First Clues: Mysteries for Kids is pleased to announce a selection of new mystery, suspense and thriller books (including series books) scheduled for publication during July 2010.
The titles are listed in (approximate) order of appropriate age groups, from early readers to books for young adults.
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The Big Swat
David Biedrzycki
An Ace Lacewing, Bug Detective Mystery (3rd in series)
Ace Lacewing, Bug Detective, is back in his third crime-solving adventure—and this time he’s in the big leagues. The Motham City Stinkbugs finally have a chance at winning the pennant, but somebody has stolen Bugsy Goldwing’s lucky bat. Was it Mickey Mantis, Fly Cobb, Derek Skeeter, or Big Hoppi Leafhopper? When Ace takes the mound, bad bugs are going to strike out.
Teeming with puns and sight gags, the latest Ace Lacewing mystery will have young readers turning the pages and looking for clues everywhere.
Recommended for readers aged 4 to 6.
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The Pumpkin Mystery
Carol Wallace
Non-series
Scruffy and Mocha, the cat and dog who help out Aden and Leah around the farm, want to make sure the children have pumpkins for Halloween. The family plants and waters the seeds, and the tiny plants begin to grow; but rabbits visit the garden and the crop fails. The rabbits have some inside information. Can Scruffy and Mocha strike a deal and save Halloween for the children.
Recommended for readers aged 4 to 6.
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Diamond Dogs!
Jodie Mellor
The Mystery Pups Adventures (4th in series)
The mystery pups arrive in Sleuth City just in time to witness a jewelry store break-in. The thieves get away — but the Mystery Pups are soon hot on the trail of the gemstones!
Recommended for readers aged 4 to 6.
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Sleepy Hollow Sleepover
Ron Roy
An A-to-Z Mysteries Super Edition (4th in series)
Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose are spending Halloween in Sleepy Hollow, home of the legendary Headless Horseman. They are going to sleep in an old cabin, take a haunted hayride, and check out the Old Dutch Church. That's where some people say they've spotted the ghostly horseman. But strange things start happening that don't seem to be part of the planned spooky fun. Is there a real Headless Horseman haunting Sleepy Hollow?
The alphabet is over, but the mysteries continue in this fourth A-to-Z Mysteries Super Edition, featuring a secret message hidden in the illustrations.
Recommended for readers aged 7 to 9.
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Circus Fantastico
Molly Idle
Non-series
Run away with the circus and join the show! Circus Fantastico features much more than meets the eye. That's why this book comes with a working magnifier (tethered to the book's binding so it can't be lost).
Circus Fantastico encourages junior sleuths to help Ella the Elephant solve a mystery. Madame Fantastico's traveling circus is down on its luck, and when the show's props begin to disappear, Ella takes center stage to find out why.
Recommended for readers aged 7 to 9.
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The Ghost at Camp Davis
Ron Roy
The Capital Mysteries (12th in series)
Legend says that on each dead president's birthday, his ghost haunts the grounds of the remote retreat Camp David. But KC and Marshall aren't worried, even though they will be there on October 14, President Eisenhower's birthday. That is, they aren't worried until strange things start happening. How did a bat get trapped in their cabin? Why is there blood-red dirt in the trunk by the couch? And what is making the weird thumping noise underground? It's not Eisenhower's ghost ... is it?
Recommended for readers aged 10 to 12.
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The Smugglers' Mine
Chris Mould
Something Wickedly Weird (5th in series)
There's a new addition to the island of Crampton Rock. His name is MacDowell (yup, just one name) and he claims to have had some amazing pirate adventures with Admiral Swift, the great uncle of Stanley Buggles. Stanley is eager to know more about this MacDowell. Could this man help him uncover the secret of the Smuggler's map? Can he be trusted? Or once a pirate always a pirate?
Recommended for readers aged 10 to 12.
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The Final Meeting
Tracy Mack and Michael Citrin
A Baker Street Irregulars Mystery (4th in series)
The Baker Street Irregulars are back on the case as master detective Sherlock Holmes sets an elaborate trap to capture the wicked Professor Moriarty and dismantle his criminal organization, at last! But Moriarty has his own plans.
In their final adventure, the Irregulars face the greatest challenge of their careers. The quest will take them, for the first time, out of England and on a thrilling chase across Continental Europe. Will Holmes and the Irregulars succeed or fall prey to the most dangerous man in all of England?
Recommended for readers aged 10 to 12.
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Sydney's Outer Banks Blast
Jean Fischer
A Camp Club Girls Adventure (7th in series)
Unusual tracks in the sand ... odd lights hovering over the water at night ... scary noises in the dark ... This isn’t what Sydney and Bailey had in mind for their visit to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Is a strange creature lurking in the ocean depths? Or is it something coming into land from a submarine base? Something strange is taking place at the beach, and the Camp Club Girls are ready to investigate!
Recommended for readers aged 10 to 12.
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Elizabeth's Amarillo Adventure
Renae Brumbaugh
A Camp Club Girls Adventure (8th in series)
Elizabeth and McKenzie are roped into an adventure in Amarillo, Texas, when a strange man shows up at the Big Texas Steak Ranch asking about some missing marbles that were given to a waitress thirty years ago. What could be so important about a missing bag of marbles? And why would anyone be tracking them down so many years later? Elizabeth and McKenzie, along with help from the other Camp Club Girls, will soon find out!
Recommended for readers aged 10 to 12.
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Gold Medal Murder
Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon
Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Super Mystery
Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys are on the case when a Summer Olympics scandal breaks out in this crossover mystery!
Recommended for readers aged 10 and older.
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The Baffle Book
Lassiter Wren and Randle McKay
Fifteen Fiendishly Challenging Detective Puzzles (Minute Mysteries)
In words, charts, and diagrams, Messrs. Wren and McKay put you at the crime scene and present you with the facts established by the police. What do you observe? Which are the telltale clues? What do you deduce? And how will you answer the questions posed at the end of each problem: "Who stole the emerald?" "Where did the gang plan to meet?" "In what city had the amnesia victim once worked?" Each question is scored to a degree of difficulty, with a perfect score of ten points per puzzle. And if you find you are stumped, you can turn to the back of the book, where the answers are printed (but upside-down, to deter you from giving up too easily). Don't cheat: you'll only spoil the fun.
Recommended for readers aged 10 and older.
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Invisible City
M. G. Harris
The Joshua Files (1st in series)
Joshua’s life was pretty cool – until his father was reported dead in an air crash in Mexico.
Was it simply a tragic accident? Why was the plane miles off course? Were there really UFOs in the sky at the time of the crash?
In the depths of the Mexican jungle, with a deadly international hit man in his trail, Josh must find the truth about an incredible, dangerous secret – and try to stay alive.
Recommended for readers aged 13 and older.
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Shadow Hills
Anatasia Hopcus
Non-series
After her sister Athena's tragic death, it's obvious that grief-stricken Persephone "Phe" Archer no longer belongs in Los Angeles. Hoping to make sense of her sister's sudden demise and the cryptic dreams following it, Phe abandons her bubbly LA life to attend an uptight East Coast preparatory school in Shadow Hills, MA -- a school which her sister mysteriously mentioned in her last diary entry before she died.
Once there, Phe quickly realizes that something is deeply amiss in her new town. Not only does Shadow Hills' history boast an unexplained epidemic that decimated hundreds of its citizens in the 1700s, but its modern townies also seem eerily psychic, with the bizarre ability to bend metal. Even Zach -- the gorgeous stranger Phe meets and immediately begins to lust after -- seems as if he is hiding something serious. Phe is determined to get to the bottom of it. The longer she stays there, the more she suspects that her sister's untimely death and her own destiny are intricately linked to those who reside in Shadow Hills.
Recommended for readers aged 13 and older.
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X-Isle
Steve Augarde
Non-series
Ever since the floods came and washed the world away, survivors have been desperate to win a place on X-Isle, the island where life is rumoured to be easier than on what's left of the mainland. Only young boys are in with a chance, the smaller and lighter the better. Baz and Ray are two of the lucky few to be chosen, but they soon discover that X-Isle is a far cry from paradise. Ruled by Preacher John, a dangerous religious fanatic, it's a violent, unpredictable place where terrible things can happen at any moment. The boys hatch an extraordinary plan in order to protect themselves -- the construction of a mighty weapon of defense. But can they complete this weapon in time, and are they really prepared to use it in order to secure their freedom?
Recommended for readers aged 13 and older.
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Legacies
Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill
A Shadow Grail Thriller (1st in series)
Who—or what—is stalking the students at Oakhurst Academy?
In the wake of the accident that killed her family, Spirit White is spirited away to Oakhurst Academy, a combination school and orphanage in the middle of Montana. There she learns she is a legacy—not only to the school, which her parents also attended, but to magic.
All the students at Oakhurst have magical powers, and although Spirit’s hasn’t manifested itself yet, the administrators insist she has one. Spirit isn’t sure she cares. Devastated by the loss of her family, she finds comfort with a group of friends: Burke Hallows, Lachlann Spears, Muirin Shae, and Adelaide Lake.
But something strange is going on at Oakhurst. Students start disappearing under mysterious circumstances, and the school seems to be trying to cover it up. Spirit and her friends must find out what’s happening—before one of them becomes the next victim …
Recommended for readers aged 13 and older.
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Prism
Faye Kellerman and Aliza Kellerman
Non-series
Aida Hutchenson, Zeke Anderson, and Joy Tallon: three teens with nothing in common, thrown together by an explosive accident that turns their class trip into a desert nightmare. And the next morning ... a return to their ordinary lives with everything just as it was before. Or is it? Increasingly unnerved by the distorted world around her, Kaida must band together with Zeke and Joy in hopes of making it back to the reality she remembers ... and surviving the one she's fallen into.
Recommended for readers aged 13 and older.
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Conspiracy 365: July
Gabrielle Lord
A Conspiracy 365 Thriller (7th in series)
On New Year's Eve, Callum "Cal" Ormond is chased down the street by a staggering, sick man with a deadly warning … "They killed your father. They'll kill you. You must survive the next 365 days!" Hurled into a life on the run, with a price on his head, the 15-year-old fugitive is isolated and alone. Hunted by the law and ruthless criminals, Cal must somehow uncover the truth about his father's mysterious death and a history-changing secret. Who can he turn to, who can he trust, when the whole world seems to want him dead? The clock is ticking. Any second could be his last.
Recommended for readers aged 13 and older.
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First Clues: Mysteries for Kids is your source for information on over 100 mystery series for children and young adults, where each series is conveniently listed under four different age categories (New Sleuths, ages 4 to 6; Future Sleuths, ages 7 to 9; Sleuths in Training, ages 10 to 12; and Apprentice Sleuths, ages 13 and older).
