Witness, Murder, Killer: 13+ Mystery Titles for Ages 13 and up

Summer is here! And that means loads of time for kids to experience books in all their glory. This is also a great time to encourage kids to read the books they choose (without having to worry about school assignments) and to try out new genres that they might be interested in learning more about. This series will offer titles for toddlers to teens and include a variety of formats. Each week will focus on a different genre and will follow the same format:

• Mondays – Titles for Ages 3-7
• Tuesdays – Middle Grade Titles for Ages 8-12
• Wednesdays – Young Adult Titles for Ages 13+
• Thursdays – Nonfiction pairings
• Friday – Recap of the Week

Young Adult
All the Truth That’s in Me by Julie Berry
Four years ago, Judith and her friend disappear from Roswell Station. Two years later, Judith is the only one to return, mutilated, reviled and ignored by the town and unable to speak about what happened. But when Roswell Station is attacked, will Judith be able to recover her voice?

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro
Charlotte Holmes is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Sherlock Holmes going to school at Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school, where she meets Jamie Watson. When they are framed for murder, they must join forces to prove their innocence and catch the killer.

Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham
“When seventeen-year-old Rowan Chase finds a skeleton on her family’s property, she has no idea that investigating the brutal century-old murder will lead to a summer of painful discoveries about the past, the present, and herself.” (Taken from Goodreads)

Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
In 1943 Amsterdam, Hanneke spends her time acquiring black market goods for her customers, but one day she is asked to find a Jewish teenager who disappeared from a safe room without a trace. Will Hanneke be drawn further into the resistance as she learns more about the Nazi party and searches for the missing teen?

The Girl I Used to Be by April Henry
Olivia’s mother was murdered and at the time everyone suspected her father was the killer. Now, Olivia is 17 years old and new evidence proves that her father died that same fateful night, which means the killer’s still at large…

I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest
May and Libby created Princess X together – a webcomic that tragically died the same night Libby and her mom were in a fatal car accident. A few years later, May begins seeing drawings of Princess X all over Seattle, is Libby alive and is she trying to send May a message?

Jackaby by William Ritter
“Doctor Who meets Sherlock in William Ritter’s debut novel, which features a detective of the paranormal as seen through the eyes of his adventurous and intelligent assistant in a tale brimming with cheeky humor and a dose of the macabre.” (Taken from Goodreads)

Liars, Inc. by Paula Stokes
Max sells forged permission slips and cover stories for kids at school, for a price, but when his best friend needs a cover story to go meet a girl he’s talked to online, Max doesn’t think twice… that is until his best friend goes missing.

The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
The FBI recruits Cassie, a natural at reading people, for a classified program working with other teens that share her skill set to solve cold cases. But everything is not as it seems and soon a killer is much closer than Cassie realizes.

One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
Because this is too good of a description not to use… “The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars, One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.” (Taken from Goodreads)

This Is Our Story by Ashley Elston
“No one knows what happened that morning at River Point. Five boys went hunting. Four came back. The boys won’t say who fired the shot that killed their friend; the evidence shows it could have been any one of them.” Meanwhile Kate’s working at the District Attorney’s office as an intern during her senior year of high school and discovers there is more than meets the eye in this case as the DA wants to sweep it under the rug and maybe it wasn’t exactly an accident in the woods.

To Catch a Killer by Sheryl Scarborough
Erin grew up with the news following her as she became infamous as the 3-year-old found next to her murdered mother’s body. Now in high school, Erin is fascinated by forensic science and soon finds herself next to another dead body, this time her biology teacher. She decides to find the killer using all her skills and knowledge of forensic science.

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
“Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists” was founded by Albert Ellingham, but soon after the school opened his wife and daughter are kidnapped and so begins the story of an unsolved mystery and Stevie Bell who begins her freshman year at the school convinced that she can solve the puzzle.

White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig
Rufus is having the worst night – first is his ex-boyfriend shows up wanting to “talk”, then his sister calls hysterically crying and when Rufus finally gets to her, she’s standing over her boyfriend’s body with a bloody knife in her hand, but at the same time swearing she didn’t kill him. Is she telling him the whole truth and how can he help her?

*I will caveat this list that due to being YA titles, there will be some trigger warnings, so please make sure to do further research on each title if that is something you look out for, but as they are mystery books, often with a murder involved, I expect some of these trigger warnings to show up.