Thrillers and Mysteries (YA)

Thrillers and mysteries are sort of opposites: one’s like “how are they going to get out of that mess?” and the other’s like “how did they get into that mess?”. However! They’re both gripping. Strange disappearances! Strange appearances! Dead bodies! Who’s done it?! Who’s going to do it?!

Updated June 19, 2024
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Wellington City Libraries Youth team at Wellington City Libraries
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Thrillers and Mysteries (YA)

Thrillers and mysteries are sort of opposites: one’s like “how are they going to get out of that mess?” and the other’s like “how did they get into that mess?”. However! They’re both gripping. Strange disappearances! Strange appearances! Dead bodies! Who’s done it?! Who’s going to do it?!

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The beautiful
Ahdieh, Renée
Paper Book
#1 New York Times bestselling author Renée Ahdieh returns with a sumptuous, sultry and romantic new fantasy romance series set in 19th century New Orleans where vampires hide in plain sight. 'ONE OF A KIND' SABAA TAHIR In 1872, New Orleans is a...
The inheritance games
Barnes, Jennifer Lynn
Paper Book
She came from nothing. Avery has a plan: keep her head down, work hard for a better future. Then an eccentric billionaire dies, leaving her almost his entire fortune. And no one, least of all Avery, knows why. They had everything. Now she must...
Promise boys
Brooks, Nick
Paper Book
Nick Brooks's Promise Boys is a trailblazing, blockbuster YA mystery about three teen boys of colour who must investigate their principal's murder to clear their own names. For fans of Angie Thomas, Jason Reynolds, and Karen McManus.The Urban Promise Prep School vows to turn boys into men. As...
Throwaway girls
Contos, Andrea
Paper Book
Caroline Lawson is three months away from freedom, otherwise known as graduation day. That's when she'll finally escape her rigid prep school and the parents who thought they could convert her to being straight. Until then, Caroline is keeping her head down, pretending to be the perfect student even...
Liar's beach
Cotugno, Katie
Paper Book
WE WERE LIARS meets GOSSIP GIRL - this YA thriller with a splash of dark academia is full of secrets, lies, privileged teens and beach parties. The perfect summer read. A body in the pool. A friend who might be an enemy. A vacation they'll never forget . . . Linden...
A northern light
Donnelly, Jennifer.
Paper Book
Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has a word for everything, and big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. She collects words, stores them up as a way of fending off the hard truths of her life, the truths that she can't write down in stories.The fresh pain of her mother's death. The burden...
I was here
Forman, Gayle
Paper Book
A brand-new, heart-wrenching novel from the bestselling author of If I Stay, Gayle Forman Cody and Meg were inseparable - best friends for life. They knew everything about each other. Or Cody thought they did. But how well do you ever really know your best...
Getting away with murder
Foxfield, Kathryn
Paper Book
  The bestselling author of Good Girls Die First,It's Behind Youand Tag, You're Dead is back with an entertaining, high-octane and read-in-a-single-sitting new thriller. Walking disaster Saffron and her perfectionist twin sister Georgia have only one thing in common-they are...
The getaway
Giles, Lamar
Paper Book
"Timely, thrilling, and gripping from start to finish. An absolute page-turner." --Karen M. McManus, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying Jay is living his best life at Karloff Country, one of the world's most famous resorts. He's got his family,...
Foul lady fortune
Gong, Chloe
Paper Book
Assassin. Immortal. Spy.From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights comes the first book in a captivating new duology following an ill-matched pair of spies posing as a married couple to investigate a series of brutal murders...
They'll never catch us
Goodman, Jessica
Paper Book
**A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** From rising star Jessica Goodman, author of They Wish They Were Us, comes a new fast-paced thriller about two sisters vying for the top spot on their cross-country team-until a teammate's disappearance throws their lives off course. ...
If you tell anyone, you're next
Heath, Jack
Paper Book
A good girl's guide to murder
Jackson, Holly
Paper Book
The New York Times No.1 bestselling and multi award-winning YA crime thriller and TikTok sensation that everyone is talking about. Now a major BBC series! 'A taut, compulsively readable, elegantly plotted thriller', GUARDIAN 'Prepare to be murdered by this book. Dark...
Allegedly : a novel
Jackson, Tiffany D.
Paper Book
4 starred reviews! Orange Is the New Black meets Walter Dean Myer's Monster in this gritty, twisty, and haunting debut by Tiffany D. Jackson about a girl convicted of murder seeking the truth while surviving life in a group home. Mary B. Addison killed a baby. ...
Truly devious
Johnson, Maureen
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson weaves a delicate tale of murder and mystery in the first book of a striking new series, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and E. Lockhart. Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers,...
Thieves' gambit
Lewis, Kayvion
Paper Book
The Inheritance Games meets Ocean's Eleven in this cinematic heist thriller where a cutthroat competition brings together the world's best thieves and one thief is playing for the highest stakes of all: her mother's life. At only seventeen years old, Ross Quest is...
Genuine fraud
Lockhart, E.
Paper Book
How far would you go to become someone else? A masterful young adult thriller from the author of blockbuster bestseller We Were Liars.
We were liars
Lockhart, E.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NOW STREAMING ON PRIME VIDEO * LOOK FOR THE LATEST NOVEL IN THE WE WERE LIARS UNIVERSE, WE FELL APART! The modern, sophisticated suspense novel that became a runaway smash hit on TikTok and introduced the world to a family hiding a jaw...
Time will tell
Lyga, Barry
Paper Book
A young-adult thriller ricocheting between the bigotry of the past and present as teens unravel their parents' secrets. Perfect for fans of One of Us is Lying -- now in paperback! Four teens have dug up the time capsule that their parents buried in 1986 and never...
The killing code
Marney, Ellie
Paper Book
A young codebreaker at Arlington Hall - the secret WWII Signals Intelligence unit in Washington DC - joins forces with other female codebreakers to hunt a murderer who is killing US government girls. Another page-turning YA thriller from the author of None Shall Sleep, perfect for fans of...
The cousins
McManus, Karen M.
Paper Book
The Storys are the envy of their neighbours- owners of the largest property on their East Coast island, they are rich, beautiful, and close. Until it all falls apart. The four children are suddenly dropped by their mother with a single sentence- You know what you did.
One of us is lying
McManus, Karen M.
Paper Book
Book One of the international bestselling One of Us Is Lying trilogy - now available in a bold new cover look complete with a blood red background and matching sprayed edges. Five students walk into detention. Only four come out alive. Yale hopeful Bronwyn<...
Don't go to sleep
Moore, Bryce
Paper Book
It's 1918, WW1 is in full swing, and a Spanish Influenza outbreak is on the horizon. In the midst of the chaos, families are being terrorized and people are being killed by a lone man with an axe. As Gianna and her friend Jake investigate the heinous crimes, she realizes she's connected to the...
Before I fall
Oliver, Lauren
Paper Book
A bestselling summer read as heartbreaking as The Lovely Bones and as gripping as Jenny Downham's Before I Die. **From the bestselling author of Panic, soon to be a major Amazon Prime TV series** 'Gossip...
The changing man
Oyemakinde, Tomi
Paper Book
A teenage girl is pulled into investigating the truth behind her new boarding school's decades-old legend, in this debut speculative thriller by Tomi Oyemakinde.Just because they let you in . . . it doesn't mean they'll let you out.When seventeen-year-old Ife joins Nithercott School through its...
Ali Cross
Patterson, James
Paper Book
In this blockbuster story from the world's #1 bestselling author, Alex Cross's son Ali is eager to follow in his father's footsteps as a detective, but when his best friend goes missing, what price will he have to pay to solve the mystery?   ...
There's someone inside your house : a novel
Perkins, Stephanie
Paper Book
There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins will have you swooning with fear and romance. The perfect page-turner for fans of Scream Queens, Fear Street and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Now a major Netflix film, from the producers of...
The ruby in the smoke
Pullman, Philip
Paper Book
The first book in Philip Pullman's classic Sally Lockhart quartet in a beautiful new edition. Soon after Sally Lockhart's father drowns at sea, she receives an anonymous letter. The dire warning it contains makes a man die of fear at her feet. Determined to discover the truth about her...
Keep this to yourself
Ryan, Tom
Paper Book
2020 Arthur Ellis Award, Best YA Crime Book 2020 ITW Thriller Award, Best Young Adult Novel 2020 ALA Rainbow Book List The Globe 100, The Globe and Mail 2019 Books of the Year, Quill & Quire
The amateurs
Shepard, Sara
Paper Book
A fantastic new mystery series from the author of the world wide bestseller Pretty Little Liars. Everyone is dying to know the truth...
Scythe
Shusterman, Neal
Paper Book
In a perfect world, what is there left to fear? A chilling and thought-provoking sci-fi novel from New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman. A dark, gripping and witty thriller in which the only thing humanity has control over is death. In a world where disease, war and crime have been...
One for sorrow
Sugg, Zoe
Paper Book
A STUDENT FOUND DEAD ON THE BEACH. A WEB OF UNANSWERED QUESTIONS. SOMEONE POISED TO STRIKE AGAIN. Illumen Hall is a boarding school of tradition and achievement. But tragedy strikes when the body of a student...
Night vision
West, Ella
Paper Book
In the dark, Viola sees things no one else does . until the night she sees something she shouldn't. Would you take the money and run?
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