Select language, opens an overlay
  • Genre Guide
  • Staff-Created List

Seattle Picks: Teen - Mystery

Lots of great teen mysteries are out there waiting to be discovered - and solved. (Updated April 2024) MS=Books for middle school readers

The Seattle Public Library

21 items

  • Harlow and her mother have been on the run her entire life, but when her mother dies after a car accident, Harlow stops running and starts looking into her past.
    BookNew York : Margaret K. McElderry Books, [2023] — YA BARROW 2023
  • Spencer can’t remember anything about her night out with two classmates and her ex-boyfriend, but the car crash, the death of one of her classmates, and the possibility her ex was the culprit force her to unravel the mystery.
    BookNew York : Roaring Brook Press, 2023. — YA DELACRU 2023
  • Four friends, Flaco, Magaña, Tiny, and Susi, go to Diamond Park, Texas, to pick up a '59 Chevy Impala. One of them ends up arrested for murder, and the others head to Mexico to clear their friend and search for the real murderer.
    BookNew York : Dutton Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, [2022] — YA DIEDERICH 2022
  • Nova, the first Black homecoming queen at her school, is killed the night of her coronation. The prime suspect is Tinsley, her white rival. Duchess, Nova’s best friend, knows that to solve the murder, she will have to work with Tinsley.
    BookNew York : Delacorte Press, [2023] — YA EMILL 2023
  • Alice disappeared for five days after her boyfriend Steve dumped her, and she hasn’t talked about what she did during that time. Now another of his girlfriends has disappeared, but this looks permanent. Alice and her tutor Iris know…
    BookNew York : Delacorte Press, [2022] — YA GLASGOW 2022
  • New girl Piper learns of the unsolved murder of a girl seventeen years earlier, and starts a true-crime podcast as she investigates, but the murderer is apparently listening, because Piper starts receiving threats to stop the investigation.
    BookNew York : Christy Ottaviano Books/Little, Brown and Company, 2023. — YA HENRY 2023
  • Eighteen students (given voice by eighteen different authors) are surprised but not particularly saddened by the murder of a bigoted professor at their magical academy, and now that they are all suspects, they must somehow join forces to…
    BookNew York : Delacorte Press, [2023] — YA GRIMOIRE O 2023
  • Hyeon, the palace nurse, must clear her mentor’s name when a series of grisly murders occur in the nursing school, but the signs point towards the Crown Prince as the culprit.
    BookNew York : Feiwel and Friends, 2022. — YA HUR 2022
  • In 1930s Los Angeles, three sisters must solve the mystery of their movie star friend’s murder, knowing that many people and even the police don’t believe in the importance of the Chinese woman’s life.
    BookNew York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2024. — YA LEE 2024
  • When her cousin Sophie dies of an opioid overdose, Hannah disguises herself and enrolls in Sophie’s exclusive private school to find the person who gave her the pills.
    BookNew York : Bloomsbury YA, 2023. — YA LORD 2023
  • When Case’s friend Drea invites her to her house before they go off to college, Case arrives to find Drea is gone, her roommates don’t want to talk and Case has only one night to figure out what has happened to her missing friend before…
    BookNew York : Algonquin Young Readers, 2024. — YA MABRY 2024
  • 30 years ago, an 18-year-old named Billy died in Astoria, Oregon. Now Sam and their dad have moved into Billy's old house, and Sam suspects they're being haunted by his ghost.
    BookNew York : Astra Young Readers, [2022] — YA MACGREGOR 2022
  • Needing just a few credits to graduate, Lydia and Bristal focus on solving an unsolved murder mystery from 1994, but someone is willing to harm them to keep them from revealing the secrets of the past.
    BookNew York, NY : Katherine Tegan Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2023] — YA MCGINNI 2023
  • To help Izzy get ready for her year abroad, her family hosts Alberto, a handsome young Italian, to help her with her language skills. Alberto’s hot temper, bad accent, and appearance at the same time as a sudden spate of murders in their…
    BookLos Angeles : Hyperion, 2024. — YA MCNEIL 2024
  • Teddy’s Olympic-level swimmer sister disappeared one year ago while swimming in a lake at midnight, and Teddy is determined to find the truth, since her body was never found, and her passport went missing too.
    BookNew York : Hyperion, 2023. — YA NEEVES 2023
  • Quinn reluctantly agrees to help Cade, a bully, with his new project to help find missing kids, and her social media accounts go viral, but the authorities don’t seem that interested in finding the kids.
    BookNew York : Scholastic Press, 2023. — YA OTIS 2023
  • When an oil rig explodes and is determined to be a terrorist attack, six Muslim teens are picked up as suspects, and pressured by everyone to inform on each other to secure their freedom. Can they trust each other, or will one of them…
    BookNew York : Little, Brown and Company, 2024. — YA SHUKAIRY 2024
  • No one gave much thought to Todd Mayer, until he was found dead, naked, and frozen in a public park. When Georgia learns about his murder, she feels a sense of connection to Todd as a fellow queer teen and tries to piece together what…
    BookNew York : Roaring Brook Press, 2022. — YA TAMAKI 2022
  • Bianca has a long, numbered list of fears, but when they witness a neighbor’s murder, they must ask for help from her friend, talk with the beautiful girl they have a crush on, and face the murderer himself.
    BookNew York, NY : Clarion Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2023] — YA WINANS 2023
  • Iris’s sister disappeared a year ago, and the police think she just ran away from their alcoholic mother, but when Iris’s ex-girlfriend disappears after dropping a podcast episode about the case, Iris and her two best friends must look…
    BookNew York : Little, Brown and Company, 2023. — YA WLOSOK 2023