New Young Adult Mysteries

 Mysteries are arguably the most popular genre in fiction. In teaching the mystery genre, analyzing the author's use of classic mystery techniques: clues, suspects, red herrings, foreshadowing, and cliff hangers among others, can help students understand why mysteries are such page turners. I am recommending five new young adult mysteries this month. I'll Stop the World by Lauren Thoman is a genre-bending mystery which finds the main character traveling back in time to solve his grandparents' murder. Marie Lu's new series opener Stars and Smoke is a spy novel which teams up a pop star and his bodyguard. Three Drops of Blood by Gretchen McNeil is a Hitchcock inspired murder mystery where the protagonist witnesses a murder while looking out the window, but no one will believe her. Royal Blood, the first in a new trilogy by Aimee Carter, introduces Evan Bright, the illegitimate daughter of the British King, who becomes a murder suspect when she goes to Britain to meet her family.   The Night in Question, the second in the Agathas series by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Larson, is a closed circle mystery, where Alice and Iris attend a party on an island where a murder occurs. 

In I'll Stop the World Justin Warren travels back in time to find out who set the high school fire that killed his grandparents and to try to stop them.  Justin's life has always been overshadowed by his grandparents' deaths.  His orphaned mother is now an alcoholic, who had him out of wedlock. Stan, her live-in boyfriend, is obsessed with the murders. When Justin drives off a bridge one rainy night and lands in 1985 prior to his grandparents' deaths, he has an opportunity to change the trajectory of his life.  He meets Rose Yin and together they attempt to solve the murders before it's too late. This coming-of-age second chances novel was published by Mindy Kaling's new book studio. Time travel books are tough to pull off and this one with a story line that unfolds both over the course of one week and 38 years has an amazingly satisfyingly ending. 

Stars and Smoke finds a secret agent teaming up with a pop star to bring down a crime syndicate boss. Winter Young, a Chinese American superstar, is recruited by the Panacea Group, an espionage organization, when he is invited to play at crime boss Eli Morrison's daughter's birthday extravaganza.  Winter and Sydney Cossette, a Panacea spy who is posing as his bodyguard, must infiltrate Eli's inner circle and find out about a chemical weapon he is developing.  Although Sydney dismisses Winter as just another pretty face, she soon discovers there is more to him than meets the eye. Their backstories and budding romance are secondary to the action adventure which spy novel fans will love.

In Three Drops of Blood plus-size actress Kate Williams lands a co-starring role on Dirty Pretty Teens, opposite former Disney star Belle Masterson.  Just as Kate makes the decision to skip college and pursue acting, Belle gets caught in a compromising position with the 38-year-old showrunner, and the series is cancelled.  Kate's parents are determined to change Kates mind about college and start charging her for food and rent, so she takes an evening job, filing at her best friend Rowan's dad's law firm. One night she is looking out the window and witnesses a double murder. Nobody wants to believe her except Rowan's brother Ty, whose heart she broke the previous year.  Kate  struggles to be taken seriously, both as an actress looking for roles other than the fat funny sidekick, and as the witness to a serious crime.  Inspired by Hitchcock's Rear Window, this is a page turning thriller and sweet romance with an unconventional protagonist. 

The first book in the Royal Blood trilogy introduces Evan Bright, the illegitimate American daughter of Britain's King Alexander.  After being expelled from her ninth boarding school for setting it on fire, the king's personal secretary spirits her away to Windsor Castle, where her half sister and stepmother greet her with cold shoulders. Evan wants to go home to her mother Laura, who is schizophrenic, but because of the disease, Evan is not allowed to live with her.  Her 18th birthday, when she can make her own decisions, is only a month away. But during her time in England, Evan is assaulted by Jasper Cunningham who ends up murdered with Evan being the prime suspect She and the king's nephew Kit attempt to clear her name.   Readers who enjoy everything royal will find this a unique take on the genre.

The Night in Question, the second book in the Agathas mystery series, finds Alice Ogilvie and Iris Adams attending a Sadie Hawkins dance at Levy Castle, the site of one of Castle Cove's unsolved murders.  Mona Moody, a classic film star, died in the island castle almost a century ago. Alice, who is wandering around looking for clues about Mona's death, walks into a new crime scene.   Rebecca Kennedy is lying in a pool of blood, and Helen Park is standing over her holding a letter opener, the presumed murder weapon.  Although the police think it is an open and shut case, Alice and Iris suspect that Helen is innocent and set out to prove it. Quotes from Agatha Christie's mysteries, as well as fictious quotes from Mona Moody movies, open each chapter. This book comes out May 4, 2023. 

New Series: The Naturals, Pawn and Tandem

It's always fun to find a new series which promises lots of future reading pleasure.  This month I have three to recommend.  The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is a psychological thriller that launches a group of teens who have special abilities that are useful in solving crimes. Pawn by Aimee Carter is a new dystopian series which focuses on a rebellion against a rigid class system. Tandem by Anna Jarzab is a sci-fi/fantasy about parallel universes where everyone has doubles who look identical but have very different personalities.

The Naturals introduces Cassie, who is gifted at reading people.  She doesn’t think much about this gift until the FBI recruits her for a group of crime solving teens with exceptional abilities.  Cassie agrees to participate, secretly hoping the group will help her find the killer who brutally murdered her mother five years earlier.  As she gets to know her fellow her fellow crime solvers, Cassie finds herself attracted to both Michael, who has a knack for reading emotions, and Dean, who shares Cassie’s gift for profiling, but avoids entanglements. However, there is little time for romance, because a serial killer is on the loose and seems to have his sights set on Cassie.

Pawn, the first book in The Blackcoat Rebellion series, sets up a dystopian world where people are assigned to a social class when they turn eighteen and are labeled with a tattoo on the back of their necks.  Kitty Doe is disappointed to be designated a III which will relegate her to a janitorial crew in far-off Denver. Benjy, her childhood love, is sure to be a V or VI and they will be separated for life.  Then she is abducted and when she regains consciousness, she finds she has been “masked” and is now a VII who will be trained to pass for the missing Princess Lila. Lila’s mother Celia is seeking revenge against those she deems responsible for her daughter’s death and hopes to use Kitty as a pawn in her plans. Kitty has only one goal – getting back to Benjy by any means possible.  Captive, the sequel, follows in 2014.

Similarly, Tandem, the first book in the Many-Worlds Trilogy, introduces sixteen-year-old Sasha Lawson who thinks that parallel worlds are a fantasy created by her grandfather, until she is transported to Aurora, another world where she takes the place of the missing Princess Juliana for whom she is an analog. "An analog is a type of double. We all have them; if not in one universe, then in another and in an infinite number of others besides. Analogs should not touch or one of them is ejected from the universe they both stood in. They are essentially equal, but not identical". The tandem is a force field through which analogs move between universes. As the story opens, Sasha thinks she is going to the prom with Grant, on whom she's had a crush since childhood.  However, Grant is actually Thomas, his analog from Aurora who has been sent to abduct her, so she can pose as Princess Juliana.  If Sasha succeeds in fooling everyone until the princess is found, she can return home.  If not, she’ll be trapped forever. Although Sasha wants to return home, she finds herself falling for Thomas and compelled to help resolve the conflict on Aurora.  The sequel called Tether comes out in the summer of 2014