Mystery, Murder and Mayhem

If you love a good mystery, try these:

Enola Holmes series Nancy Springer: Enola is the much younger sister of Sherlock Holmes, and is determined to follow in her older brother’s footsteps. Set in 19th century London.
Gilda Joyce psychic investigator series Jennifer Allison: Teenage detective and psychic Gilda investigates strange goings-on in various places, including an abandoned San Francisco mansion, an exclusive boarding school, and an international piano competition.
Hermux Tantamoq series Michael Hoeye: Hermux Tantamoq is a gentleman detective, who also happens to be a mouse. His adventures include his pet ladybug Terfle and lady-friend (and possible love interest) aviatrix Ms. Linka Perflinger, as well as watchmaking, world travel, love triangles and murder mysteries. Titles in the series include Time Stops For No Mouse; The Sands of Time; No Time Like Show Time; Time to Smell the Roses

Death and the Arrow; The White Rider; Redwulf’s Curse Chris Priestley: Set in 1715 London, this series starring young Tom Marlowe has a rich historic background mixed with mystery, excitement and intrigue.
Shane Peacock: writes about the young Sherlock Holmes in Death in the Air and Eye of the Crow
The Puppet Master Joanne Owen: This is a dark fairy tale of a story set in 19th century Prague, with beautiful young impoverished heroine Milena tangled up in mysterious and spooky goings-on to do with circuses, magic and the shadowy and menacing Puppet-Master.

Traces series Malcolm Rose: A series involving Luke Harding, youngest-ever forensic investigator, and his robotic sidekick Malc (Mobile Aid to Law and Crime). Living in futuristic London, Luke finds himself solving mysteries ranging from a murder at his school, to a hospital with a suspiciously high patient death rate, while dodging snipers’ bullets and battling with the urban jungle that London has become. If you like the Alex Rider books, you should try the Traces series.
The Christopher Killer; The Angel of Death; The Circle of Blood Alane Ferguson: Cameryn Mahoney lives with her County Coroner father and Irish grandmother in small-town America. Thanks to her passionate interest in forensics, 17 year old Cameryn finds herself on the payroll as coroner’s assistant. This new series is full of nitty-gritty realistic forensic details, as well as having great storylines, cool characters and even a bit of romance. A must-read if you’re into all those CSI-type shows.

Bad Kitty Michele Jaffe: Jas has always wanted to be a police detective, and drives her father crazy doing things like dusting for fingerprints with eyeshadow. When her family goes on holiday to Las Vegas, Jas and her holiday-crashing friends find themselves in the middle of a real mystery involving dead bodies, a famous model and a three-legged cat.
Kitty Kitty Michele Jaffe: Another crazy-silly chick-lit mystery involving Jas and friends, this time with squirrel costumes and lots of footnotes.
Blackthorn Winter Kathryn Reiss: As 15 year old Juliana’s parents’ marriage falls apart, she is carted off to England with her artist mother. A murder in the village looks at first to be just an interesting mystery to solve, but as the case develops it seems that Juliana herself is part of the crime, and that even her new boyfriend might be involved.
Dead Connection Charlie Price: Murray is a loner who likes to hang out in the local graveyard. It seems like the only people he can really talk to are dead ones, until he meets Pearl, the daughter of the cemetery caretaker. Then he starts to hear a new voice among the graves. Could it possibly be the ghost of Nikki, the missing cheerleader? And if it is, how can Murray and Pearl convince the police that they might know what has happened to her?

Doppelganger; Skullduggery; Snatched Pete Hautman: Nosy high school newspaper crime reporter Roni and her sidekick, nerdy science boy Brian, solve a series of mysteries involving kidnapped classmates, dodgy local business doings and missing children.

June 2009