savagely mutilated body of a young woman. After the first death, he was convicted of murder and imprisoned, then released on a technicality. But this time he has to find out what happened during the blackout and why, before the police do.

Alyson is a romantic, and sometimes it gets her into trouble. Like last summer, she thought her co-worker was into her, when in reality he found her flirting pathetic. Then she meets Brenton Riggs Jr., and right away she knows that their connection isn’t just in her head. When he swoops in to save her one night from a less than savory party encounter, she falls head-over-heels. Finally, someone Alyson likes who likes her back!

When JJ Jacobson convinced his mom to accept a surprise invitation to an all-expenses-paid weekend getaway at the illustrious Barclay Hotel, he never imagined that he'd find himself in the midst of a murder mystery. He thought he was in for a run-of-the-mill weekend ghost hunting at the most haunted spot in town, but when he arrives at the Barclay Hotel and his mother is blamed for the hotel owner's death, he realizes his weekend is going to be anything but ordinary.

Kids who enjoy looking up at space and dreaming of exploring the solar system will love this lively, fact-filled tour of our galaxy, with engaging information.

Ex-best friends Naya Morgan and Yana Bunpraserit have always felt like outsiders in their small Oklahoma town. But this year, everything changes when they’re inducted into an exclusive society of Yatesville High’s top recent graduates. Unimaginable opportunities await them, starting with a celebratory yacht trip to Bermuda. Despite the likely onslaught of microaggressions and backhanded compliments from their peers—in addition to their own rocky past—Yana and Naya are ready for an epic voyage. Then one of their classmates is brutally murdered.

The town is building a new park for a panda and her baby. But as soon as the pandas arrive, the baby is stolen! All the panda-nappers want in return is a million dollars.... Can Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose collar the culprits before Green Lawn has to cough up the cash?

Zach, Poppy, and Alice have been friends forever. And for almost as long, they’ve been playing one continuous, ever-changing game of pirates and thieves, mermaids and warriors. Ruling over all is the Great Queen, a bone-china doll cursing those who displease her. But they are in middle school now. Zach’s father pushes him to give up make-believe, and Zach quits the game. Their friendship might be over, until Poppy declares she’s been having dreams about the Queen - and the ghost of a girl who will not rest until the bone-china doll is buried in her empty grave.

At St. Aidan the Great School, or S.T.A.G.S., new things - and new people - are to be avoided. The prestige of the students' bloodlines seem surreal to Greer MacDonald. A scholarship student who recently transferred to S.T.A.G.S., Greer is ignored at best and mocked at worst by the school's most admired circle of friends, the Medievals. Greer is taken by surprise when the Medievals send her an invitation to an exclusive weekend retreat at a private family estate. But beyond the weekend's luxurious trappings, predators are lurking.

Benji and Red couldn't be more different. They aren't friends. They don't even live in the same town. But their fates are entwined. A chance meeting leads the boys to discover that they have more in common than meets the eye. Both of them have encountered a strange presence in the forest, watching them, tracking them. Could the Madman of Piney Woods be real?

Teardrop launches a new series from Lauren Kate, author of the #1 New York Times best-selling Fallen series. Haunting, mysterious, romantic and steeped in mythology, Teardrop is the epic saga of Eureka Boudreaux, a 17-year old Louisiana girl whose tears have the power to raise the lost continent of Atlantis . . . a world where everything you love can be washed away.

Ember Morrow was promised to the knights of Conatus at birth, her life traded for her mother's. So when the horsemen come for her, soon after her 16th birthday, Ember's not surprised. What does surprise her, though, is the magic the knights wield, the demons they hunt, and the feelings she has for Barrow Hess, the powerful man she serves. When the knights realize that one among them is dabbling in dark magic, danger heightens and Ember must choose whether to follow the path to darkness or to escape the order and pledge her life to destroying her fellow knights.

Digging for peat in the mountain with his Uncle Tally, Fergus finds the body of a child, and it looks like she’s been murdered. As Fergus tries to make sense of the mad world around him - his brother on hunger-strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora, his parents arguing over the Troubles, and him in it up to the neck, blackmailed into acting as courier to God knows what - a little voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the bog child unfurls.

Indie has spent the last few weeks frantically searching for Paige. She's tried every spell imaginable, but witchcraft has gotten her nowhere, and she's going crazy with guilt. Despite what her warlock boyfriend, Bishop, tells her, Indie knows it's her fault her best friend was kidnapped by the Priory. And with the Priory destroyed, finding Paige feels more hopeless than ever - especially when Indie discovers that Paige isn't even on Earth.

San Francisco, 1900. The Gilded Age. A fantastic time to be alive for lots of people...but not 13-year-old Lizzie Kennedy, stuck at Miss Barstow's snobby school for girls. Lizzie's secret passion is science, an unsuitable subject for finishing-school girls. Lizzie lives to go on house calls with her physician father. On those visits to his patients, she discovers a hidden dark side of the city - a side that's full of secrets, rats, and rumors of the plague.

In Act III of Newbery Medalist Cynthia Voigt’s Mister Max trilogy, the solutioneer sets off to rescue his missing parents! Ever since Max’s parents were spirited away on a mysterious ship, he has longed to find them. He’s solved case after case for other people in his business as “solutioneer”. And he’s puzzled out the coded messages sent by his father. He doesn’t know exactly what’s happened, but he knows his parents are in danger - and it’s up to Max to save them. Max and his friends (and a few old foes) don disguises and set sail on a rescue mission.

Hard-boiled crime writer Will Ford might be critically acclaimed, but he's every bit as drunken and disreputable as the ne'er-do-well private eye in his novels. So when Ford offers Raymond Ambler—crime-fiction curator at New York City's prestigious 42nd Street Library—a collection of his papers, Ambler wonders if the project will be more trouble than it's worth. Still, the disgraced author is an important talent, and Ambler's never been afraid of a fight. Ambler's ready for the controversy that greets news of the acquisition.

Mike and Kate travel to Minneapolis to meet the Minnesota Twins' star players: Marco and Pedro, a dynamic twin duo known for their signature triple plays. But after a water-balloon attack on the players and a suspect on the run, questions start to pile up. Is someone trying to mess with Marco and Pedro's chances of making the playoffs? As Mike and Kate investigate, they meet Polly and Molly, twin Minnesota locals who lend a helping hand - or two. With new friends by their side, can Mike and Kate solve this mystery?

The A-team takes A-Town! Mike and Kate are in Atlanta, where Hammerin' Hank hit his legendary 715th home run. But Hank's historic bat and ball, which he used to break Babe Ruth's record, have been stolen! Good thing Mike and Kate are sleuthing pros. Can the cousins track down Hank Aaron's missing treasurs...before it's gone forever?