Allison, Jennifer. Gilda Joyce: psychic investigator.
During the summer before ninth grade, intrepid Gilda Joyce invites herself
to the San Francisco mansion of distant cousin Lester Splinter and his thirteen-year-old
daughter, where she uses her purported psychic abilities and detective skills
to solve the mystery of the mansion's boarded-up tower.
**Read all the Gilda Joyce Books**
Avi. Seer of Shadows.
In New York City in 1872, fourteen-year-old Horace, a photographer's apprentice,
becomes entangled in a plot to create fraudulent spirit photographs, but when
Horace accidentally frees the real ghost of a dead girl bent on revenge, his
life takes a frightening turn.
Avi. The Traitor's Gate.
When his father is arrested as a debtor in 1849 London, fourteen-year-old
John Huffman must take on unexpected responsibilities, from asking a distant
relative for help, to determining why people are spying on him and his family.
Balliet, Blue. Chasing Vermeer.
When seemingly unrelated and strange events start to happen and a precious
Vermeer painting disappears, eleven-year-olds Petra and Calder combine
their talents to solve an international art scandal.
**Read the sequels The Wright 3 and The Calder Game**
Beil, Michael D. Red Blazer Girls: Ring of Rocamadour.
Catholic-schooled seventh-graders Sophie, Margaret, Rebecca, and Leigh Ann help an elderly neighbor solve a puzzle her father left for her estranged daughter twenty years ago.
Bellairs, John. The House with the Clock in its Walls.
A boy goes to live with his magician uncle in a mansion that has a clock hidden
in the walls which is ticking off the minutes until doomsday.
Berlin, Eric. The Puzzling World of Winston Breen.
Puzzle-crazy, twelve-year-old Winston and his ten-year-old sister Katie find themselves involved in a dangerous mystery involving a hidden ring.
Broach, Elise. Masterpiece.
After Marvin, a beetle, makes a miniature drawing as an eleventh birthday gift
for James, a human with whom he shares a house, the two new friends work together
to help recover a Durer drawing stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Broach, Elise. Shakespeare’s Secret.
Named after a character in a Shakespeare play, misfit sixth-grader Hero becomes
interested in exploring this unusual connection because of a valuable diamond
supposedly hidden in her new house, an intriguing neighbor, and the unexpected
attention of the most popular boy in school.
Cooney, Caroline B. The Face on the Milk Carton.
A photograph of a missing girl on a milk carton leads Janie on a search for
her real identity.
Duncan, Lois. The Third Eye.
Karen, who worries that her psychic powers will make her seem different from
other people, is frightened at first when a young policeman asks her to use
her gift to help the police locate missing children.
Dowd, Siobhan. The London Eye Mystery.
When Ted and Kat's cousin Salim disappears from the London Eye ferris wheel,
the two siblings must work together--Ted with his brain that is "wired
differently" and impatient Kat--to try to solve the mystery of what
happened to Salim.
Giff, Patricia Reilly. Eleven.
When Sam, who can barely read, discovers an old newspaper clipping just before
his eleventh birthday, it brings forth memories from his past, and, with
the help of a new friend at school and the castle they are building for
a school project, his questions are eventually answered.
Golding, Julia. The Diamond of Drury Lane.
Catherine "Cat" Royal, an orphan who lives at the Drury Lane Theater in 1790s London, tries to find the "diamond" supposedly hidden in the theater, which unmasks a treasonous political cartoonist and involves her in the street gangs of Covent Garden and the world of nobility.
Hamilton, Virginia. House of Dies Drear.
A family of five moves into an enormous house once used as a hiding place
for runaway slaves. Mysterious sounds and events and discoveries of secret
passageways make the family believe they are in grave danger.
Hiaasen, Carl. Hoot.
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another
boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction
site.
Konigsburg, E.L. From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
Having run away with her younger brother to live in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, twelve-year-old Claudia strives to keep things in order in their new
home and to become a changed person and a heroine to herself.
Lowry, Lois. The One Hundredth Thing About Caroline.
When their mother starts to date the mystery man on the fifth floor who has
been instructed by his agent to "eliminate the children" by the
first of May, eleven-year-old Caroline and her older brother mistakenly figure
they're targeted to be the victims of a savage crime.
Nixon, Joan Lowry. Who Are You?
When the police discover that a man who has been shot has been keeping a file
of her entire life, sixteen-year-old Kristi, an aspiring artist, suspects
a connection with the possible theft of a painting from a museum.
Pullman, Philip. The Ruby in the Smoke.
In nineteenth-century London, sixteen-year-old Sally, a recent orphan, becomes
involved in deadly search for a mysterious ruby.
**Read the sequels**
Shadow in the North
The Tiger in the Well
Raskin, Ellen. The Westing Game.
The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely
assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before
they can claim their inheritance.
Reiss, Katherine. Time Window.
Thirteen-year-old Miranda moves with her family to a small Massachusetts town
and a new house in which a mysterious dollhouse allows her to see into the
past. It is here she discovers her new home exerts an evil influence on the
women of each generation of inhabitants--including Miranda's mother.
Riordan, Rick. The 39 Clues: Maze of Bones.
When their beloved aunt--matriarch of the world's most powerful family--dies, orphaned siblings Amy and Dan Cahill compete with less honorable Cahill descendants in a race around the world to find cryptic clues to a mysterious fortune. Includes game cards which the reader may use to play an online version of the treasure hunt.
**Read the entire series!**
Roberts, Willo Davis. The View From the Cherry Tree.
Rob admits having seen a murder, but no one believes him--except the murderer.
Sherry, Maureen. Walls Within Walls.
When the Smithfork family moves into a lavish Manhattan apartment building, they discover clues to a decades-old mystery hidden behind the walls of their new home.
Springer, Nancy. The Case of the Missing Marquess: an Enola
Holmes Mystery
Enola Holmes, much younger sister of detective Sherlock Holmes, must travel
to London in disguise to unravel the disappearance of her missing mother.
**Read all the Enola Holmes Mysteries!**
Stewart, Trenton Lee. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the
Perilous Journey.
Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance, all graduates of the Learning Institute
for the Very Enlightened and members of the Benedict Society, embark on a
scavenger hunt that turns into a desperate search for the missing Mr. Benedict.
Van Draanen, Wendelin. Sammy Keys and the Hotel Thief.
Seventh grader Sammy's penchant for speaking her mind gets her in trouble
when she involves herself in the investigation of a robbery at the "seedy" hotel
across the street from the seniors' building where she is living with her
grandmother.
** Read all the Sammy Keys books**
Voigt, Cynthia. Callender Papers.
In nineteenth-century Massachusetts, orphan Jean, employed to sort out the
family papers of a reclusive artist, becomes curious about the mysterious,
long-ago death of his wife and the subsequent disappearance of their young
child.