A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Gemma was raised in India but is sent back to England after she witnesses her mothers murder.  Not only does she see her mother get killed, but the way in which she is killed is so strange and mystical that she is haunted by the images.  She enrolls in an academy called Spence where the richest and most powerful families of England send their daughters to be raised.  As if starting a new school isn’t hard enough, Gemma starts having visions that become increasingly graphic and powerful.  Why is she having these visions?  Who will become her friend?  Will she ever solve her mothers murder?  Read A Great and Terrible Beauty to find out. Grade 8+

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Nobody “Bod” Owens is the sole survivor of the attack that killed both of his parents- but the knife was meant for him!  As a baby he crawled out of his crib and escaped the murderer by crawling to the graveyard.  Mr. and Mrs. Owens, who happen to be ghosts, take pity on him and raise him.  But how is  a living child raised in a graveyard?  And will the relentless killer ever find his true target?  Read The Graveyard Book to find out.

Shift by Jennifer Bradbury

Shift

Chris’s journey on a cross country bike
trip with best friend Win, after gradu-
ation, is described in alternating chap-
ters with Chris’s first year in college.
Win has disappeared late in the bike
trip, and Chris receives frequent visits
from an FBI agent hired by Win’s tyran-
ical father, who thinks Chris knows
something about Win’s whereabouts.
Strange postcards begin arriving
forcing Chris to make some hard de-
cisons. Trip descriptions put readers’
in the bicycle seat!

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd

 

The London Eye Mystery

The London Eye mystery is about a family who, while hosting relatives, loses one in the London Eye–a ride that soars above the city.  Two siblings, Ted and Cat, try to solve the mystery using eight theories that Ted has developed, plus the camera of the missing cousin.  This is a quick read, and page turner, and gives the reader a glimpse of what it would be like to live in London.  Ted has a “syndrome”  very similar to autism which makes the sleuthing rather humorous at times.

Shock Point by April Henry

Imagine getting kidnapped and taken to a juvenile rehab prison…Cassie Streng’s psychiatrist stepfather prescribed an experimental drug leading to the suicide of three of his patients. When Cassie tries to gather information about the teen deaths, he plants crystal meth in her bedroom and then persuades her mother to send her to “Peaceful Cove”. Coming home from school, Cassie gets handcuffed, thrown into a van, and driven to “Peaceful Cove” in Mexico.                                                                                          

First Shot by Walter Sorrells

If you want a book that keeps you guessing, this is the book for you! 

 

David’s mother was murdered two years ago, and his father, the head of the boarding school that David attends, is emotionally distant.  One night at about 3am, David hears a noise coming from downstairs. Before going downstairs, he peeks into his father’s room and finds that his father’s bed is made like his he never went to bed that night. He goes downstairs and sees his father coming up from out of the basement with a shovel and something long, wrapped in plastic. He follows his father and becomes convinced that his father had something to do with his mother’s death.

 

David becomes involved with a girl at his school and together they get to the bottom of this mystery. Just when he thought he had solved the mysery, he began to find out more information about his mother. His father was arrested after cops dug up the gun that his dad buried, but was his father the real murderer? Was there a secret that his mother was hiding all those years? To find out who really killed David’s mother, read First Shot by Walter Sorrells.  
Grade Level: 7 and up