There’s just something about a mystery set in a small town… and, honestly, young adult authors just know what they’re doing when it comes to these types of books! Here are 9 books with a mystery set in a small town.
Where He Can’t Find You – Darcy Coates
Jen has just moved to a small town with her police officer dad and soon discovers that the people of the town are terrified by a mysterious figure called ‘The Stitcher.’ For decades people have been disappearing with their bodies returning months later stitched back together in unnatural ways.
Abby has lived in this town her entire life and follows a strict set of rules that keep her and her sister safe. Until one day, her sister is taken. Abby and her friends know more about The Stitcher than most so they try to tell the police everything they know… but when the police don’t seem to be interested, Abby and her friends team up with Jen to try to find her sister before it’s too late.
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Two Can Keep A Secret – Karen M. McManus
Ellery has never been to Echo Ridge, the small town where her mother grew up and her aunt disappeared, but now she is forced to move there to live with the grandmother she hardly knows. This seemingly perfect town is holding some deadly secrets. More than one girl has gone missing and someone has just declared open season on homecoming.
And as another girl goes missing and Ellery spends more time in Echo Ridge, it becomes clear that everyone in town is hiding something.
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Harrow Lake – Kat Ellis
Lola’s dad is a popular horror filmmaker who met her mother when she starred in his most iconic movie, shot in Harrow Lake, the town where her mother grew up. When her dad is brutally attacked, Lola is forced to live with the grandmother she’s never met in Harrow Lake.
But there’s something odd about the town. Everyone is eerily obsessed with the movie, there are a number of strange disappearances that no one seems to care about, and there appears to be someone following her every move.
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One Last Breath – Ginny Myers Sain
Tru has grown up in Mount Orange, Florida, a small town famous for 2 things: the beautiful freshwater springs that are perfect for free diving, and a gruesome unsolved double murder that happened twenty years ago. Bailey and Celeste were brutally murdered and 20 years on the police still have no idea what happened or who did it.
Tru has always felt an odd connection to the case, and this isn’t helped by the murder of her sister. Tru is spending her summer out at the springs with her friends when a strange girl called Rio arrives in town determined to find out what happened to Bailey and Celeste. Tru and Rio decide to try to investigate the case for themselves and quickly grow very close… but as they dig into the past they realise that someone might be stalking them. Has the killer come back? Or were they there all along?
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The Revelry – Katherine Webber
Once a year in the small town of Ember Grove, the Revelry occurs. It’s an exclusive and mysterious party in the woods at the end of the school year and no one knows what happens there until you’re invited. Once you go, you are sworn to secrecy.
Bitsy knows better than to break the rules, but her best friend, Amy, convinces her to sneak into the Revelry without an invitation. Bitsy remembers going into the woods… and then remembers waking up the next morning. She doesn’t know what happened at the Revelry but what she does know is that since they went, her luck seems to be running out, and Amy’s fortune is growing stronger.
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Clown in a Cornfield – Adam Cesare
Quinn Maybrook has just moved to the tiny, boring town of Kettle Springs for a fresh start and all she wants to do is make it to graduation.
She finds the town split in half. Ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, the adults are determined to make Kettle Springs great again, and the kids just want to have fun and get out as soon as they can.
And then the Baypen mascot, Frendo the creepy clown, decides the only way for Kettle Springs to be brought back to its former glory is to kill all of the kids that live there now.
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And Don’t Look Back – Rebecca Barrow
Harlow has lived her entire life on the run with her mother but she has no idea the reason they keep running. One night, her mother is unexpectedly killed in a car accident and her last words direct Harlow to a safety deposit box and beg her to keep running.
But when Harlow finds a deed to a house in the box, she must decide whether she’ll go to the house to find answers about her past, or keep running.
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A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder – Holly Jackson
In the small town of Little Kilton, teenager Andie Bell has disappeared. And, when the body of her boyfriend is found in the woods it becomes clear that he was responsible for her disappearance.
However, 5 years later, 17-year-old Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t so sure that Sal is the one who did it. When she’s given the chance to choose a topic for her final year school project she decides to reinvestigate the Andie Bell case alongside Sal’s younger brother, Ravi.
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Dark and Shallow Lies – Ginny Myers Sain
Grey spends every summer in a small town deep in the bayou, the self-proclaimed Psychic Capital of the World. Six months ago, Grey’s best friend, Elora, disappeared there.
No one has any information about what happened to her, but in a town full of psychics Grey finds it difficult to imagine that no one knows anything about what happened to her and she soon begins to suspect that everybody is hiding something.
But then a mysterious stranger emerges from the bayou claiming to have links to Elora, and Grey begins to suspect that the town has far more secrets than she could ever imagine.
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