Get In My Eyeballs: Middle Grade Mysteries

Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: The Body Under the Piano, by Marthe Jocelyn

My WANT TO READ list is pretty much always obscenely long, but at the moment, I’m noticing that the last bunch of titles I’ve added—some are due out this year, others have been around for a while—have been middle grade mysteries.

I’m especially excited about these:

Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: The Body Under the Piano, by Marthe Jocelyn:

Ten-year-old Aggie Morton (basically Baby Agatha Christie) and her best friend Hector (basically Baby Hercule Poirot) discover a dead body! Then Aggie’s dance instructor becomes a suspect, but Aggie knows that there is NO WAY that she did it! It sounds like there’s lots of tea drinking, too! I AM HERE FOR MIDDLE GRADE COZIES, HAND THEM ALL OVER!

Premeditated Myrtle, by Elizabeth C. Bunce:

I am pretty much FAINTING with excitement about this one. I loved StarCrossed & Liar’s Moon—they’re fantasies, but Liar’s Moon in particular reads like a mystery—and it sounds like this one will be right up my alley. A stubborn young heroine fascinated by poisons and prone to using Dramatic Capital Letters… and a murder next door. WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE??

Murder Is Bad Manners, by Robin Stevens:

I do love a good boarding school mystery. The Wells & Wong series has been around for years, but I think I’ve only read the first one? Time to re-read, catch up, and then freak out and special order the titles that haven’t made their way to the United States yet.

The Parker Inheritance, by Varian Johnson:

A treasure hunt AND a decades-old family mystery? A book that was on practically every single Best Of 2019 list in existence? A story that allows for humor and joy but is ALSO honest and clear-eyed about injustice and the complexity of history? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, hand it right over, please.

Premeditated Myrtle, by Elizabeth C. Bunce

The Secret Key: Agatha Oddly, Book 1, by Lena Jones

I mean, her name is Agatha. SOLD.

Chirp, by Kate Messner:

This one may veer closer to straight-up contemporary realism than the rest of the books on this list, but in addition to threads about family and friendship and camp and science, there’s a storyline about Cricket Farm Sabotage, so I’ll allow it. Also, it sounds great across-the-board, and by it’s Kate Messner, so I think it’s safe to assume that it IS great across-the-board.

The Thief Knot, by Kate Milford:

Speaking of series I need to get caught up on—I ADORED The Greenglass House, but still haven’t read the second one. AND NOW THERE’S A THIRD, AHHHHHHHHH!!

Goldie Vance: The Hotel Whodunit, by Lilliam Rivera:

THERE’S A GOLDIE VANCE NOVEL I HAD NO IDEA AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Recommendations welcome!