by Ben Guterson
I’ve been a lifelong fan of stories that include mysterious locales, secret objects, peculiar or magical occurrences, and puzzles, puzzles, and more puzzles. The ten books listed below feature these elements and many other delights.
1. E.L. Konigsburg’s irresistible From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, remains a beguiling gem nearly 60 years after its publication, the rare book that has—deservedly—transcended its era. The plot is audacious: siblings Claudia (11; fastidious, wistful, ostensibly underestimated) and Jamie (9; brash, frugal, agreeable in doses) run away from their Greenwich home and spend a week secretly camping out in Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum of Art where they pursue the riddle of a recently acquired statue. (The art-history backstory is entirely concocted, but, gosh, Konigsburg sells it so well, generations of readers have assumed it’s true.) As a mystery tale, the book is somewhat thin. But as an exploration of the puzzles of the young protagonists’ hearts, it is something of a marvel. Konigsburg’s lilting humor and ear for dialogue seal the deal.
2. Sleuthing duo Emily and James find themselves thick in the middle of a bookish, puzzle-filled competition devised by gaming mastermind Garrison Griswold in 2018’s The Alcatraz Escape, the concluding novel in Jennifer Chambliss Bertman’s winning Book Scavenger trilogy. The story offers clever twists, jumpy peril, and a friendship that deepens sweetly in what is, to my eyes, the most satisfying volume in the series. Bertman packs her tale with engrossing historical asides (Alcatraz Island is the primary setting) and nods to literary figures (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Dashiell Hammett, and more). The friendship between Emily and James, however, is the core of the series; it’s nearly impossible not to root for them to solve The Alcatraz Escape’s puzzles.
3. Readers moved to crack open The Secret of the Old Clock, the first volume in the long-running Nancy Drew Mystery Stories books, will likely encounter the 1959 re-write of the 1930 classic, an editorial eventuality made necessary because the original’s awkward stereotypes were becoming as apparent as the story’s stiff-joints. Spruced up and energized, the novel—and the entire series—lives on as a shambling, campy romp, while “young sleuth” Nancy Drew persists as one of literature’s most famous detectives. The book’s plot is slight—a missing will, an antique clock, cartoonish robbers, a family of noxious schemers. Author Nancy Keane (a collective pseudonym; the books were ghostwritten by various writers over the years) offers a string of happy coincidences, while Nancy veers between estimable pluck and forehead-slapping recklessness. In truth, the series’ eventual renown retroactively elevates the lurching initiating entry. Some readers may find one Nancy Drew book is enough; few will say The Secret of the Old Clock isn’t a lot of fun.
4. The Secret Keepers, Trenton Lee Stewart’s 2016 follow-up to his wildly popular Mysterious Benedict Society books, was received with a measure of ambivalence by devotees expecting a reworking of the MBS formula, though I find this fearless and intricately-plotted novel somewhat irresistible. At story’s outset, eleven-year-old Reuben Penderly, at once introverted and adventure-seeking, discovers a strange watch that eventually ensnares him in a thicket of confusion and troubles. Finding his way out proves endlessly bewildering as Reuben sifts through one peril after the next. Though the clue-to-page ratio is less than it was in Stewart’s now-classic Benedict Society books, The Secret Keepers is a mesmerizing tale for those doubly-willing to suspend disbelief—Stewart dares the reader to try.
5. The Ambrose Deception by Emily Ecton unfolds within well-marked outlines: fabulous, shadowy figure with means arranges an inscrutable scavenger-hunt game featuring devilish clues, competitors with unapparent talents, and a wondrous eventual reward. Ecton delivers with flair, however, depositing her three young protagonists into a crucible of sneaky misdirection and looping riddles that elevate this 2018 tale above a stack of similar books. There’s a fine seam of humor throughout, as well, that avoids becoming too cute; it’s also huge fun to watch the accelerating shenanigans unfold against a backdrop of Chicago landmarks. Ultimately, the book’s misfit heroes must solve the mystery of their own burgeoning friendship, something Ecton manages with a light, generous touch. No deception there.
6. Laura Ruby’s captivating 2017 series-starter, York: The Shadow Cipher, occupies an inventively reimagined—if mostly familiar—New York City of solar-powered cars, hybrid pets, and labor-sparing robots. Anchoring all is a tantalizing conceit: 19th century twins Theresa and Theodore Morningstarr, the masterminds behind much of New York’s architecture and technology, encoded an enticing mystery in the structures of the city itself before inexplicably disappearing. Fast-forward to the present, where code-breaking twins Tess and Theo Biedermann team with fellow tween Jaime Cruz to solve the so-called Morningstarr Cipher, whose resolution is rumored to reveal untold treasure. It’s huge fun to watch the kids puzzle through various classic coding devices (Vigenere, Scytale, or fore-edge painting, anyone?) in this mind-bending, twisty adventure.
7. An automatic entry on a compilation of this sort, The Westing Game by Emily Raskin has long since earned its place as perhaps the pre-eminent mystery novel for young readers of the past half-century. Much lauded and oft-imitated, the book falls squarely in the “quirky will is read, clues are offered, a contest ensues” mold, with 13-year-old Turtle Wexler holding center stage among an ensemble of characters attempting to locate the fortune apparently left by elusive millionaire Samuel Westing. Witty wordplay and clever sleuthing transpire. While the novel’s brisk, punchy style remains immensely charming, some of the ethnicity and gender references have fallen slightly out of step, and a few stretches of clue-gathering feel, at times, more like Raskin-prolonged disarray than actual detective work. But I’m quibbling. The Westing Game is a hugely enjoyable book, and virtually every mystery aimed at the middle-grade set since has measured itself against Raskin’s classic.
8. Ambitious and entertaining, Varian Johnson’s The Parker Inheritance embeds a clever mystery within a two-in-one tale rife with social commentary. Complicated? Perhaps. And while I suspect some readers may wish Johnson had trimmed a subplot or two, I find the novel—featuring new friends Candice and Brandon steadily unraveling clues that may lead to an enormous treasure—as engrossing as it is impressive. With a deft touch, Johnson’s exploration of the scars left on a small South Carolina town due to racial disharmony nudges his tale far beyond mere entertainment. Readers will find this book, published in 2018, both great fun and worthy of plenty of reflection.
9. Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ The Inheritance Games, the most PG-13 entry on this list, was a huge commercial hit upon its release in 2020. The story finds high school junior Avery Kylie Grambs miraculously plucked from parentless, impoverished obscurity and awarded the fortune of deceased multi-billionaire Tobias Hawthorne, a man to whom she seems to have no connection. The incredulous Hawthorne family, suddenly in danger of being downgraded from “filthy rich” to mere “rich,” mobilizes against her. Or do they? Tobias’s grandsons—a quartet of brainy hunks who aver portentously and seem too wily by half—alternately assist Avery and misdirect her (with some romantic subplots thrown in), while a bevy of disbelieving side characters semi-reveal secrets cloaked in enigmas wrapped in ambiguity. Avery’s head spins, a sort of high school soap opera breaks out, and a National Treasure-esque trail of clues draws the various searchers—and most mystery fans—onward. Some readers will find the book overwrought, but it is a genuine phenomenon, one strewn with elaborate puzzles and one difficult to escape once it grabs hold.
10. Author Lissa Evans warns readers at the outset of Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms that what follows is an “unexpected, strange, dangerous story,” and that pretty much covers it. This quirky charmer from 2011 shoves dauntless 10-year-old Stuart Horten into a madcap search to discover a workshop mysteriously concealed years ago by his great uncle, a renowned—oh, yes—magician. Stuart’s hunt, part trail of happenstance and part exercise in crazy logic, is the sort of thing Wes Anderson and Steven Millhauser might have created if they’d teamed up to write a kids’ book. All unfurls in a register of extended whimsy; Evans’s tone throughout is superbly, hilariously mischievous. The hijinks rarely let up as Stuart is aided by a young, self-appointed journalist named April (sister to May and June). The pair stagger through one outrageous obstacle after the next; the reader gapes at the startling plot shifts and a string of puzzles. Eventually, some actual magic blossoms, though the enchantment began on the first page.
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