YA Mystery & Horror Novels
Blood and Chocolate
by Annette Curtis Klause
Blood and Chocolate chronicles the longings and passions of Vivian Gandillon, a teenage werewolf. Her pack family was recently burned out of their West Virginia home by suspicious neighbors and has decided to resettled in a sleepy Maryland suburb. At her new school, Vivian falls for sensitive shy Aiden, a human. Soon she attempts to tame her undomesticated desires to match Aiden's more civilized sensibilities. Vivian's animal ardor cannot be stilled, and she must decide if she should keep Aiden in the dark about her true nature or invite him to take a walk on the wild side.
Face on the Milk Carton
by Caroline B. Cooney
Who ever really pays close attention to the faces of the missing children on the milk cartons? Janie Johnson glanced at the face of the ordinary little girl with her hair in tight pigtails, wearing a dress with a narrow white collar--a three-year-old who had been kidnapped twelve years before from a shopping mall in New Jersey--she felt overcome with shock. She recognized that little girl. It was her. Janie can't believe that her parents kidnapped her, once she begins to piece things together, nothing makes sense. If Mr. and Mrs. Johnson aren't Janie's parents, then who is?
Voices After Midnight
by Richard Peck
Chad is uneasy when his California family rents a town house in New York City. Once moved in he begins to hear voices--late at night, after midnight in this strange house that's at least one hundred years old. Then he finds that his younger brother, Luke, hears them, too, and even their older sister Heidi's afraid to stay in the house alone. When Chad and Luke start to explore the house, they slip in and out of their own time, then back to the winter of 1888. Are the voices they hear crying out for help? Will Chad ignore the voices or plunge into the unknown danger of one hundred years before?
Loch
by Paul Zindel
When Luke Perkins was a small boy, he sighted the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland, thus earning him the nickname "Loch". Now Loch and his sister are accompanying their father, a marine biologist to a remote Vermont lake. The Beast (a plesiosaur) lives in Lake Alban in Vermont with his wife and little monsters, trapped there by a man-made salmon grid that blocks the lake's opening back to the deep waters of Lake Champlain. Luke's father, Dr. Sam Perkins works for Anthony Cavenger, who spends fortunes seeking out monsters like Big Foot and Nessie. After reported sightings at Lake Alban, Cavenger and his pseudoscientific, paramilitary organization go to Vermont to investigate. They find the plesiosaurs and ruthless Cavenger intends to take the animals alive, dead, or blown to bits. But Loch, his sister, and Cavenger's teenage daughter, Sarah, have discovered and befriended a young plesiosaur. The children realize that the plesiosaurs are highly intelligent and sensitive creatures, and that it is up to them to save them.
The Stalker
by Joan Lowery Nixon
In Corpus Christi, Texas, Jennifer Lee Wilcox returns home from the beach, she finds that Stella Trax, her best friend's mother, has just been murdered. The police think that Stella's daughter did it. Now Bobbie's in jail and it's up to Jennifer to prove her innocence by finding the real murderer. Jennifer cannot afford to hire a professional detective so she enlists the aid of a recently retired police detective. Their tireless efforts and relentless digging eventually pays off, but not before Jennifer has several brushes with death.
The Drifter
by Ritchie Tankersley Cusick
Glanton House was Carolyn Baxter’s new home, the haunted island retreat her widowed mother was determined to transform into an inn. As if in answer to her prayer, tall raven-haired Joss Whitcomb appeared at their door and offered to be the handyman in return for room and board. But Carolyn was wary, Joss was dark, compelling, dangerous. He was still a stranger, even after he saved her mother from a near fatal accident. And now they were alone together in the eerie house he seemed to know so well. He knew the legend of a jealous sea captain doomed to kill again and again. But did he hear the ghostly whispers echoing through the halls at night? Did he know the unseen eyes that followed her every move? Who was Joss? Why was he here? How could she trust this devastating drifter when she feared for her life…?
The Body of Christopher Creed
by Carol Plum-Ucci
Sixteen-year-old Torey Adams and his friends remember beating up Chris Creed when his gentle but obnoxious ways exasperated them. Now that he is gone, they joke uneasily about him to ease their guilt. Now the town is full of ugly rumors, as Torey's lawyer mother tells them "See, guys, this is what happens when a kid suffers a personal tragedy. Nobody wants to take responsibility. Nobody wants to admit they had a part in it. So, they spend a lot of time pointing the finger, and things just get worse and worse." Suspicion of murder conveniently falls on big, tough Bo Richardson, an outcast from the boondocks edge of town. Torey's smug assumptions about people are rattled when he discovers that his childhood friend Ali is secretly romantically involved with Bo. Now the three of them will attempt to solve the mystery of what happened to Christopher Creed.
Forbidden Game
by L.J. Smith
When Jenny buys The Game from Julian, the gorgeous stranger with dangerous blue eyes, little does she realize the stakes involved. Because this is a game like no other, and soon she and her friends are playing for their lives...
Trapped in a house of horrors, running from the Shadow Man; this game is for real. The rules are Julian's, and Jenny is the prize. And if he wins, she's his for ever...
The Killer's Cousin
by Nancy Werlin
Ever since David Yaffe was acquitted of murder in the accidental death of his girlfriend, he has tried to convince everyone--including himself--of his harmlessness. To escape media attention and the prying stares of curious strangers, he is sent to finish his senior year of high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he lives in the attic apartment of his Aunt Julia and Uncle Vic. They receive him coldly, and his 11-year-old cousin, Lily, is openly hostile. The apartment they reside in was previously owned by their older daughter Kathy, who died an apparent suicide at age 18. With a haunting series of episodes--including a sporadic humming and a fleeting shadow--David begins to sense Kathy's eerie and powerful presence.
His loneliness and self-distrust is relieved only by his friendship with Raina, an art student who lives downstairs--until Lily's spying and harassing destroys the relationship. Lily's anger escalates into more and more vicious tricks, but when David confronts Vic and Julia, they refuse to believe that Lily needs help. At last David is forced to realize that he and Lily share a complicity in murder, in a blazing climax that resolves this subtle psychological thriller.