Reading Quest is back for 2025! Looking for reading inspiration? We’re recommending some of our favourite mystery books which you can read on your quest this summer – all free to borrow with your library card!
Reading Quest starts on 19 July. You can sign up at any library. Find out more about Reading Quest.
Mr Penguin and the Lost Treasure
Alex T. Smith
It has been weeks since Mr Penguin’s last adventure and he’s been stuck at his desk, twiddling his flippers ever since. That is until the phone rings! Mr Penguin and Colin (a spider and Mr Penguin’s silent right hand man) are called in to find the missing treasure somewhere in the Museum of Extraordinary Objects. The quest finds them solving secret codes, fighting ferocious beasts, eating fish finger sandwiches and travelling deep below the museum to a lost jungle.
The Mystery of the Empire Maze Tower
Hiro Kamigaki
Mr X the Phantom Thief is back, with a new evil plan! He wants to steal the shining light from the top of the Empire Maze Tower, New Maze City’s greatest treasure. Pierre and Carmen are called to New Maze City, along with others of the world’s best Maze Detectives, to help solve the puzzles, protect the treasure and stop Mr X. But can you help them make it in time?
A thrilling new maze challenge adventure for Pierre the Maze Detective, for all detectives aged 8+.
Murder Most Unladylike
Robin Stevens
When Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong set up their very own deadly secret detective agency at Deepdean School for Girls, they struggle to find any truly exciting mysteries to investigate. But then Hazel discovers the Science Mistress, Miss Bell, lying dead in the Gym.
She thinks it must all have been a terrible accident – but when she and Daisy return five minutes later, the body has disappeared. Now the girls know a murder must have taken place – and there’s more than one person at Deepdean with a motive.
Death at the Lighthouse
Alasdair Beckett-King
When Bonnie Montgomery finally gets a break from cracking cases as her alter-ego, Montgomery Bonbon, something terribly fishy happens the moment she and Grampa Banks arrive on Odde Island for half-term – and it’s not just the smell of the harbour. There’s been a mysterious death at Leerie Lighthouse, and what everyone assumed was an accident is setting Bonbon’s moustache all a-quiver: a sure sign that something is Highly Suspicious. When a second death takes place on the other side of the island, Bonnie is sure the two are connected. But can she solve this case alone, or will she need double the detectives to solve double the murder?
The Swifts
Beth Lincoln and Claire Powell
On the day they are born, each Swift is brought before the sacred Family Dictionary. They are given a name and a definition, and it is assumed they will grow up to match. Unfortunately, Shenanigan Swift has other ideas. Shenanigan knows she can be whatever she wants – pirate, explorer or even detective. Which is lucky, really, because when one of the Family tries to murder Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude, someone has to work out whodunit. With the help of her sisters and cousin, Shenanigan grudgingly takes on the case, but more murders, a hidden treasure and an awful lot of suspects make things seriously complicated. Can Shenanigan catch the killer before the whole household is picked off?
The Bigwoof Conspiracy
Dashe Roberts
When twelve-year-old, UFO-obsessed, Lucy Sladan sneaks out in the middle of a thunderstorm to investigate the unexplained disappearances in her hometown of Sticky Pines, she finds more than she bargained for: a huge hairy creature, a thirteen-year-old stranger named Milo Fisher and a deep-rooted secret.
Together, Lucy and Milo become entwined in a mystery that threatens to engulf the whole town of Sticky Pines and its weird and wonderful residents.
The Highland Falcon Thief
M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman
Harrison Beck is reluctantly joining his travel-writer Uncle Nat for the last journey of the royal train, The Highland Falcon. But as the train makes its way to Scotland, a priceless brooch goes missing, and things are suddenly a lot more interesting. As suspicions and accusations run high among the passengers, Harrison begins to investigate and uncovers a few surprises along the way. Can he solve the mystery of the jewel thief and catch the culprit before they reach the end of the line? Hear whispers in the dining car, find notes in the library, and unknown passengers among the luggage as you help Harrison to solve the mystery aboard one of the world’s grandest trains.
The Ghosts of the Manor
Lucy Strange and Pam Smy
Matilda Lockett is used to playing the role of Poor Dead Edna the Orphan on stage with her spirit-medium aunt, Signora Valentina, and theatrical uncle Barnabus – but when they all decamp to Beauchamp Manor to deal with a most dreadful haunting, she discovers she really can see ghosts! There she meets ghost boy, Edgar Wilde, who shares her love of supernatural snooping, and together they set about unravelling the case of The Ghosts of the Manor.
Peril on the Atlantic
A.M. Howell
July, 1936. As the Queen Mary sets sail across the Atlantic, Alice can’t wait for the summer of adventure that lies ahead. She’s excited to explore the huge ship, with its shops, animals and even celebrities on board. But while Alice’s sailor father focuses on winning a prestigious race, she witnesses a shocking attack. Alice and her new friend Sonny start to uncover a dark sabotage plot, and as they investigate gold bars, anonymous notes and lost silk gloves, secrets in their own lives come to the surface. When fog threatens the boat’s journey, and dangerous enemies show themselves, Alice and Sonny are in their own race to solve all the mysteries unfolding. But what they discover might change both their lives forever.
Mysterious World
Laura Knowles
What happened to the Bermuda Triangle? Where have Bigfoot, the Yeti, and the Yowie been sighted? Why does the legend of Area 51 fascinate us?
Uncover our planet’s most sensational secrets with this mind-boggling atlas of mysteries that’s packed with over 70 strange and unexplained enigmas. Bursting with stories about UFO sightings, monsters on the run, bizarre disappearances, ghostly hauntings and more, ‘Mysterious World’ is the ultimate kid’s guide to curious events from across the globe.
The Big Book of Mysteries
Tom Adams and Yasmin Imamura
Does the Loch Ness monster really exist? What ever happened to the crew of the Mary Celeste? And where exactly are the Hanging Gardens of Babylon?
Get ready to be amazed as you uncover the world’s greatest mysteries, from Bigfoot to the Bermuda Triangle. Including alien abductions, haunted houses, mind-blowing natural phenomena and much more, this book will explain the extraordinary – unless the extraordinary can’t be explained, of course. Then you’ll just have to make up your own mind.
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