YA Mystery & Crime
The YA Mystery & Crime Collection features selections about sleuths, spies, and the targets of their pursuits. Featuring gripping plotlines with plenty of twists and turns, these young adult selections explore themes such as safety and danger, guilt and innocence, and the search for truth and justice.
Acceleration (2003) is a young adult novel by Graham McNamee. Narrated in the first person, it tells the story of 17-year-old Duncan as he learns of a potential serial killer in his city and his attempt to stop him. It examines themes of guilt, forgiveness, mental health, poverty, and more. Plot SummaryThe story opens with 17-year-old Duncan working a two-month stint at a lost and found, his boss being a quiet man named Jacob. The... Read Acceleration Summary
After the First Death (1979) by Robert Cormier is a juvenile suspense/horror that examines the fragility of life through a terrorist hijacking of a bus full of children. The book in conjunction with Cormier’s two most famous teen titles, The Chocolate War (1974) and I Am the Cheese (1977), won him the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the Young Adult Services Division of the American Library Association in 1991. Cormier was born in 1925 and... Read After The First Death Summary
Allegedly (2017), a young adult contemporary novel by Tiffany D. Jackson, tells the story of Mary Beth Addison, an African American teenager who has spent the last six of her 15 years in custody for allegedly murdering a white baby, Alyssa Richardson. Currently, Mary lives in a group home in Brooklyn with her foster mother and five roommates, who at times, endanger Mary’s life. Mary’s mother, Dawn Cooper—Momma—struggles with mental illness, but she visits Mary... Read Allegedly Summary
Bryn Greenwood’s novel All the Ugly and Wonderful Things (2016) acknowledges and inverts the features of fairy tales and romance novels to depict a relationship that challenges accepted social values and questions the definition of love itself. Sunk in the depravity and degradation of her father’s drug-dealing lifestyle, eight-year-old Wavy finds her only solace in a questionable attachment to Kellen, a 24-year-old man who is also isolated and longing for some scrap of beauty in... Read All the Ugly and Wonderful Things Summary
A Perfect Spy is a 1986 spy novel by British author John le Carré. Described by the author as his most autobiographical work, the story involves the unexpected disappearance of British spy Magnus Pym after his father’s funeral. While hiding from his superiors, Pym reflects on his father’s influence and his lifetime spent lying to the world. A Perfect Spy has been adapted for television and radio. The story explores themes common to the world... Read A Perfect Spy Summary
Lauren Wolk’s historical novel Beyond the Bright Sea (2017) takes place in 1925. Its narrator, 12-year-old Crow, was put to sea alone in a boat just hours after her birth. Now, she lives on the Elizabeth Islands off the coast of Massachusetts with the solitary painter who found her, Osh. As Crow searches for clues about her birth family and origins, she also strengthens bonds with Osh and the world she has grown up in... Read Beyond the Bright Sea Summary
Christopher Paolini’s Brisingr, published in 2008, is a work of YA Fantasy. It is the third volume in a series of four books, including Eragon, Eldest, and Inheritance, which together form the Inheritance Cycle. While Eragon is the protagonist of this series, the chapters are presented from several different points of view, all in third person. In this text, narrators include Eragon, Saphira, Roran, and Nasuada. Plot Summary Brisingr opens with Eragon, Saphira, and Roran hiding... Read Brisingr Summary
Isabel Allende’s novel City of the Beasts tells the story of Alex Cold, a fifteen-year-old boy from California who accompanies his journalist grandmother on a life-altering journey through the Amazon. The narrative opens with Alex at home in California, angry and frightened over the illness of his mother, who is undergoing cancer treatment. When his mother gets a chance at receiving a promising new treatment in Texas, Alex’s parents send him to stay with his paternal grandmother, the adventurer... Read City of the Beasts Summary
Code Name Verity (2012), by Elizabeth Wein, operates on several levels: as a historical novel detailing the World War II exploits of two British women—a spy and a pilot—behind enemy lines in occupied France; as a thriller, with a twisting plot; and as a coming-of-age story for two women, who are still teenagers when they meet and become friends during the course of their war work.Plot SummaryThe first part of the novel takes place in... Read Code Name Verity Summary
Code of Honor is a 2015 young adult thriller by Alan Gratz, the author of the acclaimed Prisoner B-3087, among other novels. The book follows main character Kamran Smith after his brother, Army Ranger Darius Smith, is discovered cooperating with al-Qaeda. The novel deals with issues of Persian-American identity in the wake of 9/11, and the struggle of remaining loyal to the people one loves and trusts, even when the evidence is stacked up against... Read Code of Honor Summary
Code Orange is a young adult novel published in 2005 by the best-selling author Caroline B. Cooney. The main character is Mitty Blake, a lackluster high school student living in Manhattan. When he is assigned to write a research project on an infectious disease for biology class, he does as little as possible for his assignment, as always. But in the process of learning about smallpox, the disease he finally chooses, he discovers two smallpox... Read Code Orange Summary
Crime and Punishment is a novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, first published in 1866. The story charts the alienation of a student named Raskolnikov who decides to commit the perfect crime to philosophically proving his superiority over others. The novel traces the depths of his mental disintegration as he comes to grips with the psychological consequences of being a murderer, exploring themes like Alienation and Shame, Criminality, and The Necessity of Suffering.Dostoevsky, a stalwart... Read Crime and Punishment Summary
Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham, published in 2017, is a young adult novel that melds historical fiction with mystery, connecting the history of racialized violence in Tulsa, Oklahoma to contemporary issues of racism. The novel has won several awards, including Amazon Editor’s Picks: Best Books of the Year for Young Adults (2017), Best Books for Teens (2017), and Best of the Best Books in Teen Fiction (2017).Plot Summary The novel is a dual narrative, told in... Read Dreamland Burning Summary
Originally published in 2014, Fake ID is a mystery/thriller novel written by Lamar Giles and intended for young adults. The narrator and main character is Nick Pearson, a 15-year-old who has just moved to Stepton, Virginia, becoming a Black student in a predominantly white setting. Nick and his family are in the Federal Witness Protection Program (WITSEC). Unintentionally, he finds himself involved in a love triangle and a mysterious murder.As a Black author, Giles is... Read Fake ID Summary
The American writer Virginia C. Andrews was born Cleo Virginia Andrews, in Portsmouth, Virginia. Known popularly as V.C. Andrews, she became a novelist late in life, having previously worked as a commercial artist, illustrator, and portrait painter. Flowers in the Attic (1979), which she wrote an early draft of in 1975, became a bestseller, although The Washington Post declared the book “deranged swill” and Andrews possibly the “worst writer I have ever read.” However, for... Read Flowers In The Attic Summary
Found is the first book in The Missing series by New York Times bestselling author Margaret Peterson Haddix. This time-travel thriller, published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers in 2008, follows Jonah Skidmore and his best friend Chip Winston as they try to stay one step ahead of time and figure out where (or when) they came from. Found won over 10 awards, including the Buckeye Children’s Book Award, the Louisiana Young Reader’s... Read Found Summary
Full Tilt is a young adult psychological horror novel written by author Neal Shusterman. Shusterman has written over 30 books, many of which have won literary awards. He was born in New York City but moved to Mexico City as a teenager. From there, he studied psychology and theater at the University of California in Irvine. He is also a screenwriter for both television and film. Full Tilt earned over 20 literary awards after its... Read Full Tilt Summary
In Newbery medalist Louis Sachar’s sci-fi thriller Fuzzy Mud (2015), Tamaya and Marshall cut through the restricted woods behind their school to avoid a bully—but encounter a strange mud that has the potential to destroy nearly all life on Earth. While Marshall struggles with the emotional effects of being bullied, Tamaya develops an unusually aggressive rash from the mud and worries that in protecting Marshall she has gravely injured Chad. Each character faces difficult ethical... Read Fuzzy Mud Summary
Monica Hesse’s 2016 novel Girl in the Blue Coat was the winner of the Edgar Award for Best YA Mystery. Its events take place over two weeks in January 1943 during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. The narrator, Hanneke Bakker, is an 18-year-old girl who lost her boyfriend, Sebastian “Bas” Van de Kamp, two years before the events of the novel. As far as her parents know, Hanneke works as a receptionist for an undertaker... Read Girl in the Blue Coat Summary
Girl, Stolen (2010) is a young adult crime/thriller novel written by April Henry. It tells the story of Cheyenne Wilder, a blind 16-year-old girl who is abducted during a car theft, and of Griffin Sawyer, the teen who steals the car while unaware Cheyenne is inside it. The novel has received numerous awards since publication, including the Young Adult Library Services Association Best Fiction for Young Adults Award. The book was also selected as a... Read Girl, Stolen Summary
How it Went Down is a work of young adult fiction written in 2014 by award-winning author Kekla Magoon. Though a work of fiction, the pressing narrative deals with the “postmortem account of a tragic shooting” (Los Angeles Times), and as such, is a well-needed critique of social reform and racial bias.The narrative begins with the tragic death of a 16-year-old black male, Tariq Johnson. He’s shot and killed by Jack Franklin, a white male... Read How It Went Down Summary
I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga is a YA thriller published in 2012. The novel’s central character is Jasper “Jazz” Dent, son of the nation’s most notorious serial killer, Billy Dent. The novel is told from a limited third-person point of view, mostly from the perspective of Jazz; however, at certain points in the novel, the perspective shifts to that of the Impressionist, a new serial killer who has descended upon the small town of... Read I Hunt Killers Summary
Looking for Alaska is narrated by a sixteen-year-old boy, Miles Halter, who leaves behind his mundane life in Florida to attend a boarding school called Culver Creek. He is inspired by biographies detailing the adventures of notable figures during their days at boarding school. Most of all, he is motivated by the notion of a “Great Perhaps”. Miles has a fascination with famous last words, and particularly with the last words of the poet Francois... Read Looking for Alaska Summary
Looking for JJ is a young adult thriller by Anne Cassidy about a British teen struggling to piece together her life despite a dark secret: As a child, she murdered another child. First published in 2004, the novel was short-listed for the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Book Award and won the Booktrust Teenage Prize. Narrated from the offender’s perspective, the novel explores themes of guilt, justice, and forgiveness. Seventeen-year-old Alice Tully lives with her foster... Read Looking for JJ Summary
Jacob Portman believes he is ordinary and is fascinated with his extraordinary grandfather, Abraham Portman, during his childhood years. Grandpa Portman introduces Jacob to interesting stories about monsters and unusual pictures of peculiar children. As a child, Abraham escaped Nazi Germany to Wales, where he lived in a house with other children under the guidance of Headmistress Peregrine.The older Jacob becomes, however, the more disbelief he has toward his grandfather’s stories. Similarly, Jacob’s family thinks... Read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Summary
Monday’s Not Coming (2018) is a young adult novel by Tiffany D. Jackson. She employs a nonlinear narrative to explore issues of race, mental illness, and media bias. Claudia Coleman narrates the story of how her best friend, Monday Charles, disappeared for a year, and no one but Claudia seemed to notice or care.Published by Harper Collins, Monday’s Not Coming earned Jackson the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe award for new talent. It was also nominated... Read Monday's Not Coming Summary
One of Us is Lying is a 2017 young-adult thriller by Karen McManus that revolves around the suspicious death of Bayview High School senior Simon Kelleher, author of a gossip app called About That. The story is told from the alternating first person perspectives of four students who served detention with Simon when he died: Bronwyn, Cooper, Nate, and Addy. It explores themes about the corrosive impact of stereotyping and gossip, the value of empathy... Read One of Us is Lying Summary
Out of the Easy, written by Ruta Sepetys and published in 2013, is a young adult historical fiction novel. Sepetys is an award-winning Lithuanian American writer of young adult historical fiction. Her honors include the Carnegie Medal, awarded to one work of children’s or young adult literature per year. Her novels are international best sellers and are widely translated. Out of the Easy is about Josie, a teenage girl living in the French Quarter of... Read Out of the Easy Summary
John Green’s Paper Towns is a coming-of-age story that follows the lives of two childhood friends, the reserved Quentin Jacobsen and the legendary Margo Roth Spiegelman. Quentin says that every human being is graced with one miracle in their lifetime. His miracle is living next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman. He has spent a lifetime obsessing over her, though their friendship has cooled over the years. At the start of the novel, they are in... Read Paper Towns Summary
With the 2019 publication of his third novel Patron Saints of Nothing, Randy Ribay cemented his reputation as one of the new millennium’s most important and popular writers of young adult fiction. Ribay, a high school English teacher in San Francisco, was born in the Philippines but grew up in Michigan. His novels, coming-of-age stories praised for their hard-edged, street-hip lyricism, examine the implications of cultural identity and the problematic process of assimilation. In addition... Read Patron Saints of Nothing Summary