When a teacher asked for mysteries that sixth graders reading at a ninth grade level would enjoy reading, CLN members recommended the following titles.

Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief
Wendelin Van Draanen

The first in a series of mysteries, starring Sammy Keyes as the detective, the opener finds Sammy living illegally with her grandmother in a senior citizen high-rise. There have been a series of thefts in the neighborhood and Sammy sees the burglar stealing something from the Heavenly Hotel across the street. The only problem is that the burglar knows Sammy has seen him. This wisecracking gumshoe is only beginning her career as a detective, but what a start she gets!

Shakespeare’s Secret
Elise Broach

When Hero moves into a new house with her professor parents, her next-door neighbor tells a story about a large diamond that is supposedly hidden in Hero’s house. Several mysteries shroud the tale, including a long-ago rumor that Shakespeare’s plays were written by someone else. Seventh-grade Hero, eighth-grade Danny, and next-door neighbor Mrs. Roth set out to find the necklace and solve the mystery, never expecting to find a thread that connects their lives.

Double Life (Invisible Detective series) Justin Richards

Fourteen-year-old Arthur Drake leads a double life, one set in our time and one set in 1936. The citizens of London in the 1930s admired Brandon Lake for solving crimes—but Brandon Lake was really four teenagers, the Cannoniers, with Art as their leader. The detective is faced with figuring out how puppets are committing murder, and they must do so before the intended victim, the Duke of York, becomes another fatality. In this layered mystery, Art is also confronted with figuring out how he can be alive in two different times.

Minerva Clark Gets a Clue
Karen Karbo

When Minerva Clark, seventh grader, gets zapped by electricity, she is suddenly self-confident and assured about who she is. That’s quite a difference from the self-conscious, self-doubting girl she’s been. Suddenly, she’s caught up in the mysteries surrounding a death, identity theft, and a scam. Set in the present with plenty of pop culture references and digital communication, Minerva is a girl who gets things done.

Westing Game
Ellen Raskin

Who will inherit? A common question in mysteries, but handled with such grace and inventiveness that this book set the standard for others to follow. Snappy dialogue, more plot twists than rotini, and an “I never saw that coming” ending leave an impression on the reader. It’s a challenging read but worth every effort.

Black Duck
Janet Taylor Lisle

When David works to get an article printed in his town’s paper, he goes to interview Ruben Hart. The elderly man has a secret and he’s ready to talk about what happened in 1929, in Newport, Rhode Island, when he and his friend found a body on the beach. They left to tell authorities. When they returned, the body was gone. What happened to it? What secrets is the town hiding? Told in alternating chapters between the ‘20s and modern day, this book is riveting.

Detectives in Togas
Henry Winterfeld

By turns funny and suspenseful, this book features seven boys in ancient Rome who solve mysteries by using their powers of deduction and following the clues. There’s a sequel entitled Mystery of the Roman Ransom.

Double Identity
Margaret Peterson Haddix

12-year-old Bethany takes a trip with her parents to visit an aunt she’s never heard of before – and they leave her there to live with her aunt. Confused, hurt, feeling alone, Bethany wonders why everyone in her new town looks so startled to see her. She asks questions of her aunt, trying to figure out why her family has acted so strangely … and the answers aren’t what she was expecting.

Whales on Stilts
M.T. Anderson

Publishers Weekly said, “Armed with an array of adjectives, non-sequiturs, bizarre asides, irrelevant footnotes and running gags, Anderson sends up decades of children's book series, and creates a hysterical tale of his own.” Three friends, two of whom are stars of their own series books, try to get to the bottom of the mystery when a corporation unleashes whales on stilts to fight its battles. Goofy and page-turning. The same trio also star in Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen.

Flush
Carl Hiassen

A brother and sister in Florida notice strange things happening on a floating casino. So does their dad, a dedicated environmentalist, but their dad ends up in jail when he tries to draw attention to the ocean pollution that occurs. So the two kids set about proving that their dad was right, thereby digging deeper into a mystery than they ever intended.

London Eye Mystery
Siobhan Dowd

Ted and Kat haven’t seen much of their cousin Salim, but their aunt and cousin come to visit before moving to America. Salim has only one request: he’d like to ride the London Eye, something like a Ferris wheel in the center of London. The three children go with their mothers but Salim arranges it so that he gets to ride the London Eye alone. He goes up … but he doesn’t come down. Salim has disappeared. Ted, from whose point of view we experience the story, has Asperger’s syndrome, which makes the solving of this mystery even more interesting.

Out of Patience
Brian Meehl

In a humorous and playful novel, Jake Waters is twelve and embarrassed. His dad wants to open the American Toilet Museum and Jake’s great-great-grandfather founded the town he lives in: Patience, Kansas. This makes Jake uncomfortable and curious. There are questions to be answered, a buried treasure to be found, and a good share of manure, plungers, and toilets.