List: 2023 Teen Reading Challenge: Detective or Investigative Story
The Black Queen
When Nova, Lovett High School's first black homecoming queen, is murdered the night of her coronation, her best friend, Duchess, finds an unlikely ally in her search for the killer--her prime suspect, Tinsley, the white rival nominee for queen.
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None Shall Sleep
Eighteen-year-olds Emma Lewis and Travis Bell, recruited by the FBI to interview juvenile serial killers, must turn to a notorious teenage sociopath to help track down a new murderer.
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The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester
Sam Sylvester is not overly optimistic about their recent move to the small town of Astoria, Oregon, after a traumatic experience in their last home in the rural Midwest. They make several new friends and a potential love interest in Shep, the pretty neighbor. However, Sam can't seem to let go of what might have been, and is drawn to investigate the death of a teenage boy in 1980s Astoria. Sam is convinced he was murdered--especially after threatening notes and figures hidden in shadows begin to disrupt Sam's life. Would they risk their new life for a half-lived one?--
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Pretty Boy Detective Club
A mysterious group known as the Pretty Boy Detective Club is rumored to solve (and perhaps cause) most of the trouble at Yubiwa Academy--in a strictly unofficial, undercover, uncommercial capacity, of course. In order to find a star she glimpsed ten years ago, second-year Mayumi Dojima enlists the Pretty Boy's aid, and gets much more than she bargained for! When they run up against a shadowy organization called the Twenties, stargazing is suddenly the least of their worries. Mayumi's entire future is in jeopardy, and the Pretty Boy Detective Club must race to solve the Mystery of the Dark Star before time runs out!''
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The Ones We're Meant to Find
It's been three years since Cee woke up on the shore of an abandoned island, with no memories of life prior, or how she got there. All she knows is she has a sister-- and is determined to find her. A world away, STEM prodigy Kasey is looking to escape from an eco-city-- meant to be a sanctuary but now populated by people willing to do anything for refuge. After a series of man-made disasters rock the planet, Kasey must decide if she trusts science to help humanity.
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Ace of Spades
At Niveus Private Academy, Devon and Chiamaka are the only students chosen to be Senior Prefects who are also black, which makes them targets for a series of anonymous texts revealing their secrets to the entire student body. Both students were on track toward valedictorian and bright college futures, but this prank quickly turns into a very dangerous game and they are at more than one disadvantage as it looks like things could turn deadly.
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A Study in Charlotte
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson descendants, Charlotte and Jamie, students at a Connecticut boarding school, team up to solve a murder mystery.
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The Killing Code
Virginia, 1943: World War II is raging in Europe and on the Pacific front when Kit Sutherland is recruited to help the war effort as a codebreaker at Arlington Hall, a former girls' college now serving as the site of a secret US Signals Intelligence facility in Virginia. But Kit is soon involved in another kind of fight: Government girls are being brutally murdered in Washington DC, and when Kit stumbles onto a bloody homicide scene, she is drawn into the hunt for the killer. To find the man responsible for the gruesome murders and bring him to justice, Kit joins forces with other female codebreakers at Arlington Hall--gossip queen Dottie Crockford, sharp-tongued intelligence maven Moya Kershaw, and cleverly resourceful Violet DuLac from the segregated codebreaking unit. But as the girls begin to work together and develop friendships--and romance--that they never expected, two things begin to come clear: the murderer they're hunting is closing in on them...and Kit is hiding a dangerous secret.
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Five Survive
Red Kenny is on a road trip for spring break with five friends: Her best friend - the older brother - his perfect girlfriend - a secret crush - a classmate - and a killer. When their RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, they soon realize this is no accident. They have been trapped by someone out there in the dark, someone who clearly wants one of them dead. With eight hours until dawn, the six friends must escape, or figure out which of them is the target. But is there a liar among them? Buried secrets will be forced to light and tensions inside the RV will reach deadly levels. Not all of them will survive the night.
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City of Saints & Thieves
Sixteen-year-old Tina and two friends leave Kenya and slip into the Congo, from where she and her mother fled years before, seeking revenge for her mother's murder but uncovering startling secrets.
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The Silence of Bones
1800, Joseon (Korea). Homesick and orphaned, Seol is indentured to the police bureau. She has been tasked with assisting a well-respected young inspector with the investigation into the politically charged murder of a noblewoman. The two form an unlikely bond of friendship as they delve into the dead woman's secrets. But when he becomes the prime suspect, Seol may be the only one capable of discovering what truly happened on the night of the murder. In a land where silence and obedience are valued above all else, curiosity can be deadly. --
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Undead Girl Gang
Meet teenage Wiccan Mila Flores, who truly could not care less what you think about her Doc Martens, her attitude, or her weight because she knows that, no matter what, her BFF Riley is right by her side. So when Riley and Fairmont Academy mean girls June Phelan-Park and Dayton Nesseth die under suspicious circumstances, Mila refuses to believe everyone's explanation that her BFF was involved in a suicide pact. Instead, armed with a tube of lip gloss and an ancient grimoire, Mila does the unthinkable to uncover the truth: she brings the girls back to life. Unfortunately, Riley, June, and Dayton have no recollection of their murders. But they do have unfinished business to attend to. Now, with only seven days until the spell wears off and the girls return to their graves, Mila must wrangle the distracted group of undead teens and work fast to discover their murderer...before the killer strikes again.--Dust jacket.
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You Owe Me a Murder
On a school trip to London that includes her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend, Kim meets risk-taker Nicki, who proposes a diabolical deal.
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Gideon Green in Black and White
"Gideon's short-lived run as a locally famous boy detective ended when middle school started, and everyone else--including his best friend, Lily--moved on while Gideon kept holding on to his trench coat, fedora, and his treasured film noir collection. Now he's sixteen and officially retired. That is, until Lily shows up suddenly at Gideon's door, needing his help. He might be mad at her for cutting him off with no explanation, but Gideon can't turn down a case. As a cover, Gideon joins Lily on the school paper. Surprisingly, he finds himself warming up to the welcoming, close-knit staff ... especially Tess, the cute, witty editor-in-chief. But as the case gets bigger than Gideon or Lily could have anticipated, Gideon must balance his black-and-white quest for the truth with the full colors of real life--or risk a permanent fade to black"--
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The Inheritance Games
When a Connecticut teenager inherits vast wealth and an eccentric estate from the richest man in Texas, she must also live with his surviving family and solve a series of puzzles to discover how she earned her inheritance.
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Goldie Vance
Sixteen-year-old Marigold "Goldie" Vance lives at a Florida resort with her dad, who manages the place, and spends her spare time helping Walter, the hotel's in-house detective, solve cases.
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Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
The Reign of Terror against the Osage people was one of history's most ruthless and shocking crimes. As the Wild West was dying, someone was killing members of the Osage nation who had gotten rich off the oil under their land. Investigators who tried to uncover the truth were disappearing, but still J. Edgar Hoover asked a former Texas Ranger to work with the Osage to unravel the mystery.
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Hotel Magnifique
Seventeen-year-old Jani and her little sister Zosa secure jobs at a glamorous magical hotel, but when Jani realizes that their staff contracts are unbreakable, she embarks on a mission to unravel the mystery of the magic at the heart of the hotel and free Zosa--and the other staff--from the cruelty of the ruthless maître d'hôtel.
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In the Hall with the Knife
When a storm strikes at Blackbrook Academy, an elite prep school nestled in the woods of Maine, a motley crew of students--including Beth 'Peacock' Picach, Orchid McKee, Vaughn Green, Sam 'Mustard' Maestor, Finn Plum, and Scarlet Mistry--are left stranded on campus with their headmaster. Hours later, her body is found hanging in the conservatory and it's very clear her death was no suicide. With this group of students who are all hiding something, nothing is as it seems, and everyone has a motive for murder.
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Pretty Dead Queens
Not long after seventeen-year-old Cecelia Ellis arrives to live with her estranged grandmother in a coastal California town, the high school homecoming queen is found dead and Cecelia, fearing a copycat killer is on the loose, throws herself into the investigation.
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Pride and Premeditation
Seventeen-year-old aspiring lawyer Lizzie Bennet seeks to solve a murder before her rival Mr. Darcy beats her to it.
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The City Beautiful
Death lurks around every corner in this unforgettable Jewish historical fantasy about a city, a boy, and the shadows of the past that bind them both together. Chicago, 1893. For Alter Rosen, this is the land of opportunity, and he dreams of the day he'll have enough money to bring his mother and sisters to America, freeing them from the oppression they face in his native Romania. But when Alter's best friend, Yakov, becomes the latest victim in a long line of murdered Jewish boys, his dream begins to slip away. While the rest of the city is busy celebrating the World's Fair, Alter is now living a nightmare: possessed by Yakov's dybbuk, he is plunged into a world of corruption and deceit, and thrown back into the arms of a dangerous boy from his past. A boy who means more to Alter than anyone knows. Now, with only days to spare until the dybbuk takes over Alter's body completely, the two boys must race to track down the killer--before the killer claims them next.
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I'm the Girl
When sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis finds the dead body of thirteen-year-old Ashley James outside the gates of an exclusive resort, she teams up with Ashley's older sister Nora to find the killer. She is thrown into a world of unimaginable wealth and privilege-- and the fight for her life. As Ashley's killer closes in, it may not be a matter of who is guilty, but who is guiltiest.
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I Am Margaret Moore
Each summer the girls of Deck Five come back to Marshall Naval School. They sail on jewel-blue waters; they march on green drill-fields; they earn sunburns and honors. They push until they break apart and heal again, stronger. Each summer Margaret and Rose and Flor and Nisreen come back to the place where they are girls, safe away from the world: sisters bound by something more than blood. But this summer everything has changed. Girls are missing and a boy is dead. It's because of Margaret Moore, the boys say. It's because of what happened that night in the storm. Margaret's friends vanish one by one, swallowed up into the lies she has told about what happened between her and a boy with the world at his feet. Can she unravel the secrets of this summer and last, or will she be pulled under by the place she once called home?
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The Witch's Hand
Orphaned teens Pete and Al Montague and their adopted sister, Charlie, already known for solving mysteries in their small New England town, begin studying magic as they investigate a disappearance connected to a seventeenth-century witch.
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Grimoire Noir
When his little sister is kidnapped for her magical powers, Bucky Orson goes on a strange journey to find her, uncovering his town's painful history and a conspiracy that will change it forever.
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Fly By Night
Dee returns to her small hometown in New Jersey to see if she can help her father and the local police find her missing twin sister Beth, who was a leader in fighting the threat of a pipeline gutting the pinelands, but only finds more mysterious questions while disocovering signs of the supernatural in the surrounding woods.
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Nancy Drew: The Palace of Wisdom
Nancy Drew is seventeen and good at everything, especially solving crimes. But her totally-in-control-and-obviously-running-perfectly-smoth-(but-not-really ) life hits a snag when a mysterious message drags her back to the hometown she left behind. There she'll have to find out which of her friends are still her friends, which are enemies, and who exactly is trying to kill her...and (hopefully) stop them before they succeed.
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Young Miss Holmes
Christie Holmes is a prodigy. At ten years old, she's as familiar with the sciences and classics as any older student at Cambridge or Oxford. And her facility with logic is reminiscent of her uncle, the eminent Sherlock Holmes himself. So, what's a brilliant young girl to do when her parents are away in India, leaving her behind in the care of maids and servants? Solve mysteries, of course. Along with her giant hound Nelson, Christie's implacable curiosity leads her from one dangerous adventure to another, often joining forces with Uncle Sherlock and Doctor Watson on their famed investigations. Christie may look pint-sized, but her clever mind is never to be underestimated!
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All These Bodies
August, 1958. A string of murders plagues the Midwest. The victims are found in their cars and in their homes, even in their beds: their bodies drained, but with no blood anywhere. September 18, 1858. The Carlson family is slaughtered in their Minnesota farmhouse, and the case gets its first lead. Marie Catherine Hale is found at the scene, covered in blood from head to toe. At first she is mistaken for a survivor... but not a drop of the blood is hers. Michael Jensen, son of the local sheriff, yearning to become a journalist, never imagined that the biggest story in the country would fall into his lap. He is pulled into the investigation when Marie decides that he is the only one she will confess to. As she recounts her version of the story, it falls to Michael to find the truth. --
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Off the Record
When Josie Wright wins a contest to write a celebrity profile for Deep Focus magazine, she's ready. Jetting off on a multi-city tour, rubbing elbows with celebrities, frenetic handlers, stone-faced producers, and eccentric stylists, her world is expanding rapidly. She even finds herself catching feelings for the subject of her profile, dazzling young newcomer Marius Canet. But when a young actress lets her in on a terrible secret, she's in over her head. As accounts pile up, Josie wants to expose the man responsible. She's reluctant to speak up, unsure if this is her story to tell. And will this end her writing career before it even begins? --
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Chasing the Truth: A Young Journalist's Guide to Investigative Reporting
Two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists inspire a new generation of investigative reporters as they offer tips and advice for writing stories that can make a difference.
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Tell It True
A high school outcast finds herself in charge of the school newspaper and as she navigates the dilemmas, challenges and unintended consequences of journalism, she finds her life--and her convictions--changing in ways she could not have imagined.
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The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden & The Trial of the Century
Examines the Borden murders, using newspaper articles to recreate the events and the trial and acquittal of Lizzie Borden and exploring Lizzie's story to theorize on what may have happened.
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One Cut
Real stories. Real teens. Real crimes. A backyard brawl turned media circus filled with gang accusations turns a small, quiet town upside down in this second book in the new Simon True series. On May 22, 1995 at 7 p.m. sixteen-year-old Jimmy Farris and seventeen-year-old Mike McLoren were working out outside Mike's backyard fort. Four boys hopped the fence, and a fight broke out inside the dark fort made of two-by-four planks and tarps. Within minutes, both Mike and Jimmy had been stabbed. Jimmy died a short time later. While neighbors knew that the fort was a local hangout where drugs were available, the prosecution depicted the four defendants as gang members, and the crime as gang related. The accusations created a media circus, and added fuel to the growing belief that this affluent, safe, all-white neighborhood was in danger of a full-blown gang war. Four boys stood trial. All four boys faced life sentences. Why? Because of California's Felony Murder Rule. The law states that "a death is considered first degree murder when it is commissioned during one of the following felonies: Arson, Rape, Carjacking, Robbery, Burglary, Mayhem, Kidnapping." In other words, if you--or somebody you are with--intends to commit a felony, and somebody accidentally dies in the process, all parties can be tried and convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life without parole, even if nobody had any intention of committing a murder. What really happened that day? Was it a case of robbery gone wrong? Gang activity? Or was it something else?
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The Restless Dark
The Cloudkiss Killer is dead. Now a true-crime podcast is hosting a contest to find his bones. Lucy was almost the serial killer's final victim. Carolina is a true-crime fan who fears her own rage. Maggie is a psychology student with a little too much to hide. But there are more than bones hiding in the shadows...sometimes the darkness inside is more frightening than anything the dead leave behind.
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