It was the Mandie series by Lois Gladys Leppard that I read in school. I can still remember the first mystery that I read in class: In the years since then, I've been devouring mysteries, and I especially love mysteries for young people. They're a lot of fun, and they can be high-stakes and suspenseful without being dark or bloody, so they're good for kids. Middle school mystery books are also great because they cover a wide range of time periods and places, but all of them will help students think critically and make good decisions.

This is a list of middle school mystery books, and I've broken it down by grade level. Every child is unique and may have different reading needs. To see more great books, check out this list of 50 must-read mystery books for kids and 50 must-read young-adult mystery books.

Middle School Mystery Books for Sixth Graders

The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson

The letter Candice finds in an old attic in Lambert, South Carolina, doesn't make sense to her. She's not sure if she should read the letter. It's for her grandmother, who left town in shame. But the letter talks about a young woman. An injustice that took place a long time ago. A mystery is engulfing its author. And the money the person who solves the puzzle will get.

So with the help of Brandon, the quiet boy next door, she starts to figure out the clues. Lambert's history is full of bad things, forgotten heroes, and one great love; and Lambert's history and their own families are full of secrets that haven't been talked about. In this case, can the two people find the money and keep their promise before the answers go back in time again?

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

After a fight with her best friend, sixth grader Miranda starts getting weird notes. She doesn't know what to do. They tell her to write a letter, but she can't tell anyone about her goal.

It would be easy to not pay attention to the weird messages, but whoever is leaving them has a unique ability to predict what will happen. The notes say that someone is going to die, and Miranda might not be able to stop it.

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

In the small town of Tupelo Landing, North Carolina, everyone's business is open to the public and no secret is safe. Sixth-grader Miss Moses LoBeau lives there. Eleven years ago, she washed up on a beach. She's been making waves ever since. The Colonel, who owns a cafe, has a forgotten past of his own, and Miss Lana, the hostess at the cafe, is very good at what she does. Mo hopes one day to find her "upstream mother." She will protect the people she cares about with all of her strong will and tough attitude. A lawman comes to town and asks about a murder, so when Mo and her best friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson III, set out to find the truth, they hope to save their only family.

A Properly Unhaunted Place by Will Alexander

This is Rosa Ramona Daz's new town. It's the only ghost-free town in all of the world. She doesn't want to go. She doesn't understand how her mother, a librarian who helps people get rid of ghosts, could want to live in a place where there are no ghosts. She doesn't understand why anyone would.

Jasper Chevalier has lived in Ingot for a long time, and he has always been there. It's at the local Renaissance Festival, and his father is a knight, and his mother is the queen. When Jasper hasn't seen a ghost, he can't think of how he'd like his town to be different. As soon as the festival was over, an apparition sounded like thunder and shook the town upside down.

If Rosa doesn't use her ghost appeasement tools and get some help from Jasper, she'll have to deal with angry spirits on her own.

Vanished by Sheela Chari

Neela, who is 11 years old, wants to be a famous musician and play for crowds of people who love her Indian stringed instrument. Her grandmother gave her this particular instrument as a gift. It was very detailed and had a mysterious-looking dragon on it. It was a special family heirloom that went missing from a local church. There were some strange clues: a tea kettle with a dragon-like face that looked a lot like the one on the heirloom, a threatening note, a connection to a dead musician, and even a legendary curse.

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein

As soon as Kyle finds out that Luigi Lemoncello has designed the town's new library and is having an invitation-only lock in on its opening night, he wants to be there. But getting into the library isn't the hard part. It's getting out. In fact, when the sun comes up, the doors are still locked. Find every clue and solve every secret puzzle to get out of the room!

If You Find This by Matthew Baker

His father has lost his job, so they'll have to sell their house, which is where Nicholas has the only memory of his younger brother. Nicholas's grandfather, who is a little senile, comes right on time and tells him about a treasure he has hidden somewhere in town. But where is it?

As a result, Nicholas breaks out of a nursing home with the help of misfit classmates, two grandparents, hidden messages, séances, and an uncanny sense for numbers. He also gets into a fight with the biggest bullies in the neighborhood. He needs to find the treasure and save his house.

Summerlost by Ally Condie

First real summer since Cedar's father and younger brother, Ben, died in an accident. They're going to Iron Creek for the summer. After moving into their new house, a boy named Leo comes by on his bike in a costume. Cedar is curious, so he goes with him to the famous Summerlost theater festival. After a short time, she has a new friend in Leo and a job as a concessions worker at the festival. She also finds herself in a mysterious place. In the halls of Summerlost, there is a mystery about a Hollywood actress who died too soon. And why Cedar keeps getting gifts that aren't what they seem to be.

Murder is Bad Manners by Robin Stevens

Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are best friends at Deepdean School for Girls. They both like to solve mysteries, and they're both good at it. Daisy, on the other hand, is a self-described Sherlock Holmes. When she and Hazel start their own detective agency, she names Hazel as her own personal Watson. It's the only thing. They have nothing to look into.

Until Hazel finds the body of their science teacher, Miss Bell. Then the body disappears. We know there must have been a murder, and we can think of more than one person with a reason.

It's Hazel and Daisy's goal to find the truth about the crime and prove that it happened before the killer does it again. They need to find evidence and spy on the people they think are guilty. But will they be able to? And can they keep their friendship together?

Holes by Louis Sachar

In a curse, Stanley Yelnats is not able to do anything. As a curse that began with his grandfather's no-good, dirty rotten-pig-stealing grandfather and has been passed down through the Yelnats family for many years. Here, at Camp Green Lake, the boys learn how to be good people by digging holes that are exactly five feet wide and five feet deep all day, every day. At Camp Green Lake, there is no lake. But there are many holes.

Stanley doesn't have to wait long to figure out that Camp Green Lake isn't just for kids who want to improve their morals. Their job is to dig holes because the warden wants to find something else. It's not clear what could be under a dried-up lake. Stanley tries to find out the truth in this darkly funny and inventive story about crime and punishment.

---