Gruesome crime and detective fiction for teens

1 Feb 2017

The fourth season of the BBC TV series Sherlock has just screened (although some might balk at calling three episodes a ‘season’). If you are – or know of – a young viewer craving more crime and detective work, then luckily there’s plenty of books on offer.

I’ve been on a delightful crime bender for the last few years, devouring huge swathes of adult and young adult crime fiction. The best thing about young adult crime fiction is that teenage characters get to circumvent parents, police and authorities while getting their hands dirty, and all in the name of truth, justice, love, revenge, survival, family, morbid curiosity and poor decision-making.

CONTEMPORARY CRIME

If you’re looking for gritty, realistic and firmly located in the real world:

The Amateurs by Sara Shepherd (Book 1 of series)
Every Breath by Ellie Marney (Book 1 of series)
Risk and Black by Fleur Ferris
Moth Girls by Anne Cassidy
Monsters by Emerald Fennell

CRIME CAPERS

If you’re after action-packed stories that are slapstick-funny, full of witty banter and always teetering on the edge of disaster:

Trouble is a Friend of Mine and Trouble Makes A Comeback by Stephanie Tromly
Loot and Sting by Jude Watson
Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller (Book 1 of series)
Heist Society by Ally Carter

SUPERNATURAL CRIME

If you enjoy crimes with an otherworldly, ghostly, demonic, supernatural or magical bent:

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy (Book 1 of series)
Boone Shepard by Gabriel Bergmoser
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

HISTORICAL CRIME

If you like to read about societies from a bygone era… with an added body count:

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly
A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee (Book 1 of series)
Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd

SUPER-HISTORICAL CRIME

Yes, it’s a thing (that I just made up). These books are all a delicious mix of historical and supernatural criminal acts. If you like a mash-up of period detail and supernatural detective work:

The Diviners by Libba Bray (Book 1 of series)
Razorhurst by Justine Larbalestier
Jackaby and Beastly Bones by William Ritter

PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLS

If your teen years are a hot-bed of psychological warfare and you’d like your stories to reflect that:

My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier
We Were Liars by E Lockhart
Shift by Em Bailey
Sweet Damage Wendy James

CRIME IN THE BACKGROUND

If you like it when a crime forms an important context for the everyday life and dramas of a character:

Girl Defective by Simmone Howell
Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina
Everything is Changed by Nova Weetman

TOO YOUNG/SENSITIVE FOR THE REALLY GORY STUFF

It’s possible you know a tween that wants to read crime, but you’d prefer they don’t wake up in the middle of the night with nightmares. Here are plenty of gentler mystery and detective stories that skip the gory stuff while still proving plenty of clues, twists and danger: