Dead Girls Don't Write Letters by Gail Giles

After Jazz supposedly dies in a fire, her mom sinks into a deep depression and her dad is drinking heavily. Younger sister Sunny is struggling to run the household and keep up with her school work. Then a letter arrives - supposedly from Jazz - saying that she is still alive and is coming home. Trouble is, the girl who shows up looks like Jazz, acts like Jazz, but isn't Jazz. Who is she and why is she doing this?

The plot of "Dead Girls" reminded me a lot of Lois Duncan but with more substance. The relationships between family members is what makes it stand above other books in the suspense genre. Although a quick read , Giles manages to convey a lot about the complex interactions between family members and between family members and the Jazz impersonator.

Named an American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant readers.

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

A plane mysteriously appears on a tarmac. Inside the plane, there is no pilot, no crew, no adults. However, there are 36 babies strapped into the seats and after the last baby is removed, the plane vanishes as mysteriously as it appears.

Thirteen years later, Jonah and his new friend Chip, both of them adoptees, begin to receive odd and threatening notes in the mail. When they start to investigate, with the help of Jonah's sister, Katherine, the FBI tries to discourage them with threats such as deportation. Next, strangers offering help appear and disappear mysteriously but are friends or enemies? Jonah, Chip, and Katherine scramble to find out what is happening, and, more important, to discover the true identity of the boys.

This one pulls in readers right from the start and with a cliffhanger ending, has them looking forward to the next installment.

First in a series

Farthing by Jo Walton

In an alternative world of the 1940's, Europe has been taken over by Nazi Germany. England has made peace with Hitler and political control is in the hands of a facist upperclass group that calls itself the Farthing Set. Against this backdrop, Lord and Lady Eversley, members of the Farthing Set, host a weekend party, during which another member of the Farthing Set is murdered. A Star of David has been pinned to his chest and suspicion immediately falls upon David Kahn, the Jewish husband of Lucy Eversley, daughter of Lord and Lady Eversley. Lucy and David realize that he has been set up to take the blame, as does Inspector Carmichael from Scotland Yard. As the Kahn's and Carmichael attempt to find the real killer, it appears that the crime is a political one with huge implications for the future of England.

While not a book about teenagers, and not marketed to teens, this should have cross-over appeal to those look for an engrossing mystery which also provides a lot of food for thought.

The Case of the Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery by Nancy Springer


Enola Holmes definitely belongs to my "cool girl" list. This much, much younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes is growing up as something of a wild child. When her mother mysteriously disappears (to escape the restrictions of Victorian society), Sherlock and Mycroft arrive at the family estate and are properly shocked by their hoydenish sister's upbringing. They decide that she should be packed off to a boarding school where she can learn how to behave as a proper young lady. Enola, however, has very different plans. She gives her brothers the slip, runs off to London, and sets herself up as a detective where she soon is involved in solving a kidnapping case. But despite her incredible competence, she feels very much alone - spell Enola backwards - and longs to connect with Sherlock who is always a step or two behind in catching her sister. Great 19th century London atmosphere, wonderful characters, and a page-turning story in this first book in a series

Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams

Ingrid Levin-Hill's hero is Sherlock Holmes. For several years, the eighth grader has kept a copy of his "Complete Adventures" on her bedside table, and spends a lot of time thinking about how Holmes figures out the world around him. "The more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling..." Holmes tells Dr. Watson.

Everything in Ingrid's world seems pretty commonplace. She lives in a 1950s Cape Cod house located in small cozy town where nothing much happens. She goes to school, plays soccer, fights with her brother - all pretty mundane stuff.

But a wrong turn on the way home from soccer practice lands Ingrid on the doorstep of local eccentric Cracked Up Kate and life starts to get pretty weird. Kate is murdered later that night and Ingrid is going to be in big trouble unless she can retrieve her soccer shoes from Kate's house before the police figure out who they belong to. Next, Ingrid is forced out of her lead role in a local production of "Alice in Wonderland" after the producer is injured under suspicious cirumstances. Somewhere, there is a connection between these two events, and with years of studying the techniques of the world's greatest fictional detective, Ingrid is determined to figure it out.

Abrahams does a wonderful job in creating a three dimensional world in Down the Rabbit Hole. Adults who have read his thriller "The Tutor" will recognize some of the same characters, redrawn for a younger audience, but also in my mind, further developed and more enjoyable.

Ages 10 through 14 (and any age if you enjoy a good mystery)

Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz
14-year-old Alex Rider is orphaned when his uncle, a spy for the British government, is murdered. When the spy agency M16 gives him a choice between going to an orphanage or going undercover for them he reluctantly chooses the latter. His mission: infiltrate the organization of multibillionaire Herod Sayle who will be donating a state-of-the-art computer to each school-child in Great Britain. Is Sayle genuinely thanking his adoptive country through this fantastic gift or are does he have a different motive. Alex is sure that the sinister multibillionaire is up to no good but how to prove it with only a couple of days before the computers will be in the hands of children across the country? Since Stormbreaker is the first in a series, we know that Alex will prevail, but what a page-turning adventure! Armed with a fistful of cool gadgets and a blackbelt in karate Alex must battle the nefarious Sayle and his minions to save not only his own life but a whole generation of children.
The Alex Rider books don't need to be read in any particular order to enjoy them, although Stormbreaker does provide background to Alex's involvement in M16. However, given that these books don't spend much time on the library shelves just grab whichever title is available and enjoy!
Great for boys 10 to 14