Books and Stuff

Youth Mystery Stories

Creaky doors, a spooky graveyard, and mysterious things happening down at the old mill! There is nothing like a good mystery book.


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Easy Readers (K-2nd Grade):

J Easy Adler, David
Bones and the Cupcake Mystery (32 p., Lexile NA)
Detective Jeffrey Bones does not need fancy equipment to solve the mystery of the missing cupcake.

J PIC Bunting, Eve
Jane Martin, Dog Detective (44 p., Lexile 230)
A young girl solves three cases involving dogs.

J PIC Clement, Rod
Grandpa's Teeth (unpaged, AD530) 
Grandpa's teeth have disappeared, but Officer Rate is on the case.

J EASY Cushman, Doug (Green)
Inspector Hopper’s Mystery Year (63 p., Lexile NA)
Inspector Hopper and his partner McBugg solve a mystery in each season of the year.

J PIC Falconer, Ian
Olivia and the Missing Toy (32 p., Lexile AD210)
Olivia Pig is determined to find out who is responsible for her best toy disappearing.

J PIC Hurd, Thacher
Art Dog (unpaged, Lexile AD580)
Art Dog tracks down and captures art thieves for the Dogopolis Museum of Art.

J EASY James, Brian (Red)
The Supertwins and Tooth Trouble (unpaged, Lexile AD10)
Timmy and Tabby fly off in pursuit of a thief when their lost teeth placed under their pillows disappear and no money replaces them.

J EASY Levy, Elizabeth (Red)
The Mystery of the Missing Dog (unpaged, Lexile 410)
How do you find a lost invisible dog?

J EASY Napoli, Donna Jo (Red)
Sly the Sleuth and the Pet Mysteries (92 p., Lexile 310)
Sly the Sleuth solves three mysteries for her friends and neighbors, all involving pets, through her detective agency, Sleuth for Hire.

J EASY Nixon, Joan Lowery (Red)
Gus & Gertie and the Missing Pearl (48 p., Lexile 500)
Gertie's valuable deep sea pearl is missing, and a member of the Bad Guys Club did the dirty deed.

J PIC O’Malley, Kevin
Captain Raptor and the Moon Mystery (unpaged, Lexile NA)
The planet Jurassica is in an uproar. A UFO has crashed into the mysterious moon of Eon. Looks like a job for…Captain Raptor!

J EASY Skofield, James (Red)
Detective Dinosaur (46 p., Lexile 330)
Detective Dinosaur and Officer Pterodactyl are challenged to solve three cases when a hat is missing, a shoe squeaks, and a loud clanging comes from a dark alley at night.

Middle Readers (3rd-4th Grade):

J FIC Bauer, Marion Dane
The Blue Ghost (85 p., Lexile NA)
At her Grandmother’s log cabin, nine-year-old Liz is led to make contact with children she believes may be her ancestors.

J FIC Clements, Andrew
Room One: A Mystery or Two (162 p., Lexile 840)
Ted Hammond, the only sixth grader in his small Nebraska’s town one-room schoolhouse, searches for clues to the disappearance of a homeless family.

J FIC Curtis, Christopher Paul
Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money (151 p., Lexile 1010)
Steven Carter, his friend Russell, and Russell’s huge dog Zoopy solve the mystery of a quadrillion-dollar bill with the image of James Brown on it.

J FIC Howe, Deborah and James
Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery (92 p., Lexile 700)
Chester the cat tries to warn his human family that their foundling boy bunny must be a vampire.

J FIC Howe, James
Eat Your Poison, Dear: A Sebastian Barth Mystery (139 p., Lexile 630)
Young sleuth Sebastian and three friends probe the mystery of a poisoning in their school cafeteria.

J FIC Joosse, Barbara M.
Dead Guys Talk: A Wild Willie Mystery (100 p., Lexile NA)
The Scarface Detectives investigate when a mysterious client sends them to Oak Hill Cemetery where Loonie Loraine is buried.

J FIC Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds
Bernie Magruder and the Bats in the Belfry (130 p., Lexile NA)
Many residents of Middleburg, Indiana, are already going crazy from the ever-ringing church bells and now, after a bat is spotted in the hotel run by Bernie’s family, they worry that the dangerous Indiana Aztec bat has finally arrived.

J FIC Wright, Betty Ren
The Dollhouse Murders (149 p., Lexile 670)
A dollhouse with a ghostly light in the middle of the night and dolls that have moved from where she left them lead Amy and her sister to unravel the mystery surrounding grisly murders that took place years ago.

J FIC Wright, Betty Ren
Princess For a Week (105 p., Lexile 620)
When a confident girl named Princess arrives to spend a week at Roddy’s house, she encourages him to help her investigate the suspicious activities happening at a supposedly haunted house.

Older Readers (5th-6th Grade):

J FIC Abrahams, Peter
Down the Rabbit Hole: an Echo Falls Mystery (375 p., Lexile 680)
Like her idol Sherlock Holmes, eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill uses her intellect to solve a murder case in her home town of Echo Falls.

J FIC Balliett, Blue
Chasing Vermeer (254 p., Lexile 770)
When strange events happen and a precious Vermeer painting disappears, Petra and Calder combine their talents to solve an international art scandal.

J FIC Cassedy, Sylvia
Behind the Attic Wall (315 p., Lexile 860)
In the bleak, forbidding house of her great-aunts, neglected twelve-year-old orphan Maggie hears ghostly voices and finds magic that awakens in her the capacity to love and be loved

J FIC Colfer, Eoin
Half Moon Investigations (290 p., Lexile 620)
When Fletcher Moon is framed for a crime he did not commit, he must team up with the unlikeliest of allies, run from the authorities, and solve the case within twelve hours to clear his name.

J FIC Corbett, Scott
Witch Hunt (135 p., Lexile NA)
Sixteen-year-old Les and his best friend get involved in a murder case when they stumble across a coven of witches plotting revenge.

J FIC Ericson, Helen
Harriet Spies Again (230 p., Lexile 700)
Harriet the Spy is on the case and ready to help Ole Golly in any way she can.

J FIC Finney, Patricia
Conspiracy (197 p., Lexile 980)
The Royal Court is on its summer travels and Lady Grace is sure something strange is going on. As Queen Elizabeth narrowly escapes a series of mysterious accidents, Grace must investigate just who might be behind the conspiracy.

J FIC George, Jean Craighead
The Missing 'Gator of Gumbo Limbo: An Ecological Mystery (148 p., Lexile 740)
Sixth-grader Liza K., living in an unspoiled forest in southern Florida, searches for a missing alligator destined for official extermination.

J  FIC Hahn, Mary Downing
The Dead Man in Indian Creek (130 p., Lexile 820)
Were Parker's mom and her boyfriend involved in the dead man's murder?

J FIC Hiaasen, Carl
Flush (263 p., Lexile 830)
With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys home.

J PB Horowitz, Anthony
The Falcon’s Malteser: A Diamond Brothers Mystery (191 p., Lexile 640)
After his older brother, a fledgling private detective, agrees to safeguard a package for a dwarf who does not live long, thirteen-year-old Nick scampers to solve the mystery while trying to stay one step ahead of the thugs.

J FIC Irwin, Hadley
The Original Freddie Ackerman (183 p., Lexile 790)
Trevor is sent to Maine to stay with two eccentric great-aunts and gets involved with an unexpected mystery.

J FIC Nixon, Joan Lowery
Search for the Shadowman (149 p., Lexile 780)
While working on a genealogy project for his seventh grade history class, Andy Bonner becomes determined to solve the mystery surrounding a distant relative who was accused of stealing the family fortune.

J FIC Raskin, Ellen (Awards Area)
The Westing Game (185 p., Lexile 750)
The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death to claim their inheritance.

J FIC Roberts, Willo Davis
The View From the Cherry Tree (181 p., Lexile 770)
Rob accidentally witnesses a murder, but no one will believe him—except the murderer!

J FIC Smith, D.J.
The Boys of San Joaquin (231 p., Lexile NA)
In a small California town in 1951, twelve-year-old Paolo and his deaf cousin Billy get caught up in a search for money missing from the church collection, leading them to discoveries about themselves, other family members, and townspeople they thought they knew.

J FIC Springer, Nancy
The Case of the Missing Marquess: an Enola Holmes Mystery (216 p., Lexile 1020)
Enola Holmes, much younger sister of detective Sherlock Holmes, must travel to London in disguise to unravel the disappearance of her missing mother.

J FIC Yep, Laurence
The Case of the Goblin Pearls (179 p., Lexile 780)
Lily and her aunt, a Chinese American movie actress, join forces to solve the theft of some priceless pearls and stop the operator of a sweatshop in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

Click here to check the availability of a title in our online catalog.