Murder Mysteries for 8th Graders to Read
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I still can remember the very first mystery I ever picked up in my school library: The Mandie series past Lois Gladys Leppard. I've been devouring mysteries ever since, and I especially love mysteries for younger readers. They're lots of fun and can be loftier-stakes and suspenseful without being also dark or gory. Middle school mystery books are likewise awesome because they cover a wide range of time periods and settings, but all volition encourage critical thinking and reasoning!
This list focuses on center schoolhouse mystery books, and I've broken information technology down in estimate grade levels, merely every kid is dissimilar and may have unlike reading needs! Check out this listing of fifty Must-Read Mystery Books for Kids and 50 Must-Read Young Developed Mysteries for more great reads!
Center School Mystery Books for Sixth Graders
The Parker Inheritance past Varian Johnson
When Candice finds a letter in an old attic in Lambert, South Carolina, she isn't sure she should read it. It'due south addressed to her grandmother, who left the town in shame. But the letter describes a immature woman. An injustice that happened decades ago. A mystery enfolding its author. And the fortune that awaits the person who solves the puzzle.
So with the help of Brandon, the quiet boy beyond the street, she begins to decipher the clues. The challenge will pb them deep into Lambert's history, full of ugly deeds, forgotten heroes, and ane great love; and deeper into their ain families, with their own unspoken secrets. Can they find the fortune and fulfill the alphabetic character's promise before the answers slip into the past nonetheless once again?
When You lot Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Presently after a fall-out with her all-time friend, 6th grader Miranda starts receiving mysterious notes, and she doesn't know what to exercise. The notes tell her that she must write a letter of the alphabet—a truthful story, and that she can't share her mission with anyone.
Information technology would be piece of cake to ignore the strange messages, except that whoever is leaving them has an uncanny ability to predict the time to come. If that is the instance, then Miranda has a big problem—because the notes tell her that someone is going to dice, and she might exist too belatedly to cease it.
3 Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage
Rising sixth grader Miss Moses LoBeau lives in the small town of Tupelo Landing, North Carolina, where anybody's business concern is off-white game and no hole-and-corner is sacred. She done ashore in a hurricane eleven years ago, and she'due south been making waves ever since. Although Mo hopes someday to discover her "upstream mother," she'southward constitute a home with the Colonel—a café owner with a forgotten past of his own—and Miss Lana, the fabulous café hostess. She will protect those she loves with as of her strong will and tough attitude. So when a lawman comes to town asking virtually a murder, Mo and her all-time friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson III, gear up out to uncover the truth in hopes of saving the only family Mo has ever known.
A Properly Unhaunted Place by Will Alexander
Rosa Ramona Díaz has just moved to the small, un-haunted town of Ingot—the only ghost-free town in the earth. She doesn't want to be in that location. She doesn't understand how her female parent—a librarian who specializes in ghost-appeasement—could possibly want to live in a identify with no ghosts. Frankly, she doesn't sympathize why anyone would.
Jasper Chevalier has always lived in Ingot. His begetter plays a knight at the local Renaissance Festival, and his mother plays the queen. Jasper has never seen a ghost, and can't imagine his un-haunted town any other way. And so an apparition thunders into the festival grounds and turns the tranquillity boondocks upside down.
Something otherworldly is well-nigh to be unleashed, and Rosa volition need all her ghost appeasement tools—and a trivial help from Jasper—to rein in the angry spirits and restore peace to Ingot before it'southward too late.
Vanished by Sheela Chari
Eleven-year-old Neela dreams of being a famous musician, performing for admiring crowds on her traditional Indian stringed instrument. Her particular instrument was a gift from her grandmother—intricately carved with a mysterious-looking dragon. When this special family unit heirloom vanishes from a local church, strange clues surface: a tea kettle ornamented with a familiar pointy-faced dragon, a threatening note, a connection to a famous expressionless musician, and even a legendary expletive.
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello'southward Library by Chris Grabenstein
When Kyle learns that the world's about famous game maker, Luigi Lemoncello, has designed the town'southward new library and is having an invitation-but lock-in on opening night, he'southward determined to be there! But the tricky part isn't getting into the library—information technology'due south getting out. Because when morning comes, the doors stay locked. Kyle and the other kids must solve every inkling and figure out every secret puzzle to observe the subconscious escape road!
If You Detect This past Matthew Baker
Nicholas is a math and music genius with no friends and a huge problem: His father has lost his chore, and they'll have to sell their firm, which holds the simply memory Nicholas has of his younger brother. Merely in fourth dimension, Nicholas'due south senile grandfather arrives, filled with tales of priceless treasure he has hidden somewhere in town—only where?
With the help of misfit classmates, ii grandfathers, a ghosthouse, hidden messages, séances, and an uncanny mind for numbers, Nicholas stages a nursing home breakout, tangles with high schoolers in smugglers' tunnels, and gets swept upward in a duel with the biggest bullies in the neighborhood. Will it be enough to find the treasure and save his house?
Summerlost by Ally Condie
Information technology'due south the get-go real summer since the accident that killed Cedar'due south male parent and younger brother, Ben. Cedar and what'southward left of her family are returning to the town of Atomic number 26 Creek for the summer. They're just settling into their new house when a boy named Leo, dressed in costume, rides by on his bike. Intrigued, Cedar follows him to the renowned Summerlost theatre festival. Soon, she not only has a new friend in Leo and a job working concessions at the festival, she finds herself surrounded by mystery. The mystery of the tragic, too-short life of the Hollywood extra who haunts the halls of Summerlost. And the mystery of the strange gifts that proceed appearing for Cedar.
Murder is Bad Manners by Robin Stevens
Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are all-time friends at Deepdean School for Girls, and they both have a penchant for solving mysteries. In fact, outspoken Daisy is a self-described Sherlock Holmes, and she appoints wallflower Hazel as her own personal Watson when they course their ain (secret!) detective agency. The just problem? They have goose egg to investigate.
But that changes once Hazel discovers the torso of their science teacher, Miss Bell—and the torso subsequently disappears. She and Daisy are certain a murder must have taken place, and they can call up of more than one person with a motive.
Determined to go to the lesser of the crime—and to prove that it happened—before the killer strikes again, Hazel and Daisy must hunt for testify, spy on their suspects, and apply all the cunning, scheming, and intuition they tin muster. But will they succeed? And tin can their friendship stand up the test?
Holes by Louis Sachar
Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-skillful-dingy-rotten-squealer-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day excavation holes exactly five feet broad and 5 feet deep. In that location is no lake at Military camp Green Lake. Just in that location are an awful lot of holes.
It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there'south more than character improvement going on at Campsite Green Lake. The boys are excavation holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could exist cached nether a dried-upwardly lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.
Zora & Me past Victoria Bond
Whether she's telling the truth or stretching it, Zora Neale Hurston is a riveting storyteller. Her latest creation is a shape-shifting gator homo who lurks in the marshes, waiting to steal human souls. But when boastful Sonny Wrapped loses a wrestling match with an elusive alligator named
Ghost—and a man is constitute murdered by the railroad tracks shortly after—young Zora'due south tales of a mythical evil beast take on an ominous and far more than complicated complexion, jeopardizing the peace and security of an entire boondocks and forcing iii children to come to terms with the dual-edged power of pretending.
Zora'south best friend, Carrie, narrates this coming-of-age story gear up in the Eden-like town of Eatonville, Florida, where justice isn't merely an exercise in retribution, simply a testimony to the power of community, love, and pride. A fictionalization of the early on years of a literary giant, this astonishing novel is the first project e'er to be endorsed by the Zora Neale Hurston Trust that was not authored by Hurston herself.
Guys Read: Thriller edited by Jon Scieszcka
A body on the tracks
A teenage terrorist
A mysterious wish-granting machine
The world's worst individual detective
The 2d volume in the Guys Read Library of Great Reading is chock-full of mystery, intrigue, and nefarious activity. Featuring some of the best writers around, and compiled by certified guy Jon Scieszka, Guys Read: Thriller is a pulse-pounding collection of make-new short stories, each one guaranteed to keep you riveted until the terminal page.
Footer Davis is Probably Crazy by Susan Vaught
Footer Davis is on the case when two kids go missing after a burn down in this humorously honest novel that is full of Southern style.
Here are some things that are true about Footer Davis:
1. She has a BB gun named Louise.
2. Walruses freak her out.
3. Her mom has bipolar disorder.
Just she wants y'all to know that it'south not that big a deal. She's simply Mom, and usually she's fine except sometimes when she doesn't take her pills. Only right now what'south nearly of import to Footer is what happened to those kids at the Abrams farm. See, there was a burn there a few nights ago, and those kids oasis't been seen since. Pretty sure they got burned up. What Footer and Peavine—that's her best friend—desire to know is who started the fire?
Ernestine, Ending Queen by Merrill Wyatt
Ernestine Montgomery is the kind of kid who gets things done. She'south smart, prepared, and always knows only what to do. But there'due south big trouble brewing inside the walls of the rambling quondam mansion where she lives…and only Ernestine can decipher the clues that signal in one direction—murder!
The Emperor'due south Riddle by Kat Zhang
Mia Chen is on what her mother calls a Thousand Adventure. She'south not sure what to make of this family trip to Cathay, and didn't want to go out her friends for the summertime, just she's excited most the prospect of exploring with her Aunt Lin, the only adult who truly understands her.
And so Aunt Lin disappears, right after her onetime nemesis, a man named Ying, comes to visit. Mia knows that years ago, when Aunt Lin and Ying were sent to the Fuzhou countryside to work equally laborers, the two searched for an ancient treasure together—one that nonetheless hasn't been establish. She's suspicious that their shared history might be linked to Aunt Lin's disappearance.
When Mia discovers an quondam map filled with riddles in Aunt Lin's room, she rapidly pieces together her mission: observe the treasure, find her aunt. Now, Mia, along with her big blood brother, Jake, must solve the clues to rescue the person she knows best in the earth—and mayhap unearth a treasure greater than her wildest dreams.
Chasing Vermeer past Blue Balliet
When a volume of unexplainable occurrences brings Petra and Calder together, foreign things start to happen: Seemingly unrelated events connect; an eccentric old woman seeks their company; an invaluable Vermeer painting disappears. Earlier they know it, the two discover themselves at the center of an international art scandal, where no one is spared from suspicion. Every bit Petra and Calder are fatigued clue by clue into a mysterious labyrinth, they must depict on their powers of intuition, their trouble solving skills, and their knowledge of Vermeer. Tin can they decipher a crime that has stumped even the FBI?
Centre School Mystery Books for Seventh Graders
Finding Mighty past Sheela Chari
Forth the train lines due north of New York Urban center, twelve-year-old neighbors Myla and Peter search for the link between Myla's necklace and the disappearance of Peter's blood brother, Randall. Thrown into a globe of parkour, graffiti, and diamond-smuggling, Myla and Peter run into a band of thugs who are later the aforementioned thing as Randall. Can Myla and Peter notice Randall before it's too belatedly, and their shared family secrets threaten to destroy them all? Drawing on urban fine art forms and local history, Finding Mighty is a mystery that explores the nature of art and the unbreakable bonds of family.
The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Identify past Julie Berry
There'southward a murderer on the loose—simply that doesn't stop the girls of St. Etheldreda's from attempting to hide the decease of their headmistress in this rollicking farce.
The students of St. Etheldreda's School for Girls face a bothersome dilemma. Their irascible headmistress, Mrs. Plackett, and her bearish brother, Mr. Godding, have been most inconveniently poisoned at Sunday dinner. At present the schoolhouse will almost certainly be closed and the girls sent home—unless these vii very proper young ladies tin hide the murders and convince their neighbors that nix is wrong.
Julie Berry's The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place is a smart, hilarious Victorian romp, full of outrageous plot twists, mistaken identities, and mysterious happenings.
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place by Maryrose Forest
Found running wild in the woods of Ashton Place, the Incorrigibles are no ordinary children: Alexander, age ten or thereabouts, keeps his siblings in line with gentle nips; Cassiopeia, perhaps four or v, has a bark that is (usually) worse than her bite; and Beowulf, age somewhere-in-the-middle, is alarmingly adept at chasing squirrels.
Luckily, Miss Penelope Lumley is no ordinary governess. Only fifteen years former and a recent graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Brilliant Females, Penelope embraces the challenge of her new position. Though she is eager to instruct the children in Latin verbs and the proper use of globes, first she must help them overcome their canine tendencies.
But mysteries abound at Ashton Identify: Who are these three wild creatures, and how did they come to live in the vast forests of the manor? Why does One-time Timothy, the coachman, lurk effectually every corner? Will Penelope be able to teach the Incorrigibles table manners and socially useful phrases in time for Lady Constance's holiday brawl? And what on earth is a schottische?
Moon Over Manifest past Clare Vanderpool
Abilene Tucker feels abandoned. Her father has put her on a train, sending her off to live with an old friend for the summer while he works a railroad job. Armed only with a few possessions and her listing of universals, Abilene jumps off the train in Manifest, Kansas, aiming to learn well-nigh the boy her father once was.
Having heard stories about Manifest, Abilene is disappointed to notice that information technology's merely a stale-up, worn-out old town. But her disappointment speedily turns to excitement when she discovers a hidden cigar box total of mementos, including some one-time letters that mention a spy known as the Rattler. These mysterious letters send Abilene and her new friends, Lettie and Ruthanne, on an honest-to-goodness spy chase, fifty-fifty though they are warned to "Leave Well Enough Alone."
Abilene throws all caution bated when she heads downwards the mysterious Path to Perdition to pay a debt to the reclusive Miss Sadie, a augur who merely tells stories from the past. Information technology seems that Manifest's history is total of colorful and shadowy characters—and long-held secrets. The more Abilene hears, the more determined she is to learn just what role her father played in that history. And as Manifest's secrets are laid bare one by 1, Abilene begins to weave her own story into the fabric of the town.
Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh
A riveting ghost story and captivating adventure, this tale volition take you guessing at every plow!
Harper doesn't trust her new home from the moment she steps inside, and the rumors are that the Raine family's new house is haunted. Harper isn't sure she believes those rumors, until her younger blood brother, Michael, starts acting strangely.
The whole atmosphere gives Harper a sense of déjà vu, but she tin't call back why. She knows that the memories she'due south blocking volition help make sense of her blood brother's behavior and the strange and threatening sensations she feels in this house, but will she be able to put the pieces together in fourth dimension?
Spirit Hunters: The Island of Monsters by Ellen Oh
Harper Raine faces new challenges ahead when her parents take the whole family to a remote tropical island for vacation. As Harper starts to have visions of the resort'south history of disappearances and discovers more about the isle's dark and fabulous past, she must utilize her newly acquired spirit hunting talents to save everyone on the island from murderous spirits on the attack.
The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle past Janet Fob
Twelve-twelvemonth-old Katherine Bateson believes in a logical explanation for everything. But fifty-fifty she can't brand sense of the strange goings-on at Rookskill Castle, the drafty old Scottish castle-turned-school where she and her siblings have been sent to escape the London Blitz. What's making those mechanical shrieks at night? Why practise the castle's walls seem to accept a mind of their ain? And who are the silent children who seem to haunt Rookskill'due south grounds? Kat believes Lady Eleanor, who rules the castle, is harboring a Nazi spy. But when her classmates begin to vanish, 1 by ane, Kat must face the truth about what the castle actually harbors—and what Lady Eleanor is—before it'due south also late.
York: The Shadow Cipher by Laura Ruby
Information technology was 1798 when the Morningstarr twins arrived in New York with a vision for a magnificent urban center: towering skyscrapers, dazzling machines, and winding train lines, all running on technology no one had e'er seen before.
Fifty-seven years later, the enigmatic architects disappeared, leaving behind for the people of New York the Old York Cipher—a puzzle laid into the shining city they constructed, at the end of which was promised a treasure beyond all imagining. By the present day, however, the puzzle has never been solved, and the greatest mystery of the modernistic world is piffling more a tourist attraction.
Tess and Theo Biedermann and their friend Jaime Cruz live in a Morningstarr apartment—until a real estate developer announces that the city has agreed to sell him the five remaining Morningstarr buildings. Their likely destruction ways the finish of a dream long held past the people of New York.
And if Tess, Theo, and Jaime want to save their home, they have to bear witness that the Old York Aught is real. Which means they have to solve it.
The Blackthorn Cardinal by Kevin Sands
Until he got that cryptic warning, Christopher Rowe was happy, learning how to solve complex codes and puzzles and creating powerful medicines, potions, and weapons as an apprentice to Master Bridegroom Blackthorn—with maybe an explosion or ii along the way.
Just when a mysterious cult begins to casualty on London's apothecaries, the trail of murders grows closer and closer to Blackthorn's shop. With time running out, Christopher must use every skill he'southward learned to discover the key to a terrible secret with the ability to tear the globe autonomously.
Greenglass Business firm by Kate Milford
It's wintertime at Greenglass House. The creaky smuggler's inn is always quiet during this season, and twelve-year-old Milo, the innkeepers' adopted son, plans to spend his holidays relaxing. Just on the first icy night of holiday, out of nowhere, the guest bell rings. And so rings again. And once again. Soon Milo'due south abode is bursting with odd, secretive guests, each i bearing a strange story that is somehow continued to the rambling old firm. Equally objects go missing and tempers flare, Milo and Meddy, the melt'southward daughter, must decipher clues and untangle the web of deepening mysteries to discover the truth about Greenglass Business firm—and themselves.
The Westing Game past Ellen Raskin
A bizarre chain of events begins when sixteen unlikely people gather for the reading of Samuel West. Westing's will. And though no one knows why the eccentric, game-loving millionaire has chosen a virtual stranger—and a possible murderer—to inherit his vast fortune, on things for sure: Sam Westing may be dead…but that won't stop him from playing i concluding game!
Secrets of Shakespeare's Grave by Deron R. Hicks
Twelve-year-old Colophon Letterford has a serious mystery on her hands. Will she discover the link between her family's literary legacy and Shakespeare'southward tomb before it'due south too belatedly? Antique paintings, clandestine passages, locked mausoleums, a iv-hundred-year-old treasure, and a bandage of quirky (and some ignoble) characters all add upwardly to a fun original adventure. Readers will revel in a cyclone journey through literary time and space in real-earth locales from Mont St. Michel to Stratford-Upon-Avon to Primal Park!
Catch You Later, Traitor! by Avi
It'southward 1951, and twelve-year-old Pete Collison is a regular kid who loves detective stories and radio crime dramas. When an FBI agent shows upward at Pete's doorstep, accusing Pete'due south father of being a Communist, Pete is caught in a real-life mystery. Could at that place really be Commies in his family?
The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street by Lindsay Currie
Tessa Woodward isn't exactly thrilled to motility to rainy, common cold Chicago from her home in sunny Florida. Merely homesickness turns to icy fright when unexplainable things kickoff happening in her new house. Things like flickering lights, mysterious drawings appearing out of nowhere, and a crackling racket she tin can feel in her bones.
When her picayune brother'southward doll starts crying real tears, Tessa realizes that someone—or something—is trying to communicate with her. And it involves a secret that'due south been shrouded in mystery for more than one hundred years.
With the aid of three new friends, Tessa begins unraveling the mystery of what happened in the house on Shady Street—and more than chiefly, what it has to practise with her!
Clara Voyant by Rachelle Delaney
Clara can't believe her no-nonsense grandmother has simply up and moved to Florida, leaving Clara and her female parent on their ain for the first time. This means her mother tin finally "follow her bliss," which involves moving to a tiny flat in Kensington Market place, working at a herbal remedy shop and trying to develop her so-chosen mystical powers. Clara tries to make the best of a bad state of affairs past joining the newspaper staff at her new centre school, where she can acuminate her investigative journalistic skills and tell the kind of hard-news stories her grandmother appreciated. But the editor relegates her to deadening news stories and worse…the horoscopes.
Worse yet, her horoscopes come true, and shortly everyone at school is talking near Clara Voyant, the talented fortune-teller. Clara is horrified—horoscopes and clairvoyance aren't real, she insists, merely like her grandmother always told her. Only when a mystery unfolds at schoolhouse, she finds herself in a strange situation: having an opportunity to testify herself as an investigative journalist…with the assist of her own mystical powers.
The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit by Octavia Spencer
Deer Creek is a small town whose just hope for survival is the success of their Founder'due south Day Festival. Just the festival'southward master allure, a fourth dimension capsule that many people believe agree the town'due south treasure, has gone missing.
Twelve-year-old Randi Rhodes and her best friend, D.C., are Bruce Lee–inspired ninjas and local detectives adamant to solve the case. Even if information technology means investigating a haunted cabin and facing mean old Angus McCarthy, prime number doubtable.
They accept three days to find the treasure…the future of their whole town is at stake! Will these kids be able to save the day?
The Sweetest Heist in History by Octavia Spencer
Randi Rhodes and her swain ninja detectives, DC and Pudge, were flying high after solving the Case of the Time-Sheathing Bandit. But life in sleepy Deer Creek has begun to feel…a bit boring. There are no crimes to investigate! Only a trip to New York City to visit Randi's aunt changes that! While the ninja detective trio explores Randi's former neighborhood in Brooklyn, they uncover an fine art theft. Except no one volition believe them. And then they'll just accept to take hold of the criminals in the act…
Wig in the Window by Kristen Kittscher
Best friends and seventh graders Sophie Young and Grace Yang have fabricated a game out of spying on their neighbors. On one of their midnight stakeouts, they witness a terrifying, bloody scene at the home of their bizarre center-school counselor Dr. Charlotte Agford (besides known as Dr. Bad-mannered).
At least, they retrieve they exercise. The truth is that Dr. Agford was only making her famous pickled beets. But when Dr. Agford begins acting even weirder than usual, Sophie and Grace go convinced that she'south hiding something—and they're adamant to find out what it is.
Shortly the girls are breaking secret codes, being followed past a foreign blue motorcar, and tailing strangers with unibrows and Texas accents. But as their investigation heats upwardly, Sophie and Grace outset to cleft under the pressure. Volition solving the case destroy their friendship?
The Slap-up Greene Heist by Varian Johnson
Jackson Greene swears he'due south given upwards scheming. Then school great Keith Sinclair announces he'due south running for Student Quango president, against Jackson's former friend Gaby de la Cruz. Gaby wants Jackson to stay out of information technology—but he knows Keith has "connections" to the main, which could win him the presidency no affair the vote count.
So Jackson assembles a crack team: Hashemi Larijani, tech genius. Victor Cho, bankroll. Megan Feldman, science goddess. Charlie de la Cruz, reporter. Together they devise a programme that will take down Keith, win Gaby's respect, and make certain the election is done right. If they tin pull it off, it will be remembered equally the school'southward greatest con ever—one worthy of the proper noun THE Cracking GREENE HEIST.
To Grab a Cheat by Varian Johnson
Jackson Greene is riding high. He is officially retired from conning, then Principal Kelsey is (mostly) off his back. His friends have great new projects of their own. And he's been hanging out a lot with Gaby de la Cruz, and so he thinks perchance, just possibly, they'll soon have their first kiss.
Then Jackson receives a link to a faked security video that seems to show him and the rest of Gang Greene flooding the schoolhouse gym. The jerks behind the video threaten to pass it to the main—unless Jackson steals an advance copy of the school's toughest examination.
So Gang Greene reunites for their biggest task all the same. To become the test adn clear their names, they'll have to outrun the school's security cameras, outwit a nosy fellow member of the Accolade Board, and outmaneuver the blackmailers while setting a trap for them in turn. And as they execute another exciting caper full of twists and turns, they'll evidence that sometimes information technology takes a thief to grab a crook.
Framed! by James Ponti
And so you're only halfway through your homework and the Director of the FBI keeps texting you for help…What do you practise? Save your grade? Or save the country?
If you're Florian Bates, you figure out a way to do both.
Florian is twelve years quondam and has just moved to Washington. He's learning his way around using TOAST, which stands for the Theory of All Modest Things. Information technology's a technique he invented to solve life's niggling mysteries such as: where to sit on the on the first 24-hour interval of school, or which Chinese eating house has the best eggrolls.
Only when he teaches information technology to his new friend Margaret, they uncover a mystery that isn't fiddling. In fact, it's HUGE, and it involves the National Gallery, the FBI, and a notorious offense syndicate known as EEL.
Can Florian decipher the clues and end his homework in time to help the FBI solve the case?
The Book Scavenger byJennifer Chambliss Bertman
For twelve-year-old Emily, the best thing well-nigh moving to San Francisco is that information technology's the home city of her literary idol: Garrison Griswold, book publisher and creator of the online sensation Volume Scavenger (a game where books are hidden in cities all over the country and clues to discover them are revealed through puzzles). Upon her arrival, however, Emily learns that Griswold has been attacked and is now in a coma, and no one knows anything well-nigh the epic new game he had been poised to launch. And then Emily and her new friend James discover an odd book, which they come to believe is from Griswold himself, and might contain the only re-create of his mysterious new game.
Racing against fourth dimension, Emily and James rush from clue to clue, desperate to effigy out the secret at the eye of Griswold'due south new game—before those who attacked Griswold come afterwards them also.
The Van Gogh Deception by Deron R. Hicks
Dan Chocolate-brown meets Jason Bourne in this riveting middle-grade mystery thriller. When a young male child is discovered in Washington DC'south National Gallery without whatsoever recollection of who he is, so begins a high-stakes race to unravel the greatest mystery of all: his identity.
As the stakes continue to ascension, the boy must piece together the disjointed clues of his origins while using his limited knowledge to stop i of the greatest art frauds ever attempted. Digitally interactive, this scenic museum mystery offers QR codes woven throughout the book that bring renowned paintings to readers' fingertips.
Middle School Mystery Books for Eighth Graders
A Spy in the Firm by Y.S. Lee
Rescued from the gallows in 1850s London, young orphan (and thief) Mary Quinn is surprised to be offered a singular instruction, instruction in fine manners—and an unusual vocation. Miss Scrimshaw'due south Academy for Girls is a cover for an all-female person investigative unit of measurement called The Agency, and at seventeen, Mary is about to put her preparation to the test. Bold the guise of a lady's companion, she must infiltrate a rich merchant's home in hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships. But the household is total of dangerous deceptions, and there is no ane to trust—or is there? Packed with activeness and suspense, banter and romance, and evoking the gritty backstreets of Victorian London, this breezy mystery debuts a daring immature detective who lives by her wits while uncovering secrets—including those of her own past.
One Came Home by Amy Timberlake
In the boondocks of Placid, Wisconsin, in 1871, Georgie Burkhardt is known for two things: her uncanny aim with a rifle and her addiction of speaking her listen plainly.
But when Georgie blurts out something she shouldn't, her older sister Agatha flees, running off with a pack of "pigeoners" trailing the passenger pigeon migration. And when the sheriff returns to town with an unidentifiable body—wearing Agatha's blueish-greenish ball gown—everyone assumes the worst. Except Georgie. Refusing to believe the facts that are laid down (and coffined) earlier her, Georgie sets out on a journey to detect her sister. She volition track every last clue and shred of prove to bring Agatha home. Yet even with resolute decision and her trusty Springfield single-shot, Georgie is not prepared for what she faces on the western frontier.
The Riverman by Aaron Starmer
Alistair Cleary is the child who everyone trusts. Fiona Loomis is not the typical daughter next door. Alistair hasn't really idea of her since they were piffling kids until she shows up at his doorstep with a proposition: she wants him to write her biography. What begins as an odd vanity projection gradually turns into a frightening glimpse into the mind of a potentially troubled girl. Fiona says that in her basement, there's a portal that leads to a magical globe where a animate being called the Riverman is stealing the souls of children. And Fiona'southward soul could be next. If Fiona actually believes what she'south proverb, Alistair fears she may exist crazy. But if it'south true, her life could exist at gamble. In this novel from Aaron Starmer, it's upwards to Alistair to divide fact from fiction, fantasy from reality.
Goldie Vance by Hope Larson
16-year-erstwhile Marigold "Goldie" Vance lives at a Florida resort with her dad, who manages the place, and dreams to one solar day become the hotel's in-house detective. When Walter, the current detective, encounters a case he can't scissure, he agrees to mentor Goldie in exchange for her help solving the mystery utilizing her smarts, random skills, and connections with the hotel staff and various folks in boondocks.
Fade Out by Nova Ren Suma
(Previously published as Dani Noir.)
It's summer and Dani Callanzano has been abased by everyone she knows. Her dad moved out, her mom is all preoccupied beingness broken-hearted, and her closest friend only moved away. Basically it'southward the end of the world.
At to the lowest degree she has the Little Fine art, her favorite local arthouse movie theater. Dani loves all the old black-and-white noir thrillers with their damsels in distress and their depression camera angles. It also doesn't hurt that Jackson, the guy who works the project reel, is super beautiful and nice and funny. And completely off-limits, of grade—he'south Dani'due south friend'due south fellow, and they are totally, utterly perfect together.
But one day, Dani stumbles beyond a shocking secret nigh Jackson—a clandestine too terrible for her to keep. She finds herself caught in the centre of a dear triangle with enough drama to rival the noir-est moving picture noir she's ever seen.
Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks
Cadel Piggott has a genius IQ and a fascination with systems of all kinds. At seven, he was illegally hacking into computers. Now he's fourteen and studying for his World Domination caste, taking classes like embezzlement, forgery, and infiltration at the institute founded by criminal mastermind Dr. Phineas Darkkon. Although Cadel may exist avant-garde beyond his years, at middle he's a lonely kid. When he falls for the mysterious and brilliant Kay-Lee, he begins to question the moral implications of his studies. But is it as well tardily to finish Dr. Darkkon from carrying out his evil plot?
Skink—No Surrender by Ballad Hiaasen
When your cousin goes missing under suspicious circumstances, who do yous call? There's only one human being for the task: a half-crazed, half-feral, one-eyed ex-governor named Skink. Skink joins fourteen-year-one-time Richard on a breakneck chase across Florida, undaunted by lightning storms, poisonous snakes, flight bullets, and giant gators. There are a million places cousin Malley could be, a million unpleasant fates that might take befallen her, but one thing is sure: in the Florida swamp, justice is all-time served wild.
The Business firm of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton
Before long after moving into an old, chilling abode, 13-year-old Thomas Small and his family unit start hearing strange noises. The business firm has a past, and when Thomas discovers a hidden passageway that may have been part of the Underground Railroad, the family realizes the house has a history as well. To discover out all there is to know nigh the House of Dies Drear, Thomas must explore hush-hush rooms—and the secrets of lives lived centuries earlier, lives that tell the story of America'south troubled early years.
The Mystery of Drear Firm by Virginia Hamilton
Thomas Small and his best friend Pesty Darrow have been keeping the undercover of the vast treasure that's hidden in Mr. Pluto'due south cave, once a stop on the Underground Railroad. Pesty also has to keep the treasure a secret from her family, who want it for themselves. And at that place are plenty more secrets in the underground passageways—hidden rooms, Indian legends, and terrifying ghosts. Now Thomas thinks that Pesty might be keeping some secrets from him, too. If they can't trust each other, how volition they ever protect the treasure?
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling
Aven Green loves to tell people that she lost her arms in an alligator wrestling match, or a wildfire in Tanzania, but the truth is she was built-in without them. And when her parents take a job running Stagecoach Pass, a rundown western theme park in Arizona, Aven moves with them across the country knowing that she'll have to answer the question over and over again.
Her new life takes an unexpected turn when she bonds with Connor, a classmate who likewise feels isolated because of his own disability, and they notice a room at Stagecoach Laissez passer that holds bigger secrets than Aven ever could have imagined. It's hard to solve a mystery, help a friend, and face your worst fears. But Aven's almost to discover she can practise information technology all…fifty-fifty without artillery.
OCDaniel by Wesley Male monarch
Daniel is the back-up punter for the Erie Hills Elephants. Which really means he's the h2o boy. He spends football exercise perfectly arranging water cups—and hoping no one notices. Actually, he spends almost of his time hoping no one notices his strange habits—he calls them Zaps: avoiding writing the number four, for instance, or flipping a light switch on and off dozens of times over. He hopes no one notices that he's crazy, specially his best friend Max, and Raya, the prettiest daughter in school. His life gets weirder when another girl at school, who is unkindly nicknamed Psycho Sara, notices him for the commencement fourth dimension. She doesn't simply notice him: she seems to peer through him.
Then Daniel gets a note: "I need your help," information technology says, signed, Beau Star Child—any that means. And suddenly Daniel, a total no i at school, is swept upwardly in a mystery that might modify everything for him.
Chasing Secrets by Jennifer Choldenko
San Francisco, 1900. The Gilded Historic period. A fantastic fourth dimension to be alive for lots of people…but not thirteen-year-onetime Lizzie Kennedy, stuck at Miss Barstow's snobby schoolhouse for girls. Lizzie's cloak-and-dagger passion is science, an unsuitable subject for finishing-school girls. Lizzie lives to go on firm calls with her doc male parent. On those visits to his patients, she discovers a hidden dark side of the city—a side that's full of secrets, rats, and rumors of the plague.
The newspapers, her powerful uncle, and her beloved papa all deny that the plague has reached San Francisco. So why is the heart of the city under quarantine? Why are angry mobs trying to burn Chinatown to the ground? Why is Noah, the Chinese cook's son, suddenly making Lizzie question everything she has known to be true? Ignoring the rules of race and grade, Lizzie and Noah must put the pieces together in a heart-stopping race to save the people they dear.
What are your favorite middle school mystery books?
Source: https://bookriot.com/middle-school-mystery-books/
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