Super Puzzletastic Mysteries: Short Stories for Young Sleuths from Mystery Writers of America

Multiple Edgar Award winners and nominees are among the 20 contributors to this engaging anthology of snappily paced capers entailing codes, ciphers, and math and science puzzles. Several gumshoes featured here have demonstrated their sleuthing prowess in book series: Grabenstein’s Riley Mack identifies the perpetrator of a history quiz cheating prank; Stuart Gibbs brings back FunJungle protagonist Teddy Fitzroy to solve the mystery of a missing monkey; and Florian Bates, the 12-year-old FBI consultant from James Ponti’s novels, locates the NHL’s purloined Stanley Cup. Other compelling selections include a puzzler by Sheela Chari, inspired by a real-life museum theft, and Lauren Magaziner’s whodunit about eerily identical triplets. A standout is Peter Lerangis’s enthralling tale involving a boy who befriends a homeless man in Central Park, a vintage puzzle book, a Fabergé egg appropriated by the Nazis, and a poignant father-son reunion. Grabenstein encourages readers to crack the cases before turning to end-of-book solutions, which cleverly read as continuations of the stories rather than objective revelations. Ages 8–12. (June)