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Adult Books for Teens Booklist
Crime Fiction

 

Mystery, Suspense, Thrillers, for ages 12+
Not all books on this list are suitable for all readers, parental guidance should be used.

 

Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.


  • Murder on the Leviathan: An Erast Fandorin Mystery
    Author: Akunin, Boris
    Publisher: Random $ 21.95 ISBN: 1400060516 Date: 2004
    starKirkus
    Paris, March, 1878: When Lord Littleby is discovered in his rue Grenelle residence with his head bashed in, surrounded by the bodies of seven servants and two children who appear to have died from overdoses of morphine, the distinguished Paris police commissioner Gauche is determined to solve the case.
    Updated 2.23.04
  • High Country
    Author: Barr, Nevada
    Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399151443 Date: 2004
    starBooklist
    It's fall in the Sierra Mountains, and Anna Pigeon is investigating the disappearance of four seasonal park employees in Yosemite National Park. She follows the scent of evil, taking a solo hike up a snowy trail to the high country, seeking answers. What waits for her is a nightmare of death and greed--and perhaps her final adventure.
    Updated 11.25.03
  • Jane and the Ghosts of Netley
    Author: Barron, Stephanie
    Publisher: Bantam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553802224 Date: 2003
    starPW
    The scintillating sleuth returns for another dazzling installment of murder-most-refined in the bestselling series hailed by Library Journal as "history mystery at its best!"
    Updated 5.12.03
  • Pride and Prescience: Or, a Truth Universally Acknowledged; a Mr. & Mrs. Darcy Mystery
    Author: Bebris, Carrie
    Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 076530589 Date: 2004
    starLJ
    Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, the joyous newlyweds from Pride and Prejudice, have not even left for their honeymoon when they find themselves embroiled in a mystery involving one of their wedding guests.
    Updated 1.10.04
  • The Enemy: A Jack Reacher Novel
    Author: Child, Lee
    Publisher: Delacorte $ 25 ISBN: 0385336675 Date: 2004
    starLJstarKirkusstarPWstarBooklist
    Jack Reacher. Hero. Loner. Soldier. Soldier's son. An elite military cop, he was one of the army's brightest stars. But in every soldier's life, there is a turning point. One case that can shatter a career or turn a lawman into a renegade. And make him question words like honor, valor, and duty. For Jack Reacher, this is that case....
    Suggested Reading: All Stars | Conspiracy Theory
    Updated 3.22.04
  • Killing Raven
    Author: Coel, Margaret
    Publisher: Prime Crime $ 22.95 ISBN: 042519261x Date: 2003
    starPW
    From the New York Times bestselling author of The Shadow Dancer comes a new story of the Wind River Reservation, where Father John O'Malley and his friend, Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden, enter a deadly struggle over vice, virtue, and murder.
    Suggested Reading: If You Like Tony Hillerman
    Updated 8.18.03
  • Lost Light
    Author: Connelly, Michael
    Publisher: Little Brown $ 25.95 ISBN: 0316154601 Date: 2003
    starKirkusstarBookliststarPWstarLJ
    The bestselling author of City of Bones and Chasing the Dime brings lone wolf Harry Bosch out of retirement and on a wild excursion into evil, seeking the truth about a cold case that still haunts the LAPD, movie studios--and Bosch himself.
    Suggested Reading: All Stars | Cold Cases
    Updated 3.31.03
  • Garden of Beasts: A Novel of Berlin 1936
    Author: Deaver, Jeffrey
    Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24.95 ISBN: 0743222016 Date: 2004
    starPWstarLibrary Journal
    Called the reigning "master of ticking-bomb suspense" (People), Deaver has written a gripping international thriller--with a range of real political figures and Olympic athletes--that introduces his most psychologically complex hero to date.
    Updated 5.20.04
  • Sensei
    Author: Donohue, John
    Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312288123 Date: 2003
    starPWstarBooklist
    When many of America's great martial artists are murdered, college professor and martial artist Connor Burke is dragged into the investigation by the NYPD. With the help of master warrior Yamashita Sensei, Burke follows a trail of clues that leads him to confront his own fear--and the ruthless killer.
    Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts
    Updated 3.27.03
  • Metro Girl
    Author: Evanovich, Janet
    Publisher: HarperCollins $ 26.95 ISBN: 0060584009 Date: 2004
    starBooklist
    Evanovich's spectacular new novel about a woman in search of her missing brother comes complete with high stakes, hot nights, murder, and graft--not to mention car chases, car races, car explosions, and much more.
    Suggested Reading: Florida Fiction | If You Like Janet Evanovich . . .
    Updated 11.2.04
  • The Warlord's Son
    Author: Fesperman, Dan
    Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0375414738 Date: 2004
    starPW
    In this electrifying thriller set in present-day Afghanistan, the fates of an American journalist and his Pakistani translator become dangerously intertwined with the fortunes of warlords, spies, and dubious corporate interests.
    Suggested Reading: Afghanistan
    Updated 8.16.04
  • Lost in a Good Book
    Author: Fforde, Jasper
    Publisher: Viking Books $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670031909 Date: 2003
    starKirkusstarLJ
    Literary detective heroine Thursday Next returns in this follow-up to the acclaimed The Eyre Affair. To rescue the love of her life, Thursday must retrieve a supposedly vanquished enemy from the pages of Poe's "The Raven." Soon, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences.
    Updated 3.13.03
  • Avenger
    Author: Forsyth, Frederick
    Publisher: St Martins $ 26.95 ISBN: 0312319517 Date: 2003
    starBookliststarPWstarLJ
    In this heart-stopping thriller of murder, intrigue, deception, and revenge, attorney Calvin Dexter is called upon to settle an old score. But the game is changing, and this time CIA agent Kevin McBride must find a way to stop Dexter before his quest for vengeance throws the world into chaos.
    Suggested Reading: All Stars
    Updated 9.08.03
  • Full Dark House
    Author: Fowler, Christopher
    Publisher: Bantam $ 24 ISBN: 0553803875 Date: 2004
    starKirkus
    When a bomb claims the life of his partner of over 50 years, Detective Arthur Bryant must revisit their first case to uncover the killer's identity. Fowler combines dark drama and black comedy in this deliciously sinister crime novel.
    Updated 3.25.04
  • Pattern Recognition
    Author: Gibson, William
    Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399149864 Date: 2003
    starKirkusstarPW
    Numb at the loss of her ex-security expert father at the World Trade Center, Cayce Pollard refuses to give up on a secret assignment which will take her to Tokyo and on to Russia to investigate Internet videos that are attracting a cult following. With help and betrayal from equally unlikely quarters, Cayce will follow the trail of the mysterious film, and in the process will learn something about her father's life and death.
    Updated 1.20.03
  • Alms for Oblivion
    Author: Gooden, Philip
    Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 24 ISBN: 07786711426 Date: 2003
    starBooklist
    An actor is dead, and the cast of suspects grows, but the finger of the coroner is pointing at amateur detective Nick Revill. With as many twists to its plot as a Shakespearean play and betrayals compounded as often as in Troilus and Cressida, Gooden offers, as Library Journal notes, "authentic settings and a solid and intriguing plot Ythat? result in a fine historical mystery."
    Updated 5.14.03
  • Pompeii
    Author: Harris, Robert
    Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0679428895 Date: 2003
    starKirkusstarBooklist
    Ancient Rome is the setting for the superb new novel from Robert Harris, author of the number one bestsellers Fatherland, Enigma and Archangel. - Publisher Marketing.
    Suggested Reading: Historical Mystery Stars
    Updated 10.23.03
  • Skeleton Man
    Author: Hillerman, Tony
    Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060563443 Date: 2004
    starBookliststarPW
    "New York Times" bestselling author Tony Hillerman is back with another blockbuster novel featuring the legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Sergeant Jim Chee.
    Suggested Reading: If You Like Tony Hillerman . . .
    Updated 10.19.04
  • The Sinister Pig
    Author: Hillerman, Tony
    Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 006019443x Date: 2003
    starPWstarBooklist
    The bestselling author of The Wailing Wind brings back Chee and Leaphorn, who investigate a motiveless murder with hazy federal connections. This leads a frightened Washington power broker to fly west and initiates the hunt for a pig that is sinister indeed.
    Updated 5.14.03
  • Exit Wounds
    Author: Jance, J.A.
    Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0380977311 Date: 2003
    starPW
    The next bestseller from the author of Partner in Crime brilliantly evokes the beauty, loneliness, and brutality of the Southwest desert country. Sheriff Joanna Brady probes the macabre death of a loner and her 17 dogs and discovers that secrets of the past can run deeper and darker than she's ever imagined.
    Updated 6.19.03
  • The Devil You Know
    Author: Johnson, Wayne
    Publisher: Crown $ 23 ISBN: 0609609645 Date: 2004
    starBooklist
    The Devil You Know combines the breathtaking intensity of a first-rate literary thriller with the complexity and heart of a classic coming-of-age novel as a 15-year-old boy struggles to protect his family on a wilderness trip.
    Updated 2.23.04
  • Moon Over Manhattan
    Author: King, Larry & Thomas Cook
    Publisher: New Millennium $ 24.95 ISBN: 1893224570 Date: 2003
    starPW
    From the host of CNN's "Larry King Live" and an Edgar Award-winning mystery writer comes a madcap caper about the bright lights and dimwits of Manhattan. " A delightful farce . . ."--"Publishers Weekly."
    Updated 3.31.03
  • The Game
    Author: King, Laurie R.
    Publisher: Bantam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553801945 Date: 2004
    starBookliststarPW
    From the award-winning author of Justice Hall and Folly comes a new novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.
    Suggested Reading: Sherlockian Stars
    Updated 1.26.04
  • Life Expectancy
    Author: Koontz, Dean
    Publisher: Bantam $ 27 ISBN: 0553804146 Date: 2004
    starPW
    With his bestselling blend of nail-biting intensity, daring artistry, and storytelling magic, Koontz returns with an emotional rollercoaster tale of five days in the life of an ordinary man born to an extraordinary legacy--a story that will challenge the way readers perceive good and evil, life and death, and everything in between.
    Updated 11.15.04
  • The Taking
    Author: Koontz, Dean
    Publisher: Bantam $ 27 ISBN: 055380250x Date: 2004
    starBooklist
    Epic in scope, searingly intimate and immediate in its perspective, The Taking delivers a novel of surpassing suspense and visceral terror, telling the story of a small town's encounter with doomsday.
    Updated 5.7.04
  • Odd Thomas
    Author: Koontz, Dean
    Publisher: Bantam $ 26.95 ISBN: 0553802496 Date: 2003
    starPWstarBooklist
    Fate and destiny converge in this haunting tale of love and terror, suspense and self-discovery. Odd Thomas is an unassuming young hero who regularly communicates with the dead--a gallant sentinel called upon to stop a mysterious man on a day of catastrophe.
    Updated 1.6.04
  • Every Secret Thing
    Author: Lippman, Laura
    Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060506679 Date: 2003
    starLJ
    The acclaimed author's first stand-alone novel is a shocking tale of lost innocence, murder, and betrayal.
    Updated 7.1.03
  • Sleeping Beauty
    Author: Margolin, Phillip
    Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060083263 Date: 2004
    starLJ
    With a blend of dizzying plot twists and thrilling suspense, Margolin creates a terrifying suspense novel about a young woman on the run from her parents' killer.
    Updated 2.2.04
  • High Country Fall
    Author: Maron, Margaret
    Publisher: Mysterious $ 24 ISBN: 0892968087 Date: 2004
    starBookliststarPW
    With friends and family overreacting to her announcement that she plans to marry Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant, Judge Deborah Knott gratefully seizes the opportunity to work a week on the bench at Cedar Gap. But Deborah's peaceful break is interrupted by murder.
    Updated 6.21.04
  • The Full Cupboard of Life: More from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
    Author: McCall Smith, Alexander
    Publisher: Pantheon $ 19.95 ISBN: 0375422188 Date: 2004
    starPW
    Here is the fifth novel in the internationally bestselling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency hit series. Once again we are transported to Gaborone, capital city of Botswana, and into the world of Mma Ramotswe and her friends. - Book Jacket.
    Updated 3.29.04
  • Distant Echo
    Author: McDermid, Val
    Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312301995 Date: 2003
    starBookliststarPW
    Four students stumble upon the body of a young woman who has been raped and murdered. When the case is reopened 25 years later, two of the four former students die suspiciously, and Alex must find the real killer before he becomes the next victim.
    Suggested Reading: Cold Cases
    Updated 9.08.03
  • Cat Fear No Evil
    Author: Murphy, Shirley Rousseau
    Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0066209498 Date: 2004
    starPW
    Following several trails, Joe and Dulcie claw out the truth in this delightful ninth Joe Grey Mystery from an award-winning author.
    Updated 2.2.04
  • War At Home
    Author: Nelscott, Kris
    Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312325274 Date: 2005
    starBooklist
    Smokey Dalton confronts the anti-Vietnam war movement when a radical Yale student disappears into the activist population of New York City in the next thrilling crime novel from award-winner Kris Nelscott.
    Updated 3.3.05
  • The Lake House
    Author: Patterson, James
    Publisher: Little Brown $ 27.95 ISBN: 0316603287 Date: 2003
    starBooklist
    The six children who escaped horrifying government experiments in James Patterson's When the Wind Blows are back at last--in a new thriller that tests the limits of the imagination. All they want is to return to the one place where they ever felt protected--the waterfront cabin known as the Lake House.
    Updated 5.14.03
  • Balance of Power
    Author: Patterson, Richard North
    Publisher: Ballantine $ 27.95 ISBN: 0345450175 Date: 2003
    starKirkus
    The #1 New York Times bestselling author confronts one of America's most emotional and divisive issues--gun violence--in this novel of politics, law, and power.
    Suggested Reading: Legal Stars | Political Fiction
    Updated 7.28.03
  • Shoulder the Sky
    Author: Perry, Anne
    Publisher: Ballantine $ 25.95 ISBN: 0345456548 Date: 2004
    starPW
    The taut, inspiring sequel to No Graves As Yet continues Perry's acclaimed World War I series, which follows the lives of the Reavley family amid the horrors of war.
    Suggested Reading: World War Stars | Historical Fiction Stars
    Updated 7.26.04
  • Brimstone
    Author: Preston, Douglas & Lincoln Child
    Publisher: Warner $ 25.95 ISBN: 044653143x Date: 2004
    starKirkusstarPW
    Teaming with Police Officer Vincent D'Agosta (The Relic), Agent Pendergast is determined to solve a case that appears to defy everything except supernatural logic. Has the Devil, in fact, come to collect his due?
    Suggested Reading: If You Like Michael Crichton
    Updated 7.6.04
  • Remember When
    Author: Roberts, Nora & J.D. Robb
    Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 0399151060 Date: 2003
    starPWstarLJ
    A thrill-ride of a novel that blends present-day romance and futuristic suspense, Remember When is a tale of deceit and secrets, of strong women and fascinating men--a brilliant combination of the incomparable talents of the two sides of Nora Roberts.
    Updated 9.08.03
  • Point of Honour
    Author: Robins, Madeleine E.
    Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 031287202x Date: 2003
    starBookliststarLJ
    In the first title of a brand-new series, danger, intrigue, and romance are rampant on the mean streets of Regency London, where Sarah Tolerance, the "fallen" daughter of a noble, has invented a new role for herself: Agent of Inquiry.
    Updated 5.29.03
  • Playing With Fire
    Author: Robinson, Peter
    Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 006019877x Date: 2004
    starBooklist
    Multiple-prize-winning and international bestselling author Robinson returns with a new novel of burning suspense, as a deadly case of arson leads Inspector Banks into his most dangerous case yet.
    Suggested Reading: On Fire
    Updated 11.25.03
  • A Gladiator Dies Only Once: Gordianus the Finder
    Author: Saylor, Steven
    Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312271204 Date: 2005
    starBooklist
    This is the second compilation of short pieces featuring Gordianus the Finder, filling in the gaps between the novels
    Roman Blood and Catilina's Riddle.
    Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
    Updated 4.7.05
  • Judgment of Caesar: A Novel of Ancient Rome
    Author: Saylor, Steven
    Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312271190 Date: 2004
    starKirkusstarBookliststarPW
    In the late days of the Roman civil war, Gordianus the Finder is caught in Egypt in the midst of the last struggle between Pompeii and Julius Caesar, and between Ptolemy and Cleopatra while he searches for his missing wife.
    Suggested Reading: All Stars | Egyptian Stars
    Updated 5.10.04
  • A Grave Denied: Kate Shugak
    Author: Stabenow, Dana
    Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312306814 Date: 2003
    starPW
    Stabenow takes her Edgar Award-winning Kate Shugak series to new heights with a masterful thriller about a murdered mystery man.
    Suggested Reading: Private Investigators
    Updated 7.8.03
  • Nobody Runs Forever
    Author: Stark, Richard
    Publisher: Mysterious $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892967986 Date: 2004
    starPW
    Master criminal Parker is back and in deeper, darker trouble than ever before. The classic anti-hero is forced to use every trick in his dubious arsenal to avoid having to pay the ultimate price for his questionable line of work.
    Updated 10.12.04
  • Tracking Bear
    Author: Thurlo, Aimee & David
    Publisher: Forge $24.95 ISBN: 0765304767 Date: 2003
    starBooklist
    A group of businessmen is working to open a uranium mine and nuclear power plant on the Navajo Reservation. Investigating the murder of a Navajo cop during a break-in and robbery, Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah learns that clues seem to lead to a major supporter of the nuclear project, but the man insists he's being framed--or is he?
    Updated 5.14.03
  • Final Witness
    Author: Tolkien, Simon
    Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375508821 Date: 2003 Date: 2003
    starBooklist
    The grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien makes a thrilling debut as a novelist in this suspenseful family drama about a teenage boy who accuses his stepmother of murdering his mother, Lady Anne Robinson. Thomas's father, Sir Peter Robinson, is the British minister of defense and refuses to believe his son. Instead, he will be the trial's final witness.
    Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery Debuts | Legal Stars
    Updated 10.24.02
  • Sims
    Author: Wilson, F. Paul
    Publisher: Forge $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765305518 Date: 2003
    starKirkus
    A new science thriller, Sims takes place in the very near future, when the science of genetics is fulfilling its vaunted potential. It's a world where genetically transmitted diseases are being eliminated, and manual labor is gradually being transferred to "sims", genetically altered chimps who occupy a gray zone between simian and human.
    Updated 2.23.03
  • Maisie Dobbs
    Author: Winspear, Jacqueline
    Publisher: Soho $ 24 ISBN: 1569473307 Date: 2003
    starLibrary JournalstarPW
    "Meet Maisie Dobbs, who in 1929 launches her career as a private investigator and finds herself drawn back to the Great War she thought she'd long since put behind her: an unexpected beginning for Maisie--and a rare treat for mystery fans."--Charles Todd, A Fearsome Doubt.
    Suggested Reading: World War Stars | Debuts
    Updated 6.19.03