New YA Mysteries

 Mysteries are arguably the most popular genre in fiction. In teaching the mystery genre, analyzing the author's use of classic mystery techniques can help students understand why mysteries are such "page turners." Foreshadowing, cliff hangers, and red herrings are just a few of the techniques authors use to keep their readers coming back for more. Several new YA mysteries lend themselves to this analysis. Of course, the prolific Karen McManus has a wonderful new mystery offering, Such Charming Liars, in which a mother-daughter grifter team sets out to do their final job, but they run into unexpected complications. The second book in the Liar's Beach series by Katie Cotugno, Hemlock House, once again has Holiday and Linden investigating a mystery that the police have supposedly solved. Added to the intrigue are feelings that are beginning to surface between the two sleuths. The Champions, the second book in Kara Thomas's Cheerleaders duology finds the football team targeted for murder this time around. Finally, The Debutantes by Olivia Worley is set at Le Masques Ball, the social event of the year for New Orleans elite. Last year's ball queen was murdered and the planners are hoping to avoid such drama at this year's soiree, but it's not to be. 

 In Such Charming Liars Kat and her mother, Jamie, have been living under assumed identities after fleeing her abusive father.  After a two-day unsuccessful marriage to Luke Rooney in Las Vegas, Jamie has been working for a jewelry forging ring helmed by Kat’s pseudo-grandmother Gem.  When Gem takes Kat along on a job, Jamie is furious and wants out. Gem agrees after one last job, heisting a ruby necklace from the wealthy Sutherland family at the patriarch’s 80^th birthday party. Kat tags along on the job and finds out Luke and his son Liam are also attending. Complications quickly arise when Parker Sutherland is found dead with the ruby necklace in his pocket. Kat and Liam join forces, along with Parker’s nephew Augustus to find the murderer.  Twists and turns keep the reader engaged, as one double cross after another confounds their investigation.

Hemlock House, the sequel to Liar’s Beach, finds Linden and Holiday at Harvard investigating the death of Bri, Linden’s girlfriend Greer's roommate.  Bri, Greer’s best friend, is found in Greer’s bed, wearing her clothes, dead of an apparent overdose.  But the drugs found at the scene are not what shows up in the autopsy. Once again Holiday is the calm analytical one in the detective duo. While Linden is suspended after being framed for stealing Greer’s watch, Holiday pieces together the clues and confronts the murderer.  A subplot involving a love triangle between Linden, Holiday and Greer adds spice to the mix. Linden is once again the narrator, whose rash, clueless behavior is reined in by Holiday, his childhood friend and now maybe more.

The Champions, the second book in the Cheerleaders duology, takes place eleven years after the killer of the dead cheerleaders in Sunnybrook is brought to justice.  Hadley has just moved to Sunnybrook and is hoping to become editor of the school newspaper. She is disappointed when she is assigned a story about the school’s championship Tiger football team, which is a positive focus for the town. However, soon after she turns in her story, one of the team members, whom she interviewed, is poisoned, and Hadley begins getting strange emails telling her to stay away from the football team. It is clear that the players have secrets, and when a second player is mysteriously killed, Hadley wonders if someone wants revenge for their sins. 

In The Debutantes Les Masques Ball is the social event of the season for New Orleans elite, even though last year’s queen, Margot Landry, was murdered.  Margot was a wild child, and many people thought her self-destructive tendencies won out. Then this year’s queen, the perfectly poised Lily LeBlanc, disappears after the ball is hijacked by someone in a Jester costume. She sends a text to the Maids on her court, her best friend Vivian, her boyfriend’s sister Piper and April, her frenemy, asking them to meet her the next morning. However, she never shows up.  The three of them must band together to find out why she disappeared and rescue her before she becomes another dead queen.