24 mystery books for young adults that will keep you guessing to the end

1. Towing Adams ville by Francesca Zappia

When someone burns down the school janitor's house and dies in the fire, everyone in Adamsville, Indiana, points their finger at Zora . It doesn't matter that Zora has been on the right path since her father was thrown in jail. With everyone looking for evidence against her, her only choice is to find out the identity of the real murderer.

There's one big problem: Zora has no clues. Nobody does. Addamsville has a history of tragedy, and a similar series of fires killed several townspeople 30 years ago. The arsonist was never caught.

Now Zora must team up with her cousin Artemis - an annoyingly self-proclaimed Addamsville historian - to clear her name. But with a popular ghost-hunting television show baffling the townspeople, almost no support from her family and friends, and rumors spiraling out of control, things don't look right. Zora will have to read between the lines of Addamsville's ghost stories before she becomes one herself. 

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2. Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Ellingham Academy is a renowned private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to create a beautiful place full of riddles, winding paths and gardens. "A place," he said, "where learning is a game."

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing murder methods, signed with the terrifying pseudonym "Truly, Devious." It became one of the greatest unsolved crimes in American history.

A true crime fan, Stevie Bell is entering her freshman year at Ellingham Academy and has an ambitious plan: to solve this cold case. That is, she solves the case when she comes to grips with her demanding new school life and her roommates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist and the joker. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious unexpectedly returns, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled from its grave. Someone got away with murder.

3. Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters

Sawkill Girls meets Beautiful Creatures in this luscious and eerie debut, where the line between reality and nightmares is as thin as the veil between the living and the dead. 

If I could have a violin made of Daddy's bones, I would play it. I would learn all the secrets he kept.

Shady Grove inherited her father's ability to summon spirits from the grave with his violin, but she also knows that the violin's tunes bring nothing but trouble and darkness.

But when her brother is charged with murder, she can't let the dead keep their secrets.

To clear his name, she'll have to make those spirits sing.

4. The Diviners by Libba Bray

Evie O'Neill has been banished from her boring old hometown and shipped to the busy streets of New York City - and she's quite ecstatic. It's 1926 and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls and naughty pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her Uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult.

Evie fears he will discover her darkest secret: a supernatural force that has only gotten her into trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer.

As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfold in the city that never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is trapped between two worlds. A chorus girl named Theta flees from her past. A student named Jericho is hiding a shocking secret. And unknown to everyone, something dark and evil has awakened. 

5. You Were Never Here by Kathleen Peacock

Cat hasn't been to Montgomery Falls, the town her family founded, since she was 12. Since the summer, she found she could do things that no normal 12-year-old could. Ever since she had her first kiss with Riley Fraser. Since she destroyed their friendship.

Now, five years later, she's back and Riley has disappeared.

When Noah, Riley's brother, asks for help uncovering what happened, Cat is torn between wanting to know the truth and protecting the secret she's been guarding since she and Riley stopped talking that summer. Only one choice will put her in the crosshairs of a murderer ... 

6. One of Us Lies by Karen M. McManus

Yale hopeful Bronwyn has never publicly broken a rule. Sportster Cooper only knows what he's doing in the baseball diamond. Bad boy Nate is one wrong step from a life of crime. Prom queen Addy keeps the cracks in her perfect life together. And outsider Simon, creator of the infamous gossip app at Bayview High, will never talk about it again.

He dies 24 hours before he could post their deepest secrets online. Researchers conclude that it is no coincidence. They are all suspects.

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you go to protect them. 

7. Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

Echo Ridge is a small town in America. Ellery has never been there, but she's heard all about it. Her aunt was missing there when she was seventeen. And just five years ago, a homecoming queen put the city on the map when she was murdered. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.

The city is beautiful, but it hides secrets. And before school even starts for Ellery, someone has declared open season homecoming, promising to make it just as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.

Ellery knows all about secrets. Her mother has them; her grandmother too. And the longer she's in Echo Ridge, the more obvious it becomes that everyone is hiding something there. The thing is, secrets are dangerous - and most people can't keep them properly. That's why it's safest in Echo Ridge to keep your secrets to yourself. 

8. White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig,

Rufus Holt has the worst night of his life. It begins with the return of his ex-boyfriend, Sebastian - the man who punched his heart out like an exhausted cigarette. Just as Rufus is getting ready to move on, Sebastian emerges from nowhere and tells them to "talk." It can't get any worse, can it?

Then Rufus receives a call from his sister April, begging for help. He and Sebastian find her, drenched in blood and with a knife next to the corpse of her friend, Fox Whitney.

April swears she didn't kill Fox. Rufus knows her too well to believe she's telling him the whole truth, but April has something he needs. Her prize is his help. Now, with no one he can trust except the boy he wants to hate but can't stop loving, Rufus has one night to clear his sister's name ... or dies trying. 

9. Sadie by Courtney Summers

Sadie hasn't had an easy life. She grew up alone and raised her sister Mattie in a remote town, where she did her best to live a normal life and keep afloat.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world collapses. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to court and sets out to find him after a few meager clues.

When West McCray, a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten cities in America, hears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast while following Sadie's journey, trying to find out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late. 

10. The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook.

First, there was the car accident: two girls disappeared after hitting a tree one rainy night. Not long after, the murders took place. Those two girls were killed by the neighbor. The police shot him, so no one will ever know why he did it. Monica's sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheerleaders. Nobody wanted to be reminded of the girls they lost.

That was five years ago. Now the faculty and students at Sunnybrook High want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But it's not that easy for Monica. She just wants to forget about it. Alone, Monica's world is starting to unravel. There are letters in her stepfather's desk, a dug up years-old cell phone, a strange new friend at school ... What happened five years ago is not over. Some people in the city know more than they say. And somehow Monica is at the center of it all. 

11. People like us by Dana Mele

Kay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet, but the past is over and she has reinvented herself all over again. Now she's a top footballer whose group of wonderful friends run their private school with effortless popularity and biting humor. But when a girl's body is found in the lake, Kay's carefully constructed life begins to fall.

The dead girl has left Kay on a computer-coded scavenger hunt, which, as it unravels, begins to involve suspect after suspect, until Kay herself comes into the crosshairs of a murder investigation. But when Kay is finally cornered, she will do whatever it takes to survive. Because at Bates Academy, the truth is something you make ... not something that happened. 

12. The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James

The daughter of two astronauts, Romy Silvers, is no stranger to life in space. But she never knew how isolating the universe could be, until the tragic death of her parents left her alone on the Infinity, a spaceship that is rapidly racing away from Earth.

Romy tries to make the most of her lonely situation, but with only brief messages from her therapist on Earth to keep her company, she can't help but feel that something is missing. It seems like a dream come true when NASA warns her that another ship, the Eternity, will join the Infinity.

Romy begins exchanging messages with J, the captain of eternity, and their friendship revives her world. But as eternity approaches, Romy discovers that J's mission is more than she could have imagined. And suddenly there are worse things than being alone…. 

13. Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson

Monday Charles is missing, and only Claudia seems to notice. Claudia and Monday have always been inseparable - more sisters than friends. So if Monday doesn't show up for the first day of school, Claudia is worried.

If she doesn't show up the second day or week, Claudia knows something is wrong. Monday she would not endure trials and bullies alone. Not after last year's rumors and not with her numbers at stake. Now more than ever Claudia needs her best - and only - friend. But Monday's mom refuses to give Claudia a straight answer, and Monday's sister, April, is even less of a help.

As Claudia digs deeper into her friend's disappearance, she discovers that no one seems to remember the last time they saw them on Monday. How can a teenage girl just disappear without anyone noticing she's gone? 

14. #MurderTrending by Gretchen McNeil

Welcome to the near future where good and honest citizens can enjoy watching the executions of society's most notorious convicted criminals streamed live on the Postman app from the suburban prison island of Alcatraz 2.0.

When seventeen-year-old Dee Guerrera wakes up in a haze, lying on the floor of a dimly lit warehouse, she realizes she's about to be the app's next victim. Knowing that hardened criminals are tasting their own medicine in this place is one thing, but Dee refuses to roll over and die for a heinous crime she didn't commit. Can Dee and her newly formed group, the Death Row Breakfast Club, prove her innocence before being wrongfully murdered so the world can see? Or will The Postman's cast of executioners kill them one by one? 

15. This is all true by Lygia Day Peñaflor

Miri Tan loved the book Undertow as if it were a living being. So when she and her friends went to a book signing to hear the author, Fatima Ro, they came up with a plan to get close to her.

Soleil Johnston wanted to become a writer herself. When she and her friends hung out with her favorite author, Fatima Ro, she couldn't be happier - especially when Jonah Nicholls was hanging out with them too.

Penny Panzarella was more than the materialistic party girl everyone at Graham School thought she was - and she was willing to share all her secrets with Fatima Ro to prove it.

Told as a series of interviews, diary entries, and even pages from the book within the book, this poignant tale of a fictional scandal will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. 

16. If You're Out There by Katy LoutzenhiserZans

After best friend moves to California, she is baffled and crushed when Priya is suddenly haunted. Even worse, Priya's social media has turned into a flood of ungrammatical messages about a sunny, faded new life that doesn't look anything like her.

It's only when she meets Logan, the compelling new man in Spanish class, that Zan begins to open up about her grief, her insecurity, her sense of total betrayal. And he's just as willing as she to throw himself into the investigation if anyone thinks her suspicions are insane.

Then a clue hidden in Priya's latest selfie introduces a new, very disturbing possibility:

Perhaps Priya isn't just not answering Zan's emails. Maybe she can't. 

17. A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

Jamie Watson has always been intrigued by Charlotte Holmes; after all, their great-great grandfathers are one of the most infamous couples in history. But the Holmes family has always been strange, and Charlotte is no exception. She's inherited Sherlock's volatility and some of his vices - and when Jamie and Charlotte end up at the same boarding school in Connecticut, Charlotte makes it clear she's not looking for friends.

But when a college student they both have had a history of dying in suspicious circumstances torn straight out of Sherlock Holmes' most terrifying stories, Jamie can no longer afford to keep her distance. The danger grows and nowhere is it safe - and the only people they can trust are each other. 

18. Missing, presumed dead by Emma Bergquist Envisions

When eighteen-year-old Lexithe brutal murder of a young woman in front of a club in downtown LA, she has no power to stop it.

But then the girl's ghost appears, seeking revenge, and Lexi is drawn into a dangerous quest that could put her right in the path of a serial killer. This fast-paced literary thriller, from the author of Devils Unto Dust, will haunt fans of Maureen Johnson's Truly Devious and Karen M. McManus' One of Us Is Lying.

With a touch, Lexi can sense how and when someone will die. Some say it is a gift. But to Lexi, it's a curse - one that keeps her friendless and alone. That all changes when Lexi envisions the violent death of a young woman, Jane, outside a club.

Jane does not quietly go to the afterlife. Her ghost is left, determined to track down her killer, and she needs Lexi's help. In life, Jane was everything Lexi is not - outgoing, happy, popular. But after death, Jane only wants revenge.

Lexi will do whatever it takes to help Jane, make up for the fact that she couldn't - couldn't - save Jane's life, and keep this beautiful ghost of a girl by her side for as long as possible. 

19. Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody

Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering confines of the Gomorrah festival. But even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus city, Sorina stands out as the only illusion worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with their own personalities. Her creations are her family and together they are the cast of the Festival's Freak Show.

But as lifelike as they may seem, her illusions are still just that - illusions, and not real. Or she always believed that ... until one of them is murdered.

Desperate to protect her family, Sorina must track down the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn't really exist. Her search for answers leads her to self-proclaimed gossip girl Luca. Their investigation leads them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance to the most sinister corners of the festival. But as the killer continues to kill Sorina's illusions one by one, she must unravel the gruesome truth before all her loved ones disappear. 

20. The Missing Season by Gillian French

Whenever another child goes missing in October, the kids in the old factory town of Pender know what's really behind it: a monster in the swamps they call the Mumbler.

That's what Clara's new team tells her when she moves to town. Bree and Sage, who take her under their wing. Spirited Trace, who took charge of this year's Halloween prank war. And magnetic Kincaid, whose diabolical demeanor and air of mystery is impossible for Clara to resist.

Clara doesn't really believe in the Mumbler - not like Kinkaid does. But as Halloween draws closer and tensions rise in the city, it's hard to shake the feeling that there really is something dark and dangerous in Pender. Lurking in the shadows. Waiting for the stories to come to life.

21. Dead Girls Detective Agency by Suzy Cox

What would you do if you had to solve your own murder to end up in death somewhere?

Maybe if I hadn't slept through my alarm, thrown at Kristin - the prevailing mean girl from my high school - or stepped in a puddle and smashed my mom's new suede DVF boots (which I borrowed without questions), I wouldn't have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I wouldn't have been pushed for that oncoming train. But I did, and I was.

When I came to, I was told by a group of girls that I was dead. And because I died in mysterious circumstances, I can't go to the other side right away. But at least I'm not alone.

Meet the Dead Girls Detective Agency: Nancy, Lorna and Tess - not to mention Edison, the really cute, if slightly hostile dead boy. Apparently the only way out of this limbo is to find out who killed me, otherwise I'll have to spend eternity playing Nancy Drew. When you consider that I was fairly invisible in life, who could hate me enough to want me dead?

And what if my killer is someone I never would have suspected? 

22. All the Things We Do in the Dark by Saundra Mitchell

Something happened to Ava. The curved scar on her face is proof. Ava would rather keep that hidden - buried deep in her heart and soul.

But in the woods on the outskirts of town, the traces of other people's secrets lie frozen awaiting Ava's discovery - and what Ava finds threatens to topple the carefully constructed wall of normalcy she has built around her for years.

Secrets leave scars. But if the secret in question isn't yours, are you ignoring the truth and running away? Or do you expose it from its shallow grave and let it reopen old wounds - wounds that finally started to heal? 

23. Broken Things by Lauren Oliver

It has been five years since Summer Marks was brutally murdered in the woods.

Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend. Driven by their obsession with a novel called The Way into Lovelorn, the three girls had imagined themselves in the magical world where their fantasies become twisted and even deadly.

The only thing is, they didn't.

On the anniversary of Summer's death, a seemingly insignificant discovery revives the mystery and pulls Mia and Brynn back together. But as the lines between past and present and fiction and reality fade, the girls face what really happened in the woods all those years ago - however monstrous it may be. 

24. Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born the daughter of a gentleman, with a life of wealth and privilege to her. But she leads a forbidden secret life between the cozy teas and silks.

Against her father's wishes and the expectations of society, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's lab to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a series of savagely dead bodies drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial killer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.