Let’s be honest, good mystery books for teens are hard to find. “The Mystery Of The Missing Cupcake”? No thanks. “Who Stole My Candy”? Hard pass. And there’s no way Mom would let me read “The Most Gruesome Murder Ever-A True Story”! But there are a few courageous writers who have somehow managed to write thoughtful, thrilling mysteries for teens- without, you know, any murders in horrific detail. So, without further ado, here are some of those writers and their books.

TRENTON LEE STEWART

I’m a big fan of Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society. It’s so well thought out and so fun to read. I love the characters and attention to detail. Lesser known are his books The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, which technically is a prequel of The Mysterious Benedict Society although it’s also easily read on its own, and The Secret Keepers, which I love. It’s very funny, but it’s definitely a page-turner. You have to know what happens next.

MADELEINE L’ENGLE

Madeleine L’engle is best known for her awesome book A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels, but she also has written some very good mysteries as well. I haven’t read all of them, but the ones I’ve read and know to be really good are Troubling a Star and Dragons in the Waters. The main character of Troubling a Star is Vicky Austen, and if you fall in love with her like I did, then you should read the other books about her like Meet the Austens and some others I haven’t read yet. hopefully later I can write a blog post about the Vicky\Austen books.

LEMONY SNICKET

Lemony Snicket wrote A Series of Unfortunate Events. It is amazing. I love the writing style of Lemony Snicket and I love his sense of humor. Reading the books, you might notice some funny details, like the name of the Quagmire triplets. Quagmire means an awkward, complex, or hazardous situation. Also, I can’t recommend the show enough. It is so good. It really brings the show to life. I’ve probably watched it all the way through at least three times.

Okay, those are some great authors who wrote some great mysteries. Soon I’m going to write about some graphic novels, so stay tuned.