It's a Mystery!

Far from extinction, the mystery genre is as fresh as ever. In today's mysteries, however, you're likely to find a mash-up of genres. Some established writers of adult mysteries are taking a stab at the young adult market, and there are always mysteries published for adults that have plenty of appeal for teens. Here's a rundown of some 2012 titles:

Young Adult Audience

The Edge of Nowhere
by Elizabeth George
Elizabeth George has been writing mysteries for an adult audience since A Great Deliverance was published in 1988. She's well known for her Inspector Lynley mystery series, which has been made into a BBC television series. In her first book for teen readers, we meet Becca, a young woman who is able to hear the thoughts of others. This is a double-edged gift, as Becca learns after hearing some frightening thoughts from her stepfather. Becca is forced to flee, intending to leave their island home with her mother. But things work out quite differently.


Guy Langman, Crime Scene Procrastinator
by Josh Berk
Guy has two reasons for joining the forensics club at his school: To meet girls, and to help him deal with the recent death of his father. Guy is used to being the class clown (so expect plenty of hilarity in this one,) but when one of the students is murdered, it stops being funny. As a matter of fact, the murdered student could be Guy's dopplelganger, which means that Guy could have been the actual target.

Cat Girl's Day Off
by Kimberly Pauley
Nat's family is gifted - seriously gifted. Her older sister can levitate, divine the truth and see through walls, while her younger sister is a super genious who can blend into the background like a chameleon. Nat also has a gift. She can talk to cats. And that's it. In her family, that's embarrassingly unimpressive. But Nat's day comes when the cat of a celebrity blogger calls out for help.

Mister Death's Blue Eyed Girls
by Mary Downing Hahn
Surely you remember reading ghost stories written by the prolific Mary Downing Hahn. In this book she returns to a memory from her own childhood, when two girls were brutally murdered. Hahn brings back the 1955 setting and recalls the terrible tension in her town. But in this telling, friends Nora and Ellie are determined to solve the murder, but at what cost?

I Hunt Killers
by Barry Lyga
You might expect that the son of a serial killer would inherit some bad seed tendencies, but it's far from the truth about Jazz. Jazz finds the crimes abhorrant, and yet, he is the one people turn to when it seems his father has killed again. This leaves Jazz with two options: Suffer the blame that spills from his father's crimes, or solve the murder on his own.

The Butterfly Clues
by Kate Ellison
Penelope - or Lo, as she calls herself - is tormented by her obsessive-compulsive rituals, which have grown worse since the death of her brother. She begins roaming the seediest Cleveland neighborhoods at night. One night, Lo is almost hit by a stray bullet. Then she discovers that a girl was murdered that night, and soon Lo finds that she must find the murderer.

Adult Audience

An Appetite for Murder
by Lucy Burdette
Haley's boyfriend, Chad, lured her to follow him to the warmth of Key West. There could be a job for Haley as a restaurant critic, if Haley can make the make the right connection. When the connection turns up dead, Haley becomes the main suspect.

The Gods of Gotham
by Lyndsay Faye
Timothy Wilde lives and works in Manhattan. He plans to marry the girl of his dreams, Mercy. All of this is cruelly taken away when a fire sweeps through, destroying Timothy's home, work, and face. Desolate, Timothy accepts a job as a police officer from his estranged cousin, Valentine. Timothy's life tilts into dangerous territory as he faces a serial killer who has murdered 19 children.

The Girl Next Door
by Brad Parks
Newspaperman Carter Ross is skimming through the obituaries when he recognized the name of a newspaper carrier for his own paper, Nancy Marino. It's described as a hit-and-run, but Ross decides to investigate further. This novel is described as,"...funny, fresh, and informative about the state of newspapers across the United States."

Have you read a good mystery this year? Tell us about it in the comments!