I have always adored mysteries and have never discovered more compelling reading. My fascination with mysteries began when I discovered Nancy Drew and her sleuthing hooked me forever. There are still children who love to curl up with an engrossing mystery, but the variety they have to choose from is much wider than the Drew-Hardy Boys years of my childhood.
Mystery lovers are generally book gobblers, and series satisfy them. Donald Sobel gives readers an early start with his Encyclopedia Brown mysteries. The latest, Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Slippery Salamander (Delacorte,$14.95; ages 8-10) shows us how this ten year old, with a brain jammed full of facts, takes on seven new mysteries which center on everything from lizard-thiefs to banana burglars. Flummoxed readers can find solutions at the book's end.
Pleasant Company's new History Mystery series will be welcomed by those who have devoured their other books . There's much going right in these books which combine history, suspense, and the strong heroines Pleasant Company is known for. The series launches with a set of five stories and there will be more for those who become addicted, though unlike their beloved doll-inspired series, these heroines will change. There is a great range in mysteries, challenges faced by heroines, locales, and epochs, all woven together nicely. Here's a quick sampling. In The Smuggler's Treasure Elizabet finding treasure in 1814 New Orleans; Night Flyers takes place during WWI and Pam, who lives in North Carolina, wonders if an enemy spy is stealing her pigeons; 1860 era Annie wonders if her pony's being poisoned in Hoofbeats of Danger; 1942 Charlotte's WWII efforts are frustrated by a thief in Voices at Whisper Bend an 1914 and Susan wonders if the curious boarder is responsible for her mother's disappearance and the mystery takes her into discovery of the suffragist movement in Secrets on 26th Street (each $5.95 paperback; ages 7-10)
Sammy Keyes is the newest mystery solver for middle schoolers and the author, Wendelin Van Draanen, has proved her skills by winning the Edgar. Sammy is a tough, funny, accurate, smart girl who's bound to grow up to be a parboiled detective like Kinsey Milhone. Her mysteries function in much the same way, a number of plots threading through the book, all come together in the end. In her latest adventure, Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf (Knopf, $14.95; ages 10 and up), Sammy faces an ugly gossipy woman who's blackmailing her, holds the hand of her hated adversary Mrs. Graybill as she dies, comforts a little girl who's still traumatized by her father's death, and tries to make peace with the fact that her flighty mother is starring in a commercial about having gas.
Every year there appear a couple mysteries that grab my attention From Asian history comes a mystery based on a real character. Judge Ooka, a eighteenth century judge noted for his amazing powers of reasoning is a significant character in Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler's The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn (Philomel, $17.99; ages 11 and up) The main character is fourteen year old Seikei, the son of a tea merchant and a wannbe samurai-poet. This is an honor denied him as samurai are born, not made. When Seikei is the only one to behold the mysterious theft of a precious ruby, Judge Ooka sets him to chasing the culprit. Seikei learns much more than the identity of the culprit. He learns the sorrows of a life destroyed, revenge that controls, and that things and people are not always what they seem. Setting and plot allow much description of this fascinating period of history, including the honor of suicide, the hatred of Kirishitans (Christians), kabuki theater.
Nancy Werlin's Locked Inside (Delacorte, $15.95; ages 11 and up) is the kind of mystery that you can't put down...it kept me up until 4 am! Marnie Skydoitter is an heiress who's unhappy at boarding school and loses herself in the world of virtual gaming. In this world she's the cool, controlled, and brilliant sorceress. In real life, she's flunking out of school, hated by her peers, and something darker lurks...the mystery of her recently deceased mother. Sure the famous songster turned spiritual writer seemed to love her, but where did she come from and who was she really? A kidnapping results in bonding with an internet buddy and violence jars Marnie from her fantasy world, releasing her from her internal prisons of imposed self-isolation. The Edgar-winning author again proves herself mystery mistress of an intriguing precept and character, fascinating psychological elements, plot twists that surprise, and thematics that lift her book above more common tales.