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 October 2011, listed in approximate order of reading level, from books for younger readers to books for teens.
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The Mixed-Up Message 
Natalie Shaw
The Busytown Mysteries
A new adventure featuring the timeless characters created by Richard Scarry.
Sergeant Murphy gets a call for help on his radio, but it’s muffled and hard to understand. When Huckle and the gang investigate, they realize that different words can sound alike. While it sounds like the message is “goat … duck … socks … HELP!” it is really “boat … stuck … rocks … HELP!” The gang finds a fisherman stranded in his boat after hitting some rocks, and they help Sergeant Murphy bring him to safety!
The Busytown Mysteries are recommended for readers aged 4 to 6.
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The Graduation Day Mystery
David A. Adler
A Cam Jansen Mystery
Eric's father is finally graduating from college. But before the celebration can begin, a very special present from Grandpa Shelton disappears. Was it lost-or stolen? Cam must use her photographic memory to track down the gift.
This is the 31st mystery in the Cam Jansen Mystery series and is recommended for readers aged 7 to 9.
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The Case of the Mysterious Voice
John R. Erickson
A Hank the Cowdog Mystery
When an odd twist of events brings a parrot to the ranch, Hank and Drover are not worried. After all, what harm can one mimicking bird do? So Hank decides to go about his business and do whatever Sally May and Loper ask him to. The only problem is, they don't seem to appreciate his heeding their requests to bark louder or dig up the flowers. What's really going on? Hank's not sure, but he's determined to get to the bottom of it!
The Hank the Cowdog Mysteries — this is the 58th book in this long-running series — are recommended for readers aged 7 to 9.
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The Disappearing Dog
Franklin W. Dixon
The Hardy Boys: Secret Files
In this 7th book of the series, there’s a new kid in Bayport, and Frank and Joe Hardy aren’t really sure what to make of Max O’Malley, self-proclaimed magician. Not only is he totally annoying, he claims that he can make anything — or anyone — disappear.
Though Max wins over a bunch of classmates, Frank and Joe remain skeptical — until Mrs. Briar’s prized show dog, Charlie, starts to mysteriously disappear and reappear without any explanation. Max quickly becomes the prime suspect, but is he really the one behind the strange occurrences? Could it be that Max is as magical as he claims to be?
The Hardy Boys: Secret Files are recommended for readers aged 7 to 9.
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It Happened on a Train
Mac Barnett
A Brixton Brothers Mystery
Retired private detective and current seventh grader Steve Brixton has a new career: taking out the garbage on Wednesdays for five bucks a week. But it’s hard to leave the old game behind, and on a train trip down the California coast, Steve finds himself pulled back into sleuthing. Soon he’s in over his head in four feet and eleven inches of mystery involving a fleet of priceless automobiles, a deadly assassin (or maybe just a faulty lock on a sauna door), and a secret train car filled with intrigue. Plus there’s a girl involved, which complicates everything. I mean she’s just Steve’s friend. And really, they barely even know each other. It’s not like they’re boyfriend or girlfriend or anything, okay?
This is the third Brixton Brothers mystery and is recommended for readers aged 10 to 12.
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Vanishing Acts
Phillip Margolin and Ami Margolin Rome
A Madison Kincaid Mystery
A new series!
From tracking down her best friend, who’s nowhere to be found, to secretly helping her attorney father solve a missing-person case, Madison Kincaid is a busy seventh-grade sleuth. Teaming up with new classmate Jake, she hits the sidewalks of Portland, Oregon, determined to find out what’s behind two mysterious vanishing acts.
This Madison Kincaid mystery is recommended for readers aged 10 to 12.
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The Lemon Tree Caper
Rene Saldana
A Mickey Rangel Mystery
Mickey Rangel, kid detective extraordinaire, has just exited the school bus one sweltering afternoon when he hears a blood-curdling shriek. It's coming from the creepy neighbor lady's house. Señorita Andrade, known as La Bruja Andrade to all the neighborhood kids, is as old as the moon, wrinkled like a prune, and smells like moth balls. But she's in trouble, so Mickey forgoes the cool, refreshing glass of lemonade he planned to buy from Tina's stand and instead goes to help the supposed witch.
"My lemons, Mickey, my prize-winning lemons. They're gone. They re all gone," Señorita Andrade cries. The tree was covered with fruit just that morning, but Mickey can see that it's true: there's not one lemon on the tree. She is famous for her lemons. One of the reasons everyone thinks the woman is a witch is because she somehow manages to keep lemons on the tree year round. And for years she has won first prize in the annual Lemon Festival and Lowrider Bicycle Show. In the lemon category that is, not the bikes.
Who could have removed several sacks full of lemons? Was it only a coincidence that Tina had set up a lemonade stand just down the street? With a bowl full of lemons sitting right out front?!? Or could it have been someone trying to sabotage Señorita Andrade's entry in the upcoming festival dedicated to the savory fruit? "I'll get to the bottom of this, ma'am. Mickey Rangel is on the case."
This is the second mystery in this bilingual series (English/Spanish) and is recommended for readers aged 10 to 12.
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The Night of the Skulls
Wendelin Van Draanen
A Sammy Keyes Mystery
In her 14th adventure, junior high detective Sammy Keyes and her friends take a detour through a graveyard on Halloween night and find themselves in the middle of a mystery. Sammy must figure out how three missing people, two human skulls, and one ghoulish embalmer add up before she winds up six feet under herself!
And school presents its own set of tricks and treats. Sammy knows that a classmate is guilty of beating up a man on Halloween night. Should she obey the law and tell Officer Borsch? Or should she obey the junior high code and keep quiet?
Life and death and truth and justice have never been so tangled up …
The Sammy Keyes mysteries are recommended for readers aged 10 to 12.
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The Case of the Carnival Crime
Donald J. Sobol
An Encyclopedia Brown Mystery
Following the classic formula in this series that began in 1963, this new installment presents ten new mysteries, complete with answers at the end of the book that allow the reader to solve the cases along with the boy detective. Join Encyclopedia as he takes on cases of giant diamonds, lazy lions, a country singer, and of course a trip to the carnival.
This Encyclopedia Brown mystery is recommended for readers aged 10 to 12.
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Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact
A. J. Hartley
Eleven-year-old Darwen Arkwright has spent his whole life in a tiny town in England. So when he is forced to move to Atlanta, Georgia, to live with his aunt, he knows things will be different — but what he finds there is beyond even his wildest imaginings!
Darwen discovers an enchanting world through the old mirror hanging in his closet — a world that holds as many dangers as it does wonders. Scrobblers on motorbikes with nets big enough to fit a human boy. Gnashers with no eyes, but monstrous mouths full of teeth. Flittercrakes with bat-like bodies and the faces of men. Along with his new friends Rich and Alexandra, Darwen becomes entangled in an adventure and a mystery that involves the safety of his entire school. They soon realize that the creatures are after something in our world — something that only human children possess.
This possible first in a new series is recommended for readers aged 10 to 12.
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The Orphan of Awkward Falls
Keith Graves
When thirteen-year-old Josephine moves to Awkward Falls she can't help but snoop around the dilapidated mansion next door. Inevitably, she is captured by the house's strange inhabitants: an ancient automaton who serves as a butler, a cat patched together with a few odd parts, and most surprising of all, a boy named Thaddeus Hibble.
Meanwhile, Fetid Stenchley, the most feared patient in the Asylum for the Dangerously Insane, is on the loose after making a dramatic escape, and there is only one thing on his mind … revenge. Unfortunately for Josephine and Thaddeus, he's headed their way. Can these unlikely friends stop Stenchley before it's too late?
This paranormal thriller is recommended for readers aged 10 to 12.
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Mystery at Malachite Mansion
Carolyn Keene
A Nancy Drew, Girl Detective Mystery
In the second book in the "Malibu Mayhem Trilogy", Nancy Drew and her friends aren’t exactly having the most restful Malibu vacation. After noticing pollution on the shores of their beautiful beachfront condo, they check into the shady “holistic spa” next door to investigate a motivational guru who could be tied to ocean garbage dumping!
The Nancy Drew, Girl Detective mystery books are recommended for readers aged 10 and older.
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The Dragon Turn
Shane Peacock
A Boy Sherlock Holmes Mystery
It is Summer 1869 in this fifth book of the series, and Sherlock Holmes and his friend Irene celebrate her sixteenth birthday by attending the theater to watch a celebrated magician make a real dragon appear on stage. It is the London sensation. Sherlock and Irene meet the magician, Alistair Hemsworth — just as he is arrested for the murder of his rival, The Wizard of Nottingham.
It seems that traces of the missing Wizard’s blood and his spectacles were found in Hemsworth’s secret studio. Hemsworth has a motive: not only is the Wizard his rival, but he also caused a scandal when he lured Hemsworth’s wife away. But is Hemsworth guilty? Sherlock has his doubts, and soon, so does the reader.
This Boy Sherlock Holmes mystery is recommended for readers aged 13 and older.
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First Clues: Mysteries for Kids is your source for information on over 200 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).
