Ford, M. (2011). The Poisoned House. Park Ridge, IL: Whitman. This short novel (the trim size makes it look a bit longer than it is) begins with fourteen-year-old Abi’s attempted escape from the British mansion where she works “in service.” Caught and returned to Greave Hall, Abi must face the harsh discipline meted out by…
Wells, Robison (2011). Variant. NY: HarperTeen. 376 pages. There should totally be a rule that all slightly science fiction themed mystery trilogies should announce themselves to the reader on the first page. Variant, which I totally expected to conclude in a single volume, is one such example, and, of course, I’m foaming to read the…
Healey, Karen (2011). The Shattering. NY: Little, Brown. 314 pages. I had read and enjoyed Healey’s first novel for young adults, Guardian of the Dead, a fantasy-themed mystery set in New Zealand that incorporated elements of Maori myth and legend to inform its fantastic premise, and I have to say I liked this one even…
Wells, Dan (2011). I Don’t Want to Kill You. NY: Tor. 320 pages. This is the third book in what I believe began as a planned trilogy but which, considering the somewhat open conclusion of this novel, may be extended indefinitely. Wells’ novels (I Am Not a Serial Killer, Mr. Monster, and I Don’t Want…
Schrefer, Eliot (2010). The Deadly Sister. NY: Scholastic. 310 pages. Schrefer’s novel begins with a bang when its eighteen-year-old narrator, Abby, discovers the body of Jefferson, one of her high school’s most popular and most hated boys, in the woods. As she tentatively examines the crime scene, Abby discovers evidence that her younger sister, a…
Wells, Dan (2010). Mr. Monster. NY: Tor. 288 pages. Oh, man, this sequel to Wells’ 2010 I Am Not a Serial Killer is much more hardcore than the first novel. Following the death of the supernatural serial killer who had plagued his small town of Clayton, fifteen-year-old John Wayne Cleaver continues to struggle with his…
Haddix, Margaret Peterson (2009). Found. NY: Simon and Schuster. 336 pages. Man, I am a sucker for a Margaret Peterson Haddix series! Found, the first book in what has become “The Missing” series (3 books have been published to date), establishes the new serial in terms that will likely appeal to the young YA audience…
Wells, Dan (2010). I am not a serial killer. NY: Tor. 271 pages. Although this book has been published as an adult novel, its style and content more closely resemble that of a YA novel. That this book is the first in a planned trilogy only adds to the resemblance. Told from the first-person perspective…
Cooney, Caroline B. (2009). If the witness lied. NY: Delacorte Press. 213 pages. Man, Caroline B. Cooney must be about 100 years old by now and she’s still churning them out. In her latest novel, a family thriller (written in a style not unlike 2007′s re-release of her 1993 novel Diamonds in the Shadow), three…
Carman, Patrick (2009). Skeleton Creek. NY: Scholastic. 185 pages. I was so psyched to see this at my library because I had seen Angela Kennedy (a student at Texas A and M University) talk about this book (and others) at the Children’s Literature Association conference in Charlotte this summer. The novel, the first in an…