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I have a confession: I actually didn’t like Nancy Drew as a kid. I preferred the Hardy Boys and always wished that there was such a thing as Hardy Girls.

I enjoy mysteries now but have such a hard time finding adult books that have the right amount of suspense — not too creepy but enough intrigue to keep me curious and guessing.

Enter middle grade mysteries! I have found that I love reading middle grade mysteries for myself! The ones I’ve listed below are my favorite series that I’ve read so far, but I’ve discovered even more recently and can’t wait to try out some more.

So if you liked mysteries as a kid or want some low-stakes mysteries now, here are some recommendations!

📚 Aggie Morton Mystery Queen series by Marthe Jocelyn

Aggie Morton is a young Agatha Christie with a friend named Hector Perot. She is adventurous and does have to sneak around some, so this is a series I’m waiting until my kids are a little older to hand to them. As an adult, I very much enjoyed the antics of the characters.

My Reviews: #1 The Body under the Piano | #2 Peril at Owl Park | #3 The Dead Man in the Garden | #4 The Seaside Corpse
Buy: BookShop | Amazon
Add to your TBR: Goodreads | The StoryGraph

📚 Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery series by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Myrtle and her governess take on some pretty interesting cases in this series. Myrtle does not have to sneak around as much as Aggie does because her governess does go with her everywhere, but some of the situations Myrtle finds herself in are pretty intense.

This will also be a series I wait until my kids are on the old end of “middle grade” to give them — about age 12 or 13. As an adult, I am enjoying this series more than Aggie Morton!

My Reviews: #1 Premeditated Myrtle | #2 How to Get Away with Myrtle | #3 Cold-Blooded Myrtle
Buy: BookShop | Amazon
Add to your TBR: Goodreads | The StoryGraph

📚 The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall series by Ali Standish

In this series we follow a young Sir Conan Doyle as he is invited to a school for geniuses! I really enjoyed the first in this series and heartily recommend this first book!

This book had just a touch of fantasy and NO MURDER. The mystery was much more kid-friendly than the series listed above, and I’d gladly give this to an 8-year-old.

Update: I do not personally recommend the second book in this series. While the fun of the first book was still there, the second book focused a lot on communicating with the dead through rituals and the use of a Ouija board. That is not something I care for my kids to read about at a young age. I am not sure if I will read the third and final book in the series.

My Reviews: #1 Improbable Tales | #2 The Sign of the Five
Buy: BookShop | Amazon
Add to your TBR: Goodreads | The StoryGraph

I hope you enjoy these series. Have you read any great middle grade mysteries?

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🤖 Always written and edited without the use of AI.

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