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Writer's pictureThe Bossy Bookworm

Six Newish Young Adult Mysteries I Want to Read


01 I Killed Zoe Spanos


I'll admit that this cover hooked me at first look, but the premise of this story is similarly irresistible.


Anna arrives in a sleepy Hamptons village to be a nanny, but the community has recently been rocked by the disappearance of a young woman, Zoe Spanos. Strangely, Anna looks a lot like Zoe, so she's faced with the village's pain and suspicion everywhere she goes.


By the end of the summer, Anna has delved into Zoe's disappearance and has attempted to untangle the truth of what happened. Eventually she herself confesses to having hurt Zoe. But not everyone is satisfied with her shaky story.



 

02 The Last Confession of Autumn Casterly

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In Meredith Tate's newest book, Ivy and her wonderfully nerdy friends play in the school band and love board games. But her older sister Autumn is into a darker scene, and when Autumn is abducted by people connected to a drug ring, Ivy must plunge into the sinister underbelly of her sister's life to try to save her.


If Ivy can unravel the snarl of dangerous clues and uncover the secrets Autumn's been keeping, maybe she'll be able to help her sister survive.


 

03 A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

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It's been years since a local young woman, Andie Bell, was murdered by Sal Singh. But Pippa Fitz-Amobi is becoming convinced that Sal didn't do it after all. What happens if the real killer is still on the loose--and what if the murderer finds out Pippa is stirring up suspicion about what really happened?


Is this kind of a young adult fiction version of the Serial podcast? I'm really hoping so.




 

04 Mad, Bad, & Dangerous to Know


Samira Ahmed offers two story lines of young women separated by centuries. Khayyam is in Paris with her parents, but her boyfriend has probably broken up with her and she didn't get into the college she wanted, and she'd just like to wallow. Two hundred years in the past, Leila is a young Muslim woman struggling to survive.


As Khayyam eagerly discovers more of Leila's mysterious history, she begins to grow and change in this feminist coming-of-age story.



 

05 All Eyes on Her


Tabby and Mark were dating. They went into the woods, but only Tabby came out again.


L.E. Flynn presents a story told in everyone's point of view besides Tabby's, a tale in which her best friend, her sister, her ex-boyfriend, and her enemy attempt to cobble together what they think happened--and to assert that they know Tabby and her motivations best.


"A frenzied psychological thriller, superbly paced." ―Booklist, starred review


 

06 The Inheritance Games

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Avery is in high school, and all she's focused on is getting a scholarship and getting out of town. But when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne, a stranger, leaves his fortune to her, her life becomes a lot more complicated--and a lot more dangerous.


She must move into the house to claim her inheritance, but Hawthorne's surviving relatives are bitter, determined to prove her a con woman--and they're still living in the house.


Hawthorne has set out riddles and puzzles Avery must solve before coming into the money that could save her--or will the search for answers destroy her first?


This is the first in the Inheritance Games series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, who also wrote The Naturals series.



 

Any young adult mysteries you've enjoyed lately? There are many recent-ish young adult mysteries that sound intriguing, and I had a little trouble narrowing down this list.


Where was this embarrassment of young-adult-mystery riches when I was actually a young adult? Thank goodness for Lois Duncan (Stranger with my Face!) or I would have been completely out of luck.

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