Great Mystery Series for Preteens and Teens

Oct 4, 2011
Amanda Sonntag

Great Mystery Series for Preteens and Teens - Photo by db Photography / Demi-Brooke

Getting teenagers to put down the cell phone and pick up a book may be getting harder, but with an arsenal of great mysteries, it may be a lot easier.

In the process of studying to become a children’s author, I have spent many hours, days, weeks, months, reading different teen novels. And there is nothing I love more than a great series. One great aspect of a series, to me at least, is how you can grow with the characters. You start to see them as more than just people on a page; they become real in your mind. When you finish the last sentence of the last book in a series and your heart rejoices and breaks at the same time, that is when you know you found a great author who speaks to you through their books. Through my journey I have come to fall in love with several authors that I didn’t know existed until I began my quest, and the mystery series that they have graced this world with.

Preteen/Teen Mystery Series

Sammy Keyes Mystery Series by Wendelin Van Draanen

Sammy Keyes is a thirteen year old girl who is living illegally in a “seniors only” high-rise with her grandmother in California. Sammy finds herself in many precarious situations that she undoubtedly gets herself into. Sammy may have heard the phrase "curiosity killed the cat," but that doesn't stop her from hunting down a hotel thief, proving her innocence after being accused of stealing from her grandmother's church, or pocketing a load of cash that was left by a dead guy on the fire escape of her grandmother's building.

With every Sammy Keyes book you will find yourself immersed in sticky situations, close calls, or straight up caught. Sammy is fun and intriguing. She has a back bone and she stands up for what she believes to be true and right. These stories are not just for preteens or teenagers but are also great books for parents who love a straightforward and fun mystery. Wendelin Van Draanen succeeds in making reading an adventure and seeing Sammy Keyes coming to an end soon is heartbreaking to think of.

Sammy Keyes still has a few more adventures left that will be published in the near future. According to Wendelin Van Drannen, there is to be around eighteen books in the series.

Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief (1998)
Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man (1998)
Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy (1999)
Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf (2000)
Sammy Keyes and the Curse of Mustache Mary (2001)
Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy (2001)
Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes (2002)
Sammy Keyes and the Art of Deception (2003)
Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen (2004)
Sammy Keyes and the Dead Giveaway (2005)
Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things (2007)
Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash (2008)
Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher (2010)
Sammy Keyes and the Night of Skulls (October 11, 2011, Not yet published)

Echo Falls Mystery Series by Peter Abrahams

The Echo Falls Mystery Series is about a thirteen year old girl named Ingrid Levin-Hill who gets herself caught up in the most unlikely situations. From being a suspect in a murder investigation, stage accidents at the local theatre, being kidnapped and stuffed in a trunk, to finding a dead body buried in the snow. Nothing seems to get past the Sherlock Holms of Echo Falls as Ingrid uses her love and obsession with the super sleuth to find out what is really going on in her town.

Ingrid Levin-Hill is a fun character to dive into. She’s smart, decisive, and makes bad decisions just like every thirteen year old girl. You never know what she is going to do next and she keeps you turning the pages to see whether or not she gets out of whatever messy situation she is in. Peter Abrahams, a known author of adult-aimed novels, does this world a service by creating a character like Ingrid, making reading fun and exciting.

Down the Rabbit Hole (2005)
Behind the Curtain (2006)
Into the Dark (2008)

The Missing Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Imagine waiting for the next flight to arrive at the airport when a mysterious plane suddenly appears with no other passengers or crew on board but thirty-six crying babies.

Now zoom forward thirteen years and you will find Jonah and his younger sister Katherine. At a conference for adopted children, where Jonah is adopted but Katherine is not, they find themselves hurtled into several points of time in history after finding out that Jonah, along with thirty-five other children, were missing children from the past. Time no longer has the same meaning to Jonah or Katherine as they travel from the present to the past in an attempt to fix the damage that was done to history when these children went missing and to also save himself and the other thirty-five from having to indefinitely return to their true points of time. Life with his parents and sister of the present time are at stake and one mistake could change history for the worse.

Margaret Peterson Haddix brings fantasy and reality into one with these compelling stories. Readers will be turning page after page without realizing how much they are learning from the books. Haddix uses her unique way of capturing readers' attention with close calls and fun future gadgets that all the facts and lessons of our history are seen as fun and exciting. Currently there are four books that have been released with another three books that are planned for the series.

Book 1: Found (2008)
Book 2: Sent (2009)
Book 3: Sabotaged (2010)
Book 4: Torn (2011)
Book 5: Caught (possible title, no release date)
Book 6: Kept (possible title, no release date)
Book 7: Revealed (possible title, no release date)

A Forensic Mystery by Alane Ferguson

Cameryn Mahoney, a seventeen year old daughter of the town’s coroner, aspires to follow in her father’s footsteps and one day become a forensic pathologist. Growing up in a home where the family station wagon was not only used for getting groceries but also for transporting the dead, Cameryn was used to seeing the dead as a science not something to be afraid of. When Cameryn starts to help her father out as his assistant, she finds that she is not only learning the skills that she will need to become a pathologist but also finds that she is not as smart as she thinks she is and ends up right in the sight of the killer.

Alane Ferguson does an amazing job in these forensic mysteries which all follow the main character Cameryn Mahoney. Her attention to detail shows that she knows what she is talking about, not from watching TV but from experience and research. Though some scenes can be graphic and grotesque, Alane forms an intriguing web of mystery that in the end will have you both satisfied and in the particular case of The Circle of Blood, will have you shivering with goose bumps and scrambling for the next book with its fantastic cliffhanger. I thoroughly enjoyed these books but would recommend them for teens that are a little older and can handle graphic mental images.