The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley

This second book in the mystery series features a precocious 11 year old sleuth, Flavia De Luce. Set in the 1950s on an English family country estate, Buckshaw, our young heroine has a talent for chemistry with a keen interest in poisons. Her wanderings throughout the village of Bishop’s Lacey introduce a cast of quirky characters. The mystery centers around a pair of traveling BBC puppet TV show stars, Rupert and Nia, whose truck breaks down in the village. In need of car repairs, the pair agrees to perform for the village residents to settle their bill. During one of the performances, puppetmaster Rupert dies under mysterious circumstances. Flavia’s keen observations and curious nature help her to solve the plot twists and give local police insight on the case.

Descriptive language, yet ungory handling of death situations make this series appropriate to recommend to young advanced readers who enjoy mysteries.

Kyra

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson

Last book in the Millennium trilogy, this one picks up where The Girl Who Played With Fire left off. Lisbeth Salander clings to life in the intensive care unit with a bullet in her head compliments of a confrontation with Alexander Zalachenko. While Lisbeth grapples with plotting revenge, Mikael Blomkvist keeps busy by rounding up the supporting characters to advocate and prove Lisbeth’s innocence and unravel the conspiracy that ascends to top levels of Swedish government. Another fast-paced, “hard to put down” read that nicely finishes off the trilogy. Due out in the US on May 25.

The Swedish film version of the first book of the trilogy, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was released in April 2010 in independent movie theatres and there are plans for an English-language version in production to come out sometime in 2012.

Kyra

Nowhere to Run by C. J. Box

Joe Pickett novels are the best – In this one, Joe is finishing up his Game Warden duties in Baggs, Wyoming and just ready to get back to his family, when he encounters a strange mystery on the mountain. Are the disappearances of cattle, a poached elk and a missing runner the work of evil spirits, or something very real and quite lethal. If you haven’t read C.J. Box – you should start with his series about Wyoming game warden/detective Joe Pickett and you’ll believe in heroes again.

Lisa

The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz

If you haven’t yet met Izzy Spellman and her weird, eccentric, hilarious family of private detectives, this may be your last chance. Rumor has it this is the last in the Spellman series. In this story, Izzy’s mother is blackmailing her into dating lawyers because she doesn’t like her boyfriend, her sister Rae is obsessed with freeing a wrongly convicted man and Izzy is trying to solve the case of the missing butler. Readers can start with this book because author Lutz keeps them updated with her comic footnotes but then they’ll definitely want to read all the Spellman books.

Dedra

Dial H for Hitchcock by Susan Kandel

Celebrity biographer Cece Caruso returns from her honeymoon, alone, to find that she’s being framed for a murder. A quirky, comic, timely mystery. Fans of Janet Evanovich will enjoy this one.

Jill

No Mercy by Lori Armstrong

Mercy Gunderson was a former Army sniper in Afghanistan and Iraq who has returned to the family ranch because of an injury. She is soon embroiled in a murder mystery when the body of a Native American teenager is found on Gunderson land. Mercy is a straight-shooting, hard-drinking, no nonsense woman who is interesting because she seems to have very few vulnerabilities.

Lisa

Dog On it by Spencer Quinn

Chet, a 100 pound lively pooch with one black ear and one white ear, works with his partner Bernie at a detective agency solving crimes. This time they have to find a missing teenage girl. This is no problem for Chet with his super dog tricks that are both amusing and endearing. In fact Chet’s so much fun that even cat people with love him.

Dedra

Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault

New college graduate Billy Webb lands what he thinks will be a dull job as an editorial assistant at a dictionary company. However, in the course of researching word usage, he and another young assistant uncover clues to a decades-old murder that may involve some of his coworkers. An original and well-plotted story, and an interesting look into an arcane profession.

Jill

Locked In by Marcia Muller

Tough San Francisco PI Sharon McCone is used to being in charge. Imagine her horror at being shot in the head and now able only to communicate with her eyes. As the victim of Locked-In Syndrome, Sharon must somehow help her staff discover how several complicated cases are intertwined while they wonder if Sharon’s death will be their next murder case.

Dedra

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

Cracking the case gets complicated and outrageously wacky when a family of detectives is involved. Isabel “Izzy” Spellman, a San Francisco PI who began working for Spellman Investigations at age 12, has to put up with crazy parents, a perfect brother and a kid sister who’s a whiz at surveillance. Can the family that snoops together stay together?

Mary Ellen