Mystery Girl

Harmon Cooper presents Book 8 in the Cherry Blossom Girls series.

A stingy ex-husband, a teenage daughter, and a rusted-out Ford Escort have multiplied her troubles. Tripping over a dead body while on her morning jog seems like another incident for the minus column. But then her new editor at the newspaper gives her a regular column detailing the investigation. He's handsome, single, and just a bit mysterious. Suddenly, Colleen's life is on the plus side.

Edgar Award-winning author Nancy Springer captivates young listeners with mysteries that feature Sherlock Holmes’ little sister Enola. Abandoned by her mother and fearing her brothers will exile her to a finishing school, 14-year-old Enola lives a lonely London existence. But when someone kidnaps her elderly landlady—the closest thing she has to family these days—the feisty heroine will do whatever it takes to find her.

After witnessing many tragedies throughout her life and solving cases that appeared unsolvable, FBI Agent Emma Griffin learned the importance of following her instincts and questioning everything she sees. When Bellamy brings a case that involves a sorority sister from Bellamy’s past, Emma finds herself thrown into a case involving a possible mysterious illness. An illness that took the life of a young woman. To others, the mystery seems to have solved itself. But Emma isn’t convinced that all is as it appears.

ALA Schneider Family Book Award-winning author Wendy Mass offers this tasty treat of a tale sure to appeal to any listener’s sweet tooth. The Candymakers follows 12-year-olds Logan, Philip, Daisy, and Miles as each tries to invent a candy even better than the Oozing Crunchorama. But with these contestants—who can detect chocolate by touch and lift 50 lbs. of taffy as if it weighed no more than a loaf of bread—it’s going to be a close race.

Sage and her sister won’t make it home from school today. Neither will the other children on Bus 315. But that’s only the beginning of the nightmare. New bus driver Jessa blames herself for what happened. She couldn’t protect the kids she was supposed to deliver to daycare, just like she couldn’t protect her own daughter three years ago. But this time, everything will be different. It has to be.

Tessa McCaide has a unique talent for getting into trouble. Then again, it isn’t easy for a girl with psychic visions to ignore what she sees. Luckily Tessa and her family are leaving California and moving halfway across the country, giving her the perfect opportunity to leave her reputation as “Freaky Tessa” behind. But Tessa doesn’t realize that kissing the wrong guy in her new Texas town could land her in far more trouble than she ever imagined. Like being forced to attend St. Ailbe’s Academy, a secret boarding school for werewolves.

Dear Diary... All I wanted to do was buy a new book, read, and relax. But when Bess, George, and I visited the local bookstore in Avondale, we found it in flames, and before we knew it, we were in the middle of another mystery. Or was it the middle of one of the best-selling author Lacey O'Brien's books? I know it sounds really strange, but it seemed like mysteries in her books were coming alive: first the fire; next a sinking boat; and then a missing statue. Were these innocent coincidences or chilling crimes?

Greta Green didn’t take the job at her local amusement park, Hyper Kid Magic Land, to be a star, she did it to reinvent herself. After the incident last year, Hyper Kid is her fresh start, and she is going to become the best employee they have ever had…whatever it takes. When fate pulls Greta into the orbit of Mercy Goodwin, star of the park’s most popular show, it feels like things are looking up. Beautiful and confident, Mercy dazzles audiences daily. And at the first party of the summer, she picks Greta to confide in.

When her 13-year-old sister vanishes on her way back from a friend’s house, Detective Kaitlyn Carr must confront demons from her own past in order to bring her sister home. The small mountain town of Big Bear Lake is only three hours away—but a world away from Kaitlyn's life in Los Angeles. It’s the place she grew up and the place that’s plagued her with lies, death, and secrets. As Kaitlyn digs deeper into the murder that she is investigating and her sister's disappearance, she finds out that appearances are misleading, and few things are what they seem.

Tess has been determined to get revenge for her father, ever since he was falsely accused of misusing company funds and unceremoniously let go from Diamond Enterprises. Applying to be Executive Assistant to the elusive, elderly head of the company, Mr. King, seems the ideal way to get inside the firm and clear his name. But the job interview is not what she expects. Arriving at the company HQ, she is escorted to a helicopter, blindfolded and flown to a secret location. She meets a man whose voice is disguised, but introduces himself as Mr. King and says the job advertisement was a ruse.

Precious Ramotswe gets a very special treat. She gets a trip to visit her Aunty Bee at a safari camp. On her first day in camp, a new lion arrives. But this is no average lion: Teddy is an actor-lion who came with a film crew. When Teddy escapes, Precious and her resourceful new friend Khumo decide to use their detective skills to help track him. They will brave the wilds of the bush - and its hippos and crocodiles - as they try to find where Teddy has gone.

FBI Agent Ella Dark has studied serial killers from the time she could read, devastated by the murder of her own sister, and has gained an encyclopedic knowledge of murderers. But when Ella investigates a murder and realizes this is no ordinary dead body, she is at a loss: It’s pieced together with parts of multiple victims. How many people has this killer killed? And can Ella discover who did this—and why—before time runs out?

Elise knows every inch of the house. She knows which boards will creak. She knows where the gaps are in the walls. She knows which parts can take her in, hide her away. It’s home, after all. The home her parents made for her, before they were taken from her in a car crash. And home is where you stay, no matter what. Eddie is a teenager trying to forget about the girl he sometimes sees out of the corner of his eye. But when his hotheaded older brother senses her, too, they are faced with the question of how to get rid of someone they aren’t sure even exists.

When a local girl falls prey to a sadistic serial killer, Nashville homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson and her lover, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, find themselves in a joint investigation pursuing a vicious murderer. The Southern Strangler is slaughtering his way through the Southeast, leaving a gruesome memento at each crime scene – the prior victim’s severed hand.

A professor shows a colleague a painting that he has kept secret for decades. The professor swears it is a Vermeer - but why has he hidden this important work for so long? The reasons unfold in a series of stories that trace ownership of the painting back to World War II and Amsterdam, and still further back to the moment of the work's inspiration.

FBI Agent Nell Flynn hasn't been home in 10 years. Nell and her father, Homicide Detective Martin Flynn, have never had much of a relationship. When Martin Flynn dies in a motorcycle accident, Nell returns to the house she grew up in so that she can spread her father's ashes and close his estate. At the behest of her father's partner, Detective Lee Davis, Nell becomes involved in an investigation into the murders of two young women in Suffolk County. The further Nell digs, the more likely it seems to her that her father should be the prime suspect.

Victims of a new serial killer are found with strings, tied up to look like puppets. What is the killer hinting at? Who will he strike next? But time is running out, and Maya’s sister’s life is on the line. Can she solve the case in time? Or has she finally met her match?

Rachel has been in love with Alistair for fifteen years. Even though she’s now married to someone else. Even though she was a teenager when they met. Even though he is twenty years older than her. Rachel and Alistair’s summer love affair on a remote, sun-trapped Greek island has consumed her since she was seventeen, obliterating everything in its wake. But as Rachel becomes increasingly obsessed with reliving the events of so long ago, she reconnects with the other girls who were similarly drawn to life on the island.

Revised edition: This edition of The Casquette Girls includes editorial revisions.