Must Read Mystery Books for Kids

By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb | 2 books in series

A mystery that takes place in the New York Public Library? I'm sold!

Set in the 1920s, Viviani has grown up in the New York Public Library with her siblings. When an expensive stamp collection on display goes missing, Viviani and her frenemy Merit have to uncover all the mysteries hidden behind the library shelves.

This is an especially fun mystery book for kids because if readers pay careful attention to the clues the author is laying out, they just might solve the mystery on their own.

By Julie Berry

This is a wickedly funny Victorian farce in which a group of Victorian schoolgirls attempt to hide the death of their schoolmistress while also solving her (and her brother's) murder. I laughed so much while reading this book.

By Laura Marx Fitzgerald

I loved every page of this clever mystery! There's a piece of art that may be a lost renaissance painting, a darn good mystery, and a very interesting tie to WWII. I tore through this book and fell completely in love with the two plucky girls that solve this fun mystery.

By Blue Balliett | 4 books in series

This is a really fun puzzle mystery series (each book is its own mystery). The first book deals with an international art scandal!

When an invaluable Vermeer painting from the Art Museum of Chicago is stolen, Petra and Calder have to decipher a complicated mystery to find the painting.

By Angela Cervantes

Paloma Marquez is traveling to Mexico City for the first time to learn more about her deceased father. But when her new Spanish tutor and his sister ask for her help to find a missing ring that once belonged to Frida Kahlo, she gets pulled into a twisty mystery.

This fast paced mystery is so fun and I loved all the rich cultural details.

By Margaret Peterson Haddix | 3 books in series

We love this super fun, fast paced mystery with a very unusual premise!

The Greystone siblings, Chess, Emma, and Finn, have always been close and happy. But when they hear reports of three kidnapped children with their same names, ages, and descriptions, they are shocked. They can't ask their mom about it because she's away on a business trip, so they have to work their way through a series of puzzling clues that will turn their world upside down.

By Robin Stevens | 9 books in series

This is a fun series in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie.

Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are best friends at the Deepdean School for Girls and they love to solve mysteries. In this first book, their science teacher, Miss Bell, disappears and the girls are certain that there is a murder that needs to be solved.

By James Ponti | 3 books in series

Florian Bates is a very intelligent 12 year old, so intelligent that the FBI is calling him to help solve a big mystery that involves the National Gallery and a notorious crime syndicate known as EEL.

I was a big fan as soon as I realized the story also involved the Romanian mafia. Really fun mystery!

By Michael Buckley | 9 Books in series

These fractured fairytale mysteries are my daughter's favorite! Two orphaned sisters discover that they are the descendants of the famous Brothers Grimm, whose book of fairy tales is actually a history book. When characters from the Grimm book start terrorizing the town, the two sisters have to solve mysteries to set things right.

By Irene Adler | 4 Books in series

Set in late 1800's France with a young Sherlock Holmes and two of his best friends. These are such fun historical fiction mysteries!

By Heather Vogel Frederick | 3 Books in series

After Truly's father, a soldier, returns from Afghanistan, her family moves back to his tiny hometown, Pumpkin Falls, New Hampshire. Healing from his time at war, Truly's father takes over his family's struggling bookstore that's been in the family for a hundred years.

When Truly finds a valuable first edition of Charlotte's Web with an undelivered letter inside, she embarks on a mysterious treasure hunt. So fun!

By Jacqueline West | 5 books in series

If you like your mysteries with a side of spookiness, this is the series for you!

When Olive her and her parents move into a crumbling old mansion filled with old paintings, Olive decides to work out the mysteries of the paintings while her parents are busy with their own work. She doesn't realize though that she's about to be pulled into a whole new world on the other side of the picture frames.

By Chris Grabenstein | 5 books in series

My kids love these puzzle mystery books!

Kyle, a game enthusiast, is one of twelve lucky kids to win a spot for an overnight sleepover at the library hosted by a notorious game maker. The kids are locked in the library and have until morning to solve the clues and find a way out of the library.

By Margaret Peterson Haddix | 8 books in series

Jonah and Chip have always known that they were adopted, but when they start receiving mysterious letters telling them that they are "one of the missing," they want to figure out who is behind the letters and what they mean.

If you love a good mystery, then you'll want to read all of Haddix's books!

By Trudi Trueit | 6 books in series

This is a really unique series published by National Geographic about an academy that trains elite explorers.

Cruz is so excited to be accepted at the Academy but he soon discovers that his family has a mysterious secret that could ruin everything. Filled with puzzles, cool science, and fun codebreaking, this is an awesome series!

I wrote an entire post about this series here.

By Pseudonymous Bosch | 6 books in series

This is a favorite series at our house! My kids have read every book in the series multiple times.

Cass and Max-Ernest are on the trail of a magician who has vanished under strange circumstances and all of it is absolutely top secret!

By Various Authors, including Rick Riordan & Gordon Korman | 11 books in series

Kids love these books - they are always checked out at the library!

Just minutes before she died, Grace Cahill changed her will and left her descendants a choice - one million dollars or a clue. There are 39 clues hidden around the world and if someone is brave enough and clever enough to find them all, the powerful Cahill family's secret will be revealed.

By Jordan Stratford | 4 books in series

This is a historical fiction mystery series set in the 1820's. Genius Lady Ada Byron (Lord Byron's fictional daughter) and her adventurous friend Mary Godwin form a detective agency, not unlike Sherlock Holmes and Watson. In their first case they have to solve the mystery of a stolen heirloom.

By Siobhan Dowd | 2 books in series

This is a thrilling, fast paced mystery! Ted and Kat watch their cousin Salim get on the London Eye, but when the ride ends, he doesn't get off. He appears to have disappeared into thin air! Siblings Ted and Kat are desperate to solve this missing person mystery.

By Maryrose Wood | 6 book series

I have a special place in my heart for this phenomenal series. We've read the series aloud together as a family twice! Note: It's all one big mystery and you'll need to read all 6 books to figure it out.

Miss Penelope Lumley is a recent graduate from the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females and has been hired at Ashton Place to be the new governess. But when she arrives, the children are living in the barn and acting like wolves, and there are mysteries around every corner of the mansion.

By Rebecca Stead

I thought about this fantastic Newbery Award winner long after I finished reading it. It's so twisty and clever.

Miranda is receiving mysterious notes that seem to have an uncanny ability to predict the future. The notes are unsettling but they become particularly hard to ignore when one arrives telling her that someone is going to die.

By Sheila Turnage | 4 books in series

Mo LoBeau washed ashore in Tupelo Landing eleven years ago during a hurricane. She doesn't know anything about her past, but she's found a family with the Colonel and Miss Lana. When a lawman shows up asking tough questions about a murder, Mo and her best friend Dale are determined to solve the case and protect the only family Mo's ever known.

By Kenneth Oppel

This is a phenomenal historical fiction mystery. The Boundless is the greatest train ever built and Will Everett gets to be a passenger on it's maiden voyage across Canada. But when Will ends up with the key to a train car containing priceless treasures, he gets swept up in a mysterious adventure!

By Kate Hannigan

A very fun and fast paced mystery based on the true story of Kate Warne and how she saved the life of Abraham Lincoln.

By Natasha Anastasia Tarpley

Three kids, Jin, Elvin and Alex, form an unlikely friendship when Elvin's grandfather is attacked in a community garden. They team up to find his attacker, but instead find themselves involved in an even bigger mystery with priceless works of art.

By Elizabeth C. Bunce | 4 books in series

These are really darling historical fiction mysteries with a precocious female lead.

12-year-old Myrtle Hardcastle lives in a quiet village in England and entertains herself by learning everything she can about criminal science. When her next door neighbor, a wealthy spinster, dies under mysterious circumstances, Myrtle is determined to put all of her unconventional knowledge to good use.

By Julia Nobel | 2 books in series

A fun boarding school mystery set in England. Emmy's dad disappeared when she was two years old and no one will ever talk about it. The only thing she has to remember him by are a box of old medallions.

When she arrives at Wellsworth, a prestigious boarding school, she starts happening upon strange symbols that she recognizes from her father's medallions. This leads her to a secret society that may have had something to do with her father's disappearance.

By Kristin L. Gray

Not only will readers love following along with Millie as she solves the mystery of a missing pair of famous flight goggles, they'll also learn a lot about Amelia Earhart!

By Trenton Lee Stewart | 5 books in series

This is a brilliant series and once you start, you can't stop!

Hundreds of children respond to a peculiar newspaper ad looking for a "gifted child," but only four are chosen to go on a secret mission to solve a top secret mystery.

These books are smart, funny, and so much fun to read!

By Ben Guterson | 3 books in series

We loved reading this fantasy mystery aloud as a family!

When orphan Elizabeth Somers is shipped off to the Winterhouse Hotel for the winter holiday, she quickly discovers both its charm and its mysteries. There's a magical book, some very sinister characters, and a lot of exciting secrets in this magnificent hotel. A very fun read!

By Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

If you love the Nancy Drew books like I do, then you'll love this new middle grade mystery!

Maizy thought she knew her grandmother well, but when she finds an old photo of her grandmother and two other women in a box of vintage Nancy Drew books left at the thrift store, she's curious and wants to find out more. As she digs deeper she uncovers an intergenerational mystery and family secrets.

By Jennifer Chambliss Bertman | 3 books in series

A super fun puzzle and cipher mystery set in San Francisco. Garrison Griswold, the creator of an online game called Book Scavenger, is Emily's literary idol. When she learns that Griswold has been attacked and is in a coma, Emily and her friend James think they find a clue that Griswold left. Can they solve the mystery before they too are attacked?

By Ellen Raskin

This classic Newbery winner is one of my favorites. I loved it as a kid and was delighted to discover that I still loved it as an adult.

Samuel Westing, the eccentric millionaire, was known for his love of games. So when 16 unlikely people are invited to the reading of his will, it quickly becomes clear that even after death, he's playing yet another game.

By Kate Milford | 5 books in series

These are my favorite mystery books for kids on this list! Milford crafts such a phenomenal story and excellent mystery in every book of the series.

In this first book, it's winter vacation and Milo is glad there won't be any guests at the smuggler's inn his parents run. But as the weather outside gets worse, unexpected guests keep arriving with flimsy excuses for why they are there. Milo and his new friend Meddy decide to turn detective and unravel the clues about the strange guests at the inn.

You won't see the ending of this one coming, I promise!