The Deadliest Game (Tom Clancy's Net Force; Young Adult) by Tom Clancy, Steve R. Pieczenik
Reading level: Young Adult

Computer savvy teens, a war game gone awry, and good old-fashioned intrigue are the elements of The Deadliest Game, a high-octane episode in Tom Clancy's wildly popular teen series Net Force. Clancy and co-author Steve Pieczenik envision a futuristic society where people enliven their dull lives with intense virtual experiences.

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The Shadow in the North (Sally Lockhart Trilogy, Book 2) by Philip Pullman
Reading level: Young adult

Six years after solving the mysteries surrounding the death of her father (in The Ruby in the Smoke), Sally Lockhart has set up her own consulting business. But her photographer friend, Fred Garland, has a habit of drawing her into his private detective work owing to her skill in both finances and firearms. When one of Sally's clients loses a large sum of money invested in a shipping firm and Fred encounters a conjurer on the lam from underworld thugs, the two begin to find links in these apparently disparate cases.

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Philip Pullman

The Tiger in the Well (Sally Lockhart Trilogy, Book 3) by Philip Pullman
Reading level: Young adult

Pullman is fast becoming a modern-day Dickens for young adults. The setting is the same, the strong eye for characters is there, as are the brooding atmosphere, the social conscience, and the ability to spin plot within plot. Sally Lockhart is now a young woman, left alone with a toddler. Nothing prepares her for the shock of receiving a summons from a man she has never even heard of, suing for divorce and the custody of her beloved Harriet. Sally struggles against the net closing around her, seeking to find out who is persecuting her and why. The writing style is lively and direct, and there's lots of action. This is a suspense novel with a conscience, and a most enjoyable one.

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Philip Pullman

Time Stops for No Mouse: A Hermux Tantamoq Adventure by Michael Hoeye
Reading level: Young adult

It's impossible not to like Hermux Tantamoq, the watchmaking mouse. He relaxes in a flannel shirt printed with pictures of cheeses from around the world, he has a caged pet ladybug named Terfle, he writes endearing thank-you letters to the universe each night, and he has a big heart--a heart that aches for the fearless aviatrix Ms. Linka Perflinger, who unexpectedly visits his shop requesting an emergency rush repair of her wris*censored*ch. Little does he know that this brief rendezvous with the jaunty adventuress will change his life forever. When a week goes by without word from her, he doesn't know whether to be worried or angry. He drafts a slightly unpleasant, then desperate, then not-too-sweet, not-too-sour letter to her and awaits her response. Nothing. Even nasty encounters with his neighbor (the horribly garish and affected cosmetics tycoon Tucka Mertslin) and pleasant interludes with his artist friend Mirrin don't distract him from his new heart-quickening obsession.

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Sanctuary (1-800-Where-R-You) by Jenny Carroll
Reading level: Young adult

Sixteen-year-old Jessica Mastriani knew she wasn't going to be able to hide her psychic powers from the U.S. government -- interested in utilizing her special skills for their own devices -- forever. But she never thought that she and Cyrus Krantz, the special agent brought in to "convince" Jess to join his elite team of "specially-gifted" crime solvers, would turn out to have something in common.

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When Lightning Strikes (1-800-WHERE-R-YOU, #1) by Jenny Carroll
Reading level: Young adult

Just because her best friend wants to exercise, Jessica Mastriani agrees to walk the two miles home from their high school. Straight into a huge Indiana thunderstorm and straight into trouble.

Not that Jess has never been in trouble before. Her extracurricular activities, instead of cheerleading or 4-H, include fistfights with the football team and monthlong stints in detention -- luckily, sitting right next to Rob, the sexiest senior around.

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But this trouble is serious because somehow on that long walk home, Jessica acquired a newfound talent. An amazing power that can be used for good...or for evil.

Run, Jessica. Run.

The Coral Coffin: A Finnegan Zwake Mystery by Michael Dahl
Reading level: Young adult

Swept overboard during a thunderstorm in the South Seas, thirteen-year-old Finn lands on a tropical island, with palm trees, nesting turtles, beautiful sunsets, and...a dead body. Finn and his famous mystery-writer Uncle Stoppard traveled to the Great Barrier Reef in search of Finn's long-missing archaeologist parents. Instead they are both picked up by a ship full of fierce modern-day pirates and their fearless female leader, Blue Jade.

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No sooner are Finn and his uncle onboard when mayhem breaks loose: someone is secretly poisoning the crew members, one by one. Furious, Blue Jade gives Finn and Uncle Stop twenty-four hours to find the killer and prove their own innocence. Otherwise they will face her deadly pets Mittens and Fluffy, two man-killing blue-ringed octopuses....

Thief of Hearts : A Body of Evidence Thriller by Christopher Golden
Reading level: Young adult

"Why would anyone want to tear out someone's heart?"
That's the very real question facing college freshman Jenna Blake, and it has nothing to do with romance and heartbreak. A second grisly murder mystery is unfolding at Somerset University, and her job as a pathology assistant at the local hospital brings Jenna too close to the haunting crimes.

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The Ruby in the Smoke (Sally Lockhart Trilogy, Book 1) by Philip Pullman
Reading level: Young adult

Her name was Sally Lockhart; and within fifteen minutes, she was going to kill a man." Philip Pullman begins his Sally Lockhart trilogy with a bang in The Ruby in the Smoke--a fast-paced, finely crafted thriller set in a rogue- and scalawag-ridden Victorian London. His 16-year-old heroine has no time for the usual trials of adolescence: her father has been murdered, and she needs to find out how and why. But everywhere she turns, she encounters new scoundrels and secrets.

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Philip Pullman