EVER SINCE SIR ARTHUR Conan Doyle began spinning tales about a detective called Sherlock Holmes, teens have been reading mysteries and thrillers. As the Holmes mysteries suggest, this audience does not need an adolescent protagonist to attract them to a book.
Almost all of the adult bestsellers in this category have been written within the reading range of teens. Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code, has emerged in the last few years as one of teenagers' favorite writers. He is not only winning teen-voted awards but has found his way into high school curriculums as well. Another adult book, Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which features a fifteen-year-old protagonist, also quickly became a favorite book.
For a long time, mysteries and thrillers published specifically for their audience emerged as grade B fiction, attracting few creative writers. Fortunately, in the past few years that trend has been reversed, and many of the books listed—Kathleen Johnson's A Fast and Brutal Wing, Gail Giles's Shattering Glass, and Tim Wynne-Jones's A Thief in the House of Memory —feature not only interesting structures but superb literary writing as well.
In their honesty about contemporary issues, these books have moved a long way since Sherlock Holmes, but they all maintain that compelling, page-turning style that can make them enjoyable to read and hard to put down. I once heard a teenager say that a book was so boring it should be packaged with a fork so that readers could stick themselves from time to time to stay awake. In this group of books, forks are rarely if ever necessary.
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PETER ABRAHAMS
Down the Rabbit Hole: An Echo Falls Mystery
12–14 • HarperCollins/Geringer • 2005 • 375 pp.
In a mystery that develops in a leisurely manner, thirteen-year-old Ingrid visits with Cracked-up Katie right before Katie gets murdered. In fact, Ingrid leaves her beloved red soccer shoes at the scene of the crime. When she returns to get them, she discovers another intruder at the crime scene—who may very well be the murderer. Even though the police chief in her small town of Echo Falls talks to Ingrid frequently, she decides to pursue the murderer privately, drawing on her reading of Sherlock Holmes. At the same time, Ingrid plays her favorite sport, gets the main role in Alice in Wonderland, begins a romance with the son of the police chief, and helps her grandfather save land from development.
A modern Nancy Drew, Ingrid is an attractive heroine with great reader appeal; she solves her crime and narrowly escapes becoming the next murder victim in this light but entertaining mystery, the first of a series.
KEVIN BROOKS
Lucas
14–18 • Scholastic/Chicken House • 2003 • 423 pp.
Fifteen-year-old Cait lives on a small island off the coast of England. Suspicious of everyone, the islanders outdo themselves in their insularity when a sixteen-year-old drifter, Lucas, comes to the island. A beautiful, mysterious boy who seems oddly clairvoyant, Lucas understands what being an outsider means. Cait befriends him, falls in love with him—and watches in horror as members of the hidebound community start to pin crimes on Lucas that he has not committed. When another islander tries to rape Cait, Lucas comes to her defense; although he can save her, he cannot save himself.
Fast-paced and absorbing, the novel moves inevitably toward its tragic end. The dreamlike quality of island life has been juxtaposed with very believable violence and fear as Kevin Brooks explores the hideous consequences of prejudice and hatred.
DAN BROWN
The Da Vinci Code
14–18 • Doubleday • 2003 • 454 pp.
The plot of Dan Brown's bestseller rests on the premise that Jesus Christ had an affair with Mary Magdalene and that their child became the first of a royal bloodline. When the Louvre's chief curator is murdered, Sophie Neveu, a French police cryptologist, and Harvard's symbol expert, Robert Langdon, try to solve the case. As the search moves to England, they find themselves caught between two powerful groups: the Priory of Sion, an ancient secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Da Vinci, and Botticelli, and the conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei.
Including an enormous amount of art history, The Da Vinci Code blends fact and fiction in a breathtaking manner. The book often sends readers to do further research—on the Knights Templar, the Holy Grail, the early history of the Christian Church—to determine what the author invented; it has been taught in high schools for exactly that reason. Because of the controversy surrounding it, other volumes, including a special illustrated edition, have been published to support or refute the claims in the book.
With a fascinating, page-turning plot, the book intrigues many readers who do not normally pick up thrillers. Heading the bestseller list for two years, The Da Vinci Code has sold over 20 million copies. An enormous number of those readers are teenagers; consequently, many of them—who also enjoy Angels & Demons and Deception Point —now list Dan Brown as one of their favorite authors.
ROBERT CORMIER
The Rag and Bone Shop
12–14 • Delacorte • 2001 • 176 pp.
In his last novel, Robert Cormier gave his fans the kind of taut, powerful, and compelling story that had been his trademark since The Chocolate War. A seven-year-old girl has been brutally murdered, and a shy and sweet twelve-year-old boy, Jason, was the last person to see her alive. Since the case has attracted so much local attention, a man named Trent, a special kind of police officer, has been brought to town, for he always gets a confession. His prey, this time, happens to be an innocent boy.
Most of the novel focuses on Trent's interrogation and his pursuit of a confession. The reader feels Jason's confusion, discomfort, and finally defeat as he admits to what he has not done. Then Cormier, the master of the unexpected ending, pulls a few more punches.
This brief page-turner explores guilt, redemption, and all of the evil that lurks, as described by the poet William Butler Yeats, in "the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart."
SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
The Hound of the Baskervilles
12–18 • McClure's • 1902 • 256 pp.
Critics of young adult literature often proclaim the irrefutable truth that these books must feature a young adult protagonist. However, they forget one of the most popular books for young adults over the last century. In one of the classic mysteries of all time, Sherlock Holmes sends Dr. Watson to Baskerville Hall, in Dartmoor, Devonshire, England, in 1889. Sir Charles Baskerville has just died, seemingly killed by the legendary and mysterious black hound that has plagued the Baskerville line. Holmes, in the meantime, disguises himself so that he can roam the moors at night. The estate borders a moor that includes the Grimpen Mire, a deadly quicksand bog; a mysterious butler, an escaped killer, and the spectral hounds complete the gothic atmosphere.
A brilliant book, deftly constructed with no wasted words, The Hound of the Baskervilles displays the talents of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's great creation. A century's time has not dulled the thrill of this tale, which gets assigned to students summer after summer. Once engaged in the book, no one seems to miss a young adult protagonist; almost all who encounter the story happily move on to Conan Doyle's many brilliant stories about the great detective.
Killing Mr. Griffin
12–14 • Little, Brown • 1978 • 223 pp.
A former college teacher, now a high school English instructor, Brian Griffin tortures his students with his high standards and unbending principles. One day Mark Kinney, a persuasive teenager with a personality that resembles a psychopath's, convinces four others to help him in a "prank"—to kidnap Mr. Griffin and make him miserable for a few hours. But after leaving Mr. Griffin tied up in the dark, the pranksters return to find him dead. They all begin to deal with their actions then, ultimately turning on one another.
Made into a movie, Killing Mr. Griffin is a perennial crowd-pleaser, although it may seem a bit ludicrous in places, such as the kidnapping scene. But the book builds tension and fear and keeps readers engrossed until the final, surprising ending. As more than one person has learned, the lesson of the book is: "Never, I repeat NEVER! kidnap your teacher."
In this novel and many of her other popular mysteries, such as I Know What You Did Last Summer, Lois Duncan knows how to build suspense and keep young teens reading breathlessly until the final page.
GAIL GILES
Shattering Glass
12–14 • Roaring Brook • 2002 • 215 pp.
In the opening paragraph, readers learn that Simon Glass has been killed; on the last page, they learn how. But the rest of the book builds suspense, with twists and turns, as Gail Giles shows a high school clique gone amuck. When Rob Haynes transfers to a new high school, he quickly becomes the leader of the pack. Handsome, removed, manipulative, and angry, he sets out to turn the school on its ear. His main project becomes Simon Glass, the school nerd, or goat, whom Rob decides to transform into the "class favorite." But Glass, wealthy and brilliant, has some plans of his own, which ultimately cause his murder. Told by Young Steward, who goes to jail for the crime, the novel builds tension page by page, leading the reader to the horrifying if inevitable conclusion.
Darker than Lois Duncan's Killing Mr. Griffin but covering some of the same territory, Shattering Glass examines a sinister high school environment and the ultimate danger of going along with the crowd.
JOHN GRISHAM
The Last Juror
14–18 • Doubleday • 2004 • 485 pp.
John Grisham remains perennially popular with adolescents; often their lists of favorite books include one if not two Grisham titles. Because he creates exciting, fast-paced plots filled with colorful characters, he has fashioned thriller after thriller that has been adapted well for the movies and attracted teens.
The Last Juror takes place in the small town of Clanton, Mississippi, in the 1970s. A long-haired Yankee and college dropout, Willie Traynor takes control of the only newspaper in Ford County. With the brutal murder of a young mother, he brings the paper into the maelstrom that the crime creates. The town of Clayton, those who live outside the law, and the events of history that slowly change the South all become a focus for the narrative. But ultimately the story returns to what happens when the convicted murderer is released and the jurors start to die.
In a funny, suspenseful, and heartfelt novel, Grisham presents the tensions between the old and new South and a young man's transformation when he chose to live in small-town Mississippi.
LEV GROSSMAN
Codex
14–18 • Harcourt • 2004 • 348 pp.
Edward Wozny, an investment banker on a two-week vacation between jobs, becomes drawn into the murky world of medieval literature. Cataloguing a rare book collection, he is solicited by the Duke and Duchess of Bowmry to find a codex by Gervase of Langford—which may not even exist. Edward pulls a passionate young scholar, Margaret Napier, into the quest, and the two are quickly drawn into events that spin out of control as the duke and duchess vie against each other. When not searching for the mysterious document, Edward plays MOMUS, an intricate, addictive computer game that starts to mirror his real adventures as he looks for the codex.
This literary historical thriller offers an exciting plot, an attractive young scholar, and an intriguing subplot for technophiles.
DAVID GUTERSON
Snow Falling on Cedars
14–18 • Harcourt • 1994 • 480 pp.
In 1954 a small island community off the coast of Washington State tries a Japanese-American man for the murder of Carl Heine, another fisherman on the island. The entire community had been severely affected during World War II when its Japanese citizens had been forced into internment camps. The accused murderer, Kabuo Miyamoto, and the newspaperman, Ishmael Chambers, resume seemingly normal lives after the war. But Chambers's childhood sweetheart was now married to Miyamoto. So when Chambers finds information that could alter the verdict of the trial, he must face a private battle as powerful as the public one.
An English teacher who adored To Kill a Mockingbird, David Guterson took its structure—two separate stories that become one—and kept many of the same elements: a murder trial, a courtroom drama, a racial conflict, an identifiable regional setting, and a particular time in American history. Guterson felt so indebted to Harper Lee that when he won the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award, he offered to fly the aging author to Washington, D.C., for the ceremonies.
With over three million copies in print and now translated into twenty-five languages, Snow Falling on Cedars works particularly well in high school literature classes or social studies units on the Japanese-American internment. A leisurely novel, it opens like a tight rosebud and blooms in full by the end.
MARK HADDON
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
14–18 • Doubleday • 2003 • 226 pp.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Yann Martel's Life of Pi, and Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass serve as the current standard-bearers for "crossover books." Publishers generally use that term to mean those books that feature a young adult protagonist—or sometimes even a child protagonist—and can be read with equal enthusiasm by adults and young adults. In England, Curious Incident was released simultaneously as both a young adult and an adult title, but it won the prestigious Whitbread Book of the Year Award as an adult novel. In the United States, it appeared only on an adult list and became a New York Times bestseller. But the book has gained a wide and enthusiastic audience of all ages on both sides of the Atlantic.
Fifteen-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone, of Swindon, Wiltshire, England, knows "all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,057." Out walking at midnight, Christopher discovers a dead poodle with a pitchfork sticking through it. As a devotee of Sherlock Holmes, Christopher sets out to solve this mystery as if he himself were the great detective. Very smart when it comes to logic, Christopher suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism marked by emotional detachment, which makes him unable to understand human beings or typical emotions. He therefore does not see where his investigation is taking him and cannot see his effect on others—including his increasingly frustrated parents, who can barely handle him. But he's a whiz at other things: he spends whole chapters discussing mathematical problems, deep space, and the nature of perception.
Amazing in his portrayal of an emotionally dissociated, or autistic, mind, Mark Haddon shows a rare gift of empathy; like his character, he can be wise, funny, and thought-provoking. As he has written, the book "has a very simple surface, but there are layers of irony and paradox all the way through it. Here is a fiction about a character who says he can only tell the truth, he can't tell lies—but he gets everything wrong."
Some find this novel hilarious, some weep, but most find themselves intrigued by Christopher, one of the freshest, most lovable adolescents ever to appear in fiction. Although a recent title, this young adult pleaser will be adopted for high school English classes well into the future.
The House of Dies Drear
12–14 • Macmillan • 1968 • 256 pp.
Thirteen-year-old Thomas Small arrives in an Ohio town because his father has been hired to teach history at the college. They move into a long-empty house; with secret tunnels, it once served as an important station on the Underground Railroad run by the abolitionist Dies Drear. But after they move in, ghosts walk, walls slide back to reveal secret passages, and Thomas and his father find hidden treasure.
Since Virginia Hamilton's grandfather traveled to Ohio as a fugitive slave on the Underground Railroad, she had always been fascinated by his story. Although she wrote many critically acclaimed books, she continued to love this title because it was full of "excitement, mystery, black history, the strong, black family." With a compelling plot, a gothic setting, and an attractive protagonist, The House of Dies Drear makes history tangible, so it is often included in American history units on slavery.
TONY HILLERMAN
The Wailing Wind
14–18 • HarperCollins • 2002 • 334 pp.
Over the years, Tony Hillerman has garnered a large adolescent following; his delightful books always combine a Native American cultural journey, police methods, and a mystery. For a reader new to Hillerman, The Wailing Wind is an excellent place to start. The Navajo Tribal Police lieutenant Joe Leaphorn has retired, leaving his companion, Sergeant Jim Chee, in command. Chee's assistant, Officer Bernadette Manuelito, bungles her first appearance at a homicide crime scene, and Leaphorn comes into the case to help them cover her mishap. All three start hunting for an alleged gold deposit on Native land—trying to find it and stay alive before the killer strikes again. During the investigation, a romance develops between Chee and Manuelito, who are both devoted to their people and way of life.
But relating the plot of a Hillerman novel never captures its texture. In this New Mexico landscape, a different sense of time, a connection to the natural world, and a unique way of looking at reality emerge as well. Readers learn about the history of the West and the indigenous ways of its people in books that keep them coming back. Many Hillerman novels appear on summer reading lists; however, they also work well for independent reading or for parent-teen book discussions.
KATHLEEN JEFFRIE JOHNSON
A Fast and Brutal Wing
12–14 • Roaring Brook • 2004 • 191 pp.
In a mystery that remains ambiguous from beginning to end, a series of memos, newspaper articles, and a journal unfold a disturbing set of events. On a Halloween night, three teenagers awake to find themselves naked and bloody in the deserted woods near the house of a now-vanished writer. In the process of unraveling this potential crime without a body, Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson reveals information about the family of one of the teens and about a father who also vanished. The girl believes that she can transform herself into a cat and that her brother becomes a hawk. In the end, the line between psychosis and reality remains blurry—only the vanished writer is perfectly fine, having merely taken a trip.
Certainly the book expands the possibilities of mysteries written with adolescent characters; readers focus not on who committed a crime but whether anything actually happened—except in the mind of a disturbed teenage protagonist. Some love this powerful blend of fantasy and mystery, and some hate it—but few forget it.
LAURIE R. KING
The Beekeeper's Apprentice
14–18 • St. Martin's • 1994 • 405 pp.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes has inspired a legion of writers to further develop his character. But none has crafted as beguiling and exciting mysteries about him as Laurie R. King.
During World War I, Holmes has retired to a Sussex farm to raise bees, occasionally investigating cases for the government. Fifteen-year-old Mary Russell, whose wit, ego, and sleuthing gifts match those of Holmes, stumbles into him on Sussex Downs one day. Since Watson has been relegated to a role as a butler, Holmes and Mary make a detective team, working on some cases together until Mary leaves to study theology at Oxford. Ultimately, the two must solve the case of the kidnapping of Jessica Simpson, the daughter of an American senator, and Holmes and Mary find themselves pitted against the daughter of the diabolical Professor Moriarty.
A book for Holmes fans and those who love history, humor, adventure, and mystery, The Beekeeper's Apprentice and its sequels keep readers craving more about Mary Russell. Although the book can simply be read for enjoyment or in adult-teen discussion groups, it has even been used in high schools to teach math.
E. L. KONIGSBURG
Silent to the Bone
12–14 • Atheneum/Karl • 2000 • 261 pp.
A frantic call to the police opens this novel: a woman says that her baby won't wake up. Since the baby's accident, thirteen-year-old Branwell remains silent, refusing or unable to speak about what happened to his half-sister. Confined to the Clarion County Juvenile Behavioral Center, Branwell often sees his best friend, Connor, who narrates the novel and tries to help him. Connor uses a set of written flashcards to cut through the silence; eventually, Bran starts spelling out words in his desire to communicate his thoughts. Although everyone holds Bran responsible for the baby's coma, he had simply covered up for the irresponsible actions of the seductive British au pair.
Just as in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E. L. Konigsburg develops two smart, savvy protagonists. With an incisive understanding of psychology and the human heart, she keeps the narrative tense and taut until the final upbeat ending.
SHARYN MCCRUMB
Ghost Riders
14–18 • Dutton • 2003 • 401 pp.
Early in the Civil War, the mountain dwellers of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee worked to stay neutral, believing the war a rich man's argument. But once the Union sympathizer Keith Blalock gets drafted into the Confederacy, Malinda Blalock decides not to wait out the war. She cuts off her hair and enlists as Sam, Keith's younger brother. Getting themselves discharged, the two then join the Union ranks, avenging Confederate raids on their friends and relatives. Sam's Confederate colonel, Zebulon Baird Vance, goes on to serve as the governor of North Carolina during the war—events also covered in the narrative.
In a parallel story line, modern Civil War reenactment troops camp in this area of the Appalachians. But as they recreate Southern history, the ghosts of fallen soldiers begin appearing at their campsites and to residents. Two area locals, who possess the gift of "sight," must quell these ghosts.
One of the best novelists exploring Appalachian history today, Sharon McCrumb also brings to life another, little-known aspect of the Civil War—the hundreds of women disguised as men who participated in the war. For Ghost Riders, McCrumb used the true stories of the Blalocks and Zebulon Baird Vance, mixed it with local history, and added a fictitious current community.
McCrumb's ballad novels, based on lore passed through the generations— The Ballad of Frankie Silver, She Walks These Hills, and The Rosewood Casket —are often included in high school curriculums. With compelling plots, eccentric characters, and a great deal of history, the books resemble Appalachian quilts; her scraps of legends, ballads, rural life, and local tragedy present deeper truths about the culture of the South's mountain region.
JOYCE MCDONALD
Shades of Simon Gray
12–14 • Delacorte • 2001 • 248 pp.
In 1798, the citizens of Bellehaven hung Jessup Wildemere from the Liberty Tree without benefit of a trial. On a strange night two hundred years later, Simon Gray, a seemingly model student, drives his car at high speed into that tree and arrives in the hospital in a coma. Is it an accident or intentional? What is Simon hiding? Three seniors panic about Simon's crash; Simon had been illegally entering the computer system at school, gaining valuable tests for them. They had therefore been accepted by their chosen colleges without doing the necessary work. As Simon remains suspended in a coma, he travels back in time, meets Jessup Wildemere, and gains the necessary evidence to learn the truth about this centuries-old crime. Using elements of a ghost story, a thriller, and a romance, Joyce McDonald excels in pacing and drama, keeping readers riveted as all the details come together.
JOYCE MCDONALD
Swallowing Stones
12–14 • Delacorte • 1997 • 245 pp.
At a Fourth of July party, teenage Michael MacKenzie tests a Winchester rifle he was given. The bullet kills Charlie Ward, who is working on his roof four blocks away. For most of the narrative Michael, basically a likable and decent young man, attempts to hide his crime. But slowly his guilt isolates him from those around him. In alternating sections, fifteen-year-old Jenna faces the tremendous loss caused by her father's horrifying death. In an ending not as explicit as some teens have wanted, readers see Michael ready to confess to Jenna.
Exploring guilt and the repercussions of an accidental crime, this highly emotional book keeps readers riveted as they wait for Michael to make the right choice.
GRAHAM MCNAMEE
Acceleration
12–14 • Random House/Lamb • 2003 • 213 pp.
While working in the lost-and-found department of the Toronto Transit Commission, seventeen-year-old Duncan finds an unclaimed journal that appears to have been written by a serial killer. At first he tries to ignore it, then he tries to get the attention of the police; finally he and one of his best friends work through the journal to locate this madman. Duncan has been haunted by an incident in which he could not save the life of a drowning swimmer near him in the pool. He decides that this time he won't fail the women stalked by this killer, even though his friend, Vinny, feels that hunting for this man is a bit like the Hardy boys going after Hannibal Lecter.
This fast-paced, thrilling exploration of the mind of a cold-blooded killer has been leavened by humor and the sarcasm and bantering of teenage boys. But it is taut, compelling, totally believable, and almost impossible to put down.
CAROL PLUM-UCCI
The Body of Christopher Creed
12–14 • Harcourt • 2000 • 331 pp.
PRINTZ HONOR
Christopher Creed has been considered a freak all his life, an outsider, the target of all the bullies in his small town in South New Jersey. But when he disappears without a trace, the town wonders if he has been murdered or if his last e-mail indicates a suicide. In this final communication, Chris reveals his envy of others, like golden boy sixteen-year-old Torey Adams. Torey finds himself haunted by Creed's disappearance and tries to figure out what happened with Chris's neighbor Ali and her boyfriend, Bo, a guy from the wrong side of the tracks who has a criminal record. Their search takes Torey into a Native American burial grounds and old secrets in his town.
The author of other fine mysteries for young adults, including What Happened to Lani Garver, Carol Plum-Ucci has crafted a suspenseful and compelling novel that explores the effects of intolerance in a community.
PHILIP PULLMAN
The Ruby in the Smoke
12–14 • Knopf • 1987 • 230 pp.
Featuring sixteen-year-old Sally Lockhart, The Ruby in the Smoke takes place in the back alleys, wharves, sewers, and opium dens of Victorian London. A pistol-packing, adventurous heroine, Sally has been raised unconventionally by her father. When he dies in a shipwreck, she fends for herself and even discovers how he was murdered. The book includes an evil villainess, a maharajah's ruby, Chinese pirates, a secret society, and many unsavory denizens of the London underworld.
The page-turning story sends readers quickly to the next two installments, The Shadow in the North and The Tiger in the Well.
The Westing Game
12–14 • Dutton • 1978 • 216 pp.
NEWBERY MEDAL
In the bicentennial year of 1976, Ellen Raskin began drafting a novel that took almost two years to write and had a few distinct components: a historical background, a puzzle mystery, the forging of wills, the death of a millionaire, and imperfect heirs. With a working title of "Eight Imperfect Pairs of Heirs," the book that evolved surprised her. This apparently simple story chronicles how the will of Samuel W. Westing, an eccentric millionaire, sends his heirs searching for his murderer. Before the end of the book, the simple plot grows amazingly complex with aliases, disguises, word games, and trickery.
Raskin came to writing through her work as an artist. After designing about a thousand book jackets, she began to illustrate children's books. She moved on to writing and illustrating books with word drawings; then she shifted to prose. She had always hoped to win the Caldecott Medal for illustration. Instead, she won a Newbery Medal for The Westing Game, a book that many people thought was simply too much fun to win the highest literary award.
Because young readers enjoy the twists and turns of her plots, this book has become a staple for middle schools and independent reading.
ALICE SEBOLD
The Lovely Bones
14–18 • Little, Brown • 2002 • 330 pp.
On December 6, 1973, fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon was brutally raped and murdered. Placed in an interim heaven until she can let go of earthly concerns, Susie narrates her own story as she watches her grief-stricken family and friends come to terms with this crime in a suburban community. Her mother escapes her pain through adultery; her sister constantly thinks about Susie; her shattered father seeks the murderer with vengeance, even when the police have given up.
As family and friends start to create "the lovely bones" knitted around the empty space left by Susie's death, she stays fourteen in heaven, savoring her life on Earth and viewing those she loves. A modern version of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, the novel remains uplifting, funny, and sweet, despite the murder at its core. In this New York Times bestseller, Alice Sebold has taken a neighborhood tragedy and turned it into compelling and satisfying literature that works well in high school English classes and adult-teen book discussion groups.
ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
14–18 • Anchor • 2002 • 235 pp.
Not a conventional mystery, Alexander McCall Smith's novel tells the story of a female private detective. Whatever the category, readers have become enchanted with his creation, Precious Ramotswe, of Botswana, who optimistically sets up the first detection agency in her country. At first her cases come slowly—women who believe they have cheating husbands, a missing child who might have been murdered by witch doctors. Without training but with great intuition, sometimes working from a detective manual, Mma Ramotswe develops her conclusions in a desultory way and focuses on several investigations at once, weaving them in and out of the narrative. Her love of Africa, particularly Botswana, her humanity, her goodness, and her humor enliven every page.
Mma Ramotswe's saga appeared in the United States several years after its publication in England, where two sequels, Tears of the Giraffe and Morality for Beautiful Girls, had already been published. The author, who taught law at the University of Botswana, had written more than fifty books when he started to develop his story about a cheerful woman with "a traditional build." Like his readers, he became so enthralled with his detective that he continued writing. He believes that his books, whose popularity spread by word of mouth, provide an antidote to the terrible times after September 11,2001. Mma Ramotswe truly lives a kinder, gentler life as she enjoys bush tea with her friends and clients.
A unique setting, a totally engaging heroine, and a gentle, lyrical style, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and its sequels have quickly become bestsellers in the United States. Because older teens also enjoy them, the books have started to appear on high school reading lists and make excellent choices for teen-adult discussions.
DONNA TARTT
The Secret History
14–18 • Knopf • 1992 • 559 pp.
From the Prologue of the book, in which five of his college friends recount the murder of Bunny Corcoran, to the final pages, where the fate of these five is revealed, The Secret History moves with a slow, enthralling, but impeccably controlled pace. When Richard Papen arrives at Hamden College in Vermont, he is quickly seduced and taken into an elite group of Greek scholars, who get private tutoring from the world-famous Julian Morrow. With trust funds, lots of time, and lots of pretensions, the group enjoys long weekends in New England manors and engages in a sybaritic life. But slowly Richard realizes that they are not what they seem on the surface. In a move to cover up an inadvertent murder, four of them plot Bunny's demise because he has discovered their deed and has been blackmailing them. Although devoid of conscience, whether engaging in incest or group sex, the young murderers find themselves haunted by their undetected crime. In fact, it shapes what remains of their lives.
On reading some of Donna Tartt's stories, published when she was a freshman in college, one faculty member introduced himself, saying, "My name is Willie Morris and I think you're a genius." Twenty-eight when the book was published, Tartt had worked for ten years on a thousand-page manuscript, begun when she was a student at Bennington College, the model for Hamden. Her admiration for Greek literature influenced the work, but she also admitted her indebtedness to certain children's novels, such as Mary Poppins, in which the young live in a world of their own, largely unsupervised. This first novel became an immediate success and headed up the New York Times bestseller list; over a million copies have been printed in the United States alone, and it has been translated into twenty-three languages.
With its mesmerizing college-age protagonists and its elements of Greek tragedy—beauty, unrequited love, betrayal, mystery, and murder— The Secret History has developed a cult following among adolescents, much like The Catcher in the Rye and Catch-22.
Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman?
12–14 • Orchard • 2004 • 233 pp.
Readers first meet the adult narrator, Montmorency, in 1875 as a convict, badly bruised and scarred from his life of crime. Because a kind doctor decides to repair him, give him new life, and put him on display at the Scientific Society, the criminal hears a lecture on the new underground systems in Victorian London. Hence, when released from prison, he begins a whole new wave of crime. Establishing two personalities, he lives as both Scarper, an assistant, and Scarper's master, Montmorency, who dresses in expensive clothes and gradually insinuates himself into the best circles of society. But in the very process of acting like a gentleman, Montmorency changes his character. The reader watches a satisfying progress from a liar and thief to a man who uses his espionage skills in the service of his country—although in the end, Montmorency keeps Scarper's boots under his bed—just in case.
In the same way that the viewer starts to side with the criminals in Bonnie and Clyde, the reader begins to identify with Montmorency and hope for his escape. Consequently, at the end, when he returns stolen objects and makes restitution, they can celebrate. This delightful and unusual novel of unpunished crime also reveals a great deal about Victorian England, its dark back streets and alleys, and its class system; it has been successfully continued in sequels.
NANCY WERLIN
The Killer's Cousin
12–14 • Delacorte • 1998 • 231 pp.
Seventeen-year-old David Yaffe, recently acquitted of his girlfriend's murder, moves in with his aunt, uncle, and cousin so he can complete his senior year of high school in a new location. Uncle Vic has some sympathy for David's plight, for his own daughter, Kathy, had died four years earlier. But his eleven-year-old cousin, Lily, exhibits extremely malicious behavior and starts entering David's apartment to destroy computer files and his possessions. Although neither of her parents understand that she may be a bad seed, David begins to realize that her behavior has something to do with Kathy's death. In a riveting climax, the expertly paced thriller brings David and Lily together; as two people who have killed the things they love, they must ultimately help each other move toward healing.
TIM WYNNE-JONES
A Thief in the House of Memory
12–14 • Farrar, Straus/Kroupa • 2005 • 210 pp.
When Dec Steeple was ten, his beautiful mother, Lindy, disappeared. After he turned sixteen, a mysterious intruder—who entered the family mansion of Steeple Hall—was crushed under a bookcase. Although the case has been dismissed by the town court, Dec finds himself obsessing about this man and his missing mother. As other objects—a long-lost watch, a yearbook—appear and disappear, Dec experiences vivid dreams, memories, and visions of his mother. He even starts believing that his boring and mild-mannered father may actually be a killer.
With subtlety and ambiguity, Tim Wynne-Jones has woven a spellbinding tale of old wealth, old memories, and old pain. In this exploration of the shifting reality of memory, the enticing story and the sympathetic protagonist keep readers engaged until the emotional and believable resolution.