The Red Trailer Mystery

The Red Trailer Mystery by Julie Campbell, 1950

     After investigating in The Secret of the Old Mansion Jim Frayne runs away from Jonesy, his step-father. It's up to Trixie Belden and Honey Wheeler to find him and share what his great-uncle's lawyer has told them--Jim inherited half a million dollars from Old-Man Frayne! With Miss Trask in tow the girls pack up the Wheeler's trailer, the Silver Swan, and hit the road.
     Along the way Trixie and Honey meet the Darnell family. Mr. Darnell has been out of work and the family is living in a red trailer which Trixie finds somewhat familiar, but can't place.
     The Darnells' eleven-year-old daughter Joeanne runs away when she believes her father might be mixed up in some unsavory business. Already on the lookout for Jim Frayne the young teens add Joeanne to their search.
     When several trailers, including the one the Darnells live in, and some jewelry are reported stolen Trixie and Honey are thrust into another mystery. Several dead-ends and some strange happenings later the girls discover the various mysteries may be tied together in a single knot.
     Following two thirteen-year-olds and their chaperone around upstate New York for a summer of mystery and adventure The Red Trailer Mystery is a story for younger mystery readers. Though the crime has become more dangerous, Trixie and Honey are still young teens in mid-century America sheltered and protected despite their propensity for trouble.

Winds of Salem

Winds of Salem by Melissa de la Cruz, 2013 Hyperion

     Freya Beauchamp is sixteen, living in 16th century Salem Village and working in the home of a prominent family. She has a special gift which she keeps hidden from all but a close few: Freya can do magic.
     In the twentieth century Freya's family struggles to bring their missing daughter home. Ingrid searches the library for clues of her sister in history books, while trying to balance a relationship with the hunky police detective. Johanna and her husband Norman go searching for Norm's brother and his time-keeping abilities. Freyr, Freya's twin, has some troubles of his own to sort out. His new bride is still working toward her college degree, and caring for Ingrid's brownies has put a serious kink in their relationship.
     While Freya lives through the Salem witch trials, she is blissfully unaware that if she dies this time around it will be permanent. Someone wants the Beauchamps out of the picture badly enough to disrupt magic across time to succeed. The Beauchamp family battles to save one of their own in this third installment of the trilogy.
     Reincarnated into the modern world, the gods and goddesses of Norse mythology are subject to both mortal and immortal law. Older teens and young adult readers will find Winds of Salem a polarized culmination of the witches' journey with some mature content.

Soundless

Soundless by Richelle Mead, 2015 Razorbill

     For generations the people in Fei's village have been without their hearing. They have developed a strict society to survive such loss and no longer find hearing necessary, but when the people begin to lose their sight too, their carefully crafted society begins to fail. Fei becomes more and more concerned when her sister's sight begins to fail and Zhan Jing is removed from the exalted place of an artist to the lowly position of a servant.
     With the loss of their sight the people of the village risk losing the food that is their only connection to the outside world. In exchange for the metals they pull from the mountain the village is perched upon, the township at the mountain's base send meager supplies of goods. The goods suffer until one day the zipline sends no food at all.
     Fei and her village fear they will starve. Until the night Fei is woken by a terrifying new sensation - sound. With the new sense and learning how to use sound in addition to her other senses she and an old friend take the risks of attempting to climb down the mountain.
     But life is not has the village has been told; they are not the first mining town to be afflicted with the strange sickness, and the town at the bottom of the hill has more than the mere scraps they provide their captive miners. A new ally in the town gives Fei an idea to save her people, but will she be able to stand up to the Empire bearing down on her home.
     Mead visits Chinese folklore for this story of a young woman from a world where every moment is planned who breaks the order and tries to save her home. Readers of all ages will enjoy Fei's story, especially those who enjoy a plucky female lead who may have earned her arrogance, but risks her life of leisure to change the lives of her village.

Maze Runner

Maze Runner by James Dashner, 2009 Delacorte Press

     Thomas wakes in a box moving up an elevator shaft, he has no specific memories to provide his history, only his name and general knowledge about how his world should work. The elevator opens on the Glade. When the doors open Thomas is lifted from the box and becomes the newest member of the group of teen boys.
     As Greenie, Thomas learns the Glade is at the center of a maze filled with Grievers: deadly half-monster, half-machine hybrids with a pre-programmed desire to kill the boys. The next day another newbie arrives and throws the Glade's two-year schedule out of wack. Not only is the newcomer the first arrival to break the once-a-month pattern, but Teresa is the first girl to join the group.
    When Teresa triggers something called the Ending, their world changes even more. Supplies fail to come, the protective walls to close out the monsters, and the sunny blue sky turns to a grey ceiling. The boys struggle to find some semblance of normalcy only to conclude they cannot. Their only hope to survive is to escape.
     Dashner's dystopia presents the question of survival and change in a world with no personal history, and illustrates how personal memories play a role in social constructs. Thomas knows he was sent to the Maze for a reason; his only problem is remembering why.
     Violence and death abound, with suspended mystery driving the teens toward their inevitable future. Teens and young adult readers who enjoyed the Hunger Games and Divergent series will see a continuing trend in Maze Runner.

The Agency: Rivals in the City

Rivals in the City by Y.S. Lee, 2015 Candlewick Press

     Mary Quinn and James Easton have developed an understanding after the collapse of the Agency. But Mary is hesitant to allow James control over her life as his spouse. Victorian Englishwomen are their husband’s property and Mary’s radical upbringing leads her to strongly object.

     James hopes to allow Mary time to overcome her qualms. When a villain from their joint past returns, he is concerned not only for Mary’s safety, but also their hoped future together. Mary is asked to return to the all-female Agency for her part in the plot. But to continue protecting the man she loves Mary suggests they remain separate to minimize the chances of retaliation.

     James is hesitant to give Mary any time to make up her mind against him and manages to insinuate himself into her mission. 

     She discovers more than simply one extension of her past during the new case. A mystery from her personal history is answered by a Chinese pugilist who is strikingly familiar.

     She completes her final case for the Agency amidst much danger to both James and Mary herself. Mary faces the danger with more than her characteristic abandon and struggles to reconcile her past with the beliefs inherited from her eccentric education and the hope of a future. Directed at teen readers Rivals in the City concludes the Mary Quinn Mysteries. 

No Need to Say Goodbye

No Need to Say Goodbye by Betty Neels, 1989 Harlequin Romance

     Louise Payne is Night Sister in a busy London hospital in charge of her three younger siblings: Zoe, Michael, and Christine. Dr. Aldo van der Linden is a consultant in the hospital. When their landlord sells their building, Louise is worried their family will have nowhere to go, but their father's estranged sister leaves Louise her home and the small family has a place to land.
   Upon moving into Ivy Cottage in the little town of Much Hadham Louise and her little family discover Dr. van der Linden lives just blocks away. Louise finds a new position at a nearby hospital, which falls through, urging her to accept a  position as Dr. van der Linden's nurse.
     Louise is blind to the doctor's attention, seeing it directed at her vivacious younger sister. She tries to convince herself she supports a marriage between Aldo and Zoe, but something keeps bringing Louise down when she imagines her sister marrying the doctor. When she has an opportunity to meet his family, Louise thinks Aldo is vying for her support of his marriage and realizes she loves the frustrating doctor.
     In a boy-meets-girl style, Neels introduces the reader to a female character believing the man in her life is in love with someone else, all the while wishing he will love her. Louise finally realizes her own feelings only to be dunked in guilt at ruining what she hopes is her younger sister's chance at happiness. No Need to Say Goodbye is appropriate for readers of all ages; a good clean romance.

Benedict Hall

Benedict Hall by Cate Campbell, 2013 Kensington Books

     No one believed her when as a child Margot Benedict's younger brother repeatedly acted violence on her. The daughter of a Society Bride and wealthy businessman, Margot has risen above the expectations set for her by society and her family to become one of the few female doctors of the United States in 1920.
     Preston Benedict has never liked his siblings, but especially not the overly-smart, unfeminine Margot. Preston joins the Great War and finds himself in the East. He meets several characters during the war, including Major Frank Parrish and Preston's batman, Carter. When he returns home, Preston Benedict is in possession of a strangely powerful jewel. The Sapphire of Roxanna - the sultan's bride - appears to give the young Benedict an unusual power over the world around him which only enhances his inherent malice.
    Frank Parrish was sent from the East to an Army encampment where his arm, damaged in an explosive clash between Arab and British forces outside Jerusalem, is amputated. His journey takes Frank through a Virginia hospital . There his childhood sweetheart erases any hope from their understanding. Frank decides to travel beyond his Montana home to Seattle, Washington.
     In Seattle, Frank runs into Preston Benedict again, and their enmity reignites. When Frank appears to form an attachment to the Benedict doctor-daughter, Preston's already unstable temperament finds new ways to display itself. Frank and Margot, along with others from Preston's past, must find a way beyond the sapphire to freedom before Preston Benedict has a chance to spoil the chance.
     The first installment of the Benedict story introduces the reader to a world of luxury and the elite. Though the Benedict family is blessed with anything they could hope for, something in the youngest son's make-up dictates danger for the rest of the family. Strong themes of class and race relations weave through the Benedicts' story. Relationships both familial, platonic, and romantic play a key role in the development of both Margot and Frank's story. With intermittent violence and mature events this is an adult read; though more mature high school readers are able to follow Campbell's complex storytelling.