Something Rotten
Alan Gratz
Book summary
This is a mystery built around an investigation by two friends. Suspicion falls broadly across the town, while the pollution and the poisoning provide a grim backdrop to their search.
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Alan Gratz
This is a mystery built around an investigation by two friends. Suspicion falls broadly across the town, while the pollution and the poisoning provide a grim backdrop to their search.
Frank Bonham
A club-saving mystery driven by four friends’ attempt to secure money intended for their Boys Club.
Ann M. Martin
The mystery centres on the callers’ silence and Claudia’s suspicion. The group’s investigation has “mixed results”, though what those involve is not specified.
Holly Jackson
This is a murder mystery centred on Pip’s effort to reassess a closed case. The investigation brings buried secrets and suspicion into a town still affected by the deaths.
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
This is a crime mystery built around a team investigation, an unusual pattern of killings and a code to decipher. The stakes rise as the investigators get closer to an answer.
Leslie McFarlane
This is a clue-led detective adventure, combining a stolen key, a hidden deed and a second case involving the brothers’ father.
Marybeth Kelsey
The setup has a comic contrast between Lindy’s dislike of cucumbers and the festival’s cucumber dishes, with an unsupervised goose adding to the mix.
Carole Boston Weatherford, Floyd Cooper
A concise illustrated account of racial violence in Tulsa, centred on the 1921 massacre and its consequences for Black families and Greenwood.
Victor Appleton II, James Duncan Lawrence
This is an invention-led adventure, combining jungle hazards with a mystery about ancient carvings and possible contact from space.
Wendelin Van Draanen
A paired mystery links a church theft investigation with a missing softball mitt, as Sammy navigates suspicion and intrigue in both settings.
Jeri Massi
This is a farm-set mystery about loose llamas, unexplained events and a telescope that may be watching the group. The children investigate, with Jean eventually joining the team.
Estelle Laure
This fantasy mystery combines a missing-person investigation with a city divided over the loss of magic. Mary Elizabeth’s close relationships are also drawn into the case.
Diane Stanley
A boarding-school mystery about belonging, conformity and noticing when a prestigious institution’s promises may come at a cost.
Robert Lawrence Stine
A fast-moving horror mystery places two newcomers inside a cheerleading squad beset by danger. Its central appeal is suspense: the sisters must work out what is happening while the threat to the team escalates.
Robert B. Parker
A straightforward mystery with a teenage investigator, a friendship that supports the enquiry, boxing as a recurring motif, and danger that increases as questions are asked. It offers clues, action and school intrigue rather than an unusually experimental structure.
Paul Boyce
This is a period mystery adventure built around collaborative problem-solving. Expect several cases, historical technology and questions about honesty, responsibility and justice, with community-minded values prominent in the characters’ world.
Leslie McFarlane
A fast-moving detective adventure set around an extreme theme park, combining sabotage, undercover investigation, skateboarding and danger. The central mystery may appeal to readers who enjoy action, clues and continuing series storylines.
Leslie McFarlane
A fast-moving Hardy Boys mystery combines exploration, investigation and danger. Frank and Joe follow the mystery of a swallowed statue into tunnels and an abandoned underground city, where a criminal group threatens Bayport.
Michele Martin Bossley
A sports mystery built around a strained friendship, team pressure and an investigation into threats and sabotage. The buried-treasure connection adds historical intrigue, while danger raises the stakes beyond the football pitch.
Wirt, Mildred A.
Expect a gentle adventure centred on Brownie Scouts, outdoor play, and the imaginative possibility of a tree house.
Libba Bray
This offers a supernatural murder mystery rooted in Prohibition-era New York, alongside folklore, occult ideas, jazz-club life and vivid secondary storylines. Its horror is central rather than incidental.
Elle Cosimano
This is a high-stakes young-adult mystery about loyalty, identity and truth. Nearly’s investigation crosses community, family and school pressures, with danger becoming increasingly personal.
Gwen Molnar
This is a mystery about discovering and confronting organised racism in a new community. It offers suspense, a young investigator and questions about how prejudice can be spread through technology and social networks.
Cindy Neuschwander
A playful castle adventure introduces rounding through counting food, supplies, bows, and arrows. Rounds II moves from disliking difficult additions towards using approximate “friendly ten” numbers during an urgent defence.
Sharna Jackson
A lively detective adventure centred on sisters, friendship and a tightly connected high-rise community. The mystery moves through clues, suspects and reversals, balancing comic sibling exchanges with the seriousness of murder and its effects.
Caroline Lawrence
A suspenseful historical mystery set around Pompeii, combining a children's investigation with vivid historical detail and the looming eruption of Vesuvius. Expect friendship, curiosity and adventure, but also sorrow and frightening material near the conclusion.
Laura Wood
A lively mystery about belonging somewhere new: Poppy’s unusual circus upbringing meets boarding-school traditions, while friendship and investigation draw her into a dangerous case involving an Egyptian ruby.
Susan Brownrigg
This is a clue-led historical mystery with an active young protagonist, a strong seaside setting and a family crisis at its centre. It offers atmosphere, teamwork and a determined character whose limb difference is part of her life, not the whole plot.
Maureen Johnson
A clue-driven mystery set among gifted students, pairing investigation with questions about grief, friendship and the human cost of treating crime as an intellectual puzzle.
Adam Bushnell
A collaborative mystery that invites readers to solve clues and coding puzzles while learning introductory ideas about artificial intelligence. Its school setting, four detectives and robot librarian provide a structured route into STEM concepts.
Rosie Talbot
A dark supernatural mystery combines witchcraft, ghosts, grief and romance. Viola’s investigation is supported by friendships and a search for justice, while the story also builds suspense through murder, dangerous spirits and unsettling deaths.
Alexandra Benedict
A festive, clue-led murder mystery for readers who enjoy solving puzzles alongside a team. Its emotional centre is a group of five neurodivergent children combining different strengths while trying to protect their out-of-school club.
A visually rich introduction to detective fiction, offering a contained mystery, recurring animal friends and clues for readers to inspect. It combines suspense about a theft and suspected parents with humour, friendship and collaborative problem-solving.
Varsha Shah
This is an action-led story about a young aspiring journalist and friends using a newspaper to investigate a threatened slum. Its strongest appeal is the combination of friendship, initiative and social stakes.
Ravena Guron
A brisk, atmospheric whodunit offers clues to examine, several viewpoints to compare and a snowbound mansion full of secrets. Its emotional centre is the unexpected bond formed by three very different girls.
Leslie McFarlane
This is a mystery built around an apparently elusive intruder, damaged property and Nancy’s investigation. Its appeal lies in uncovering how someone enters and leaves, alongside a distinctive tea-party setting.
Leslie McFarlane
A light mystery built around a singing contest, missing celebrity-linked sunglasses and three friends trying to protect their chance at concert tickets. The investigation sits alongside teamwork and performance.
Megan E. Freeman
This is an ensemble survival and mystery story about young people adapting to an evacuation camp, then investigating the threat behind it. Its changing forms invite attention to how different voices record events and make sense of uncertainty.
Anthony McGowan
This is a comic pet mystery built around a group of friends, an ugly dog and increasingly puzzling disappearances. Expect playful embarrassment, detective activity and gross-out imagery rather than a quiet or realistic animal story.
Robert Arthur
Expect a brisk, contained detective adventure: the trio investigate sabotage while storms, an abandoned amusement park, a phantom and possible pirate treasure keep suspicion active. Its pleasure lies in clue-flow, collaboration and atmosphere, not dense psychology.
Leslie McFarlane, Macky Pamintuan
A light mystery adventure built around a missing treasure chest at a pirate-themed party, paired with a second case about a competing sleuthing club.
Jess Mowry
A historical ghost mystery with strong atmosphere: Remi and Niya investigate a repeated murder, a missing child and a house connected to an old crime, while confronting a dangerous supernatural world.
Teri Terry
This is a high-stakes science-fiction thriller about searching, divided loyalties and responsibility after an epidemic. Parallel efforts to find Callie and confront Dr Cross bring the characters towards a dangerous reckoning.
Ridley Pearson
A dark detective adventure centred on a family trying to understand a father’s disturbing death. Secrets, a secretive group and a valuable jewel drive the investigation, while strained partnerships and personal losses deepen the stakes.
Siobhan Dowd
A brisk family mystery about a missing cousin, a London-wide clue trail and two siblings who must work together. Its strongest promise is investigation shaped by Ted’s unusual way of thinking.
Leslie McFarlane
A holiday mystery combines seaside atmosphere, a threatened restoration project, secret lighthouse signals and an elusive surfer. The investigation follows Jean and Louise Dana and their friends as they try to connect apparently unusual events.
Kieran Mark Crowley
This is a child-centred mystery about friends making one last attempt to solve a case before their club ends. Its appeal lies in teamwork, investigation and the pressure of a significant change.
Patrick Jennings
A lively mystery-adventure about Logan and his friends investigating disappearing dogs. The story combines an unusual alien explanation with an urgent attempt to help the animals, while presenting the investigation as humorous and heartwarming.
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