Humorous Mysteries

The adventures of Donald J. Sobol’s amateur detective Encyclopedia Brown have been delighting puzzle and mystery lovers for over four decades - earning a special Edgar Award in the process. Here are 10 more devilishly clever noggin scratchers for young listeners to try and solve. Join Leroy “Encyclopedia” Brown as he keeps the streets of tiny Idaville free from petty crooks, ruffians, and altogether no-goodniks - all for 25 cents a day, plus expenses.

There's a murderer on the loose - but that doesn't stop the girls of St. Etheldreda's from attempting to hide the death of their headmistress in this rollicking farce. The students of St. Etheldreda's School for Girls face a bothersome dilemma. Their irascible headmistress, Mrs. Plackett, and her surly brother, Mr. Godding, have been most inconveniently poisoned at Sunday dinner.

Melody is certain that her new basketball coach, Mr. O'Grady, is a leprechaun. Bailey School Elementary's new gym teacher is short, and Irish, and carries a bag filled with special stones. Soon, Melody and the other children are keeping an eye on him. When will they get lucky and catch a leprechaun?

Most start-up businesses fail within five years. But with Geraldine Jiggles as her new partner, Val’s smashing new concept for “retail therapy” might not last five minutes. Has Val signed a pact with the she-devil herself? Maybe ... Just exactly who is that sharp-tongued demon in polyester pantaloons, anyway? When Val starts investigating Geraldine’s past, what she discovers threatens to tear a hole the very fabric of reality itself—or at list rip it one heck of a new unseemly seam.

In the town of Ghostly, where every house is haunted, two ghosts are frightened.... Someone is haunting them with mysterious sounds: Clack, cluckity-cluck bing, blub blub. Or is it click, cluck-clackity cling, flub flub? They can't agree on what the sounds are, but they know they're not ghostly noises. What could be more scary? Good thing ace reporter Dirk Bones is on the case. Dirk writes for the town newspaper, The Ghostly Tombs, and as he collects the facts for his stories, he also solves mysteries.

Stevie and Maison have a great friendship where they travel back and forth between the Overworld and the human world. Maison has earned some fame for battling off the mobs at her school, but the attention has also brought about cyberbullies DestinyIsChoice123 and TheVampireDragon555, who have hacked her computer and discovered the portal! Now, through complex coding, the cyberbullies have turned the Overworld into eternal night and unleashed a pack of zombies.

Okay, so just know from the start that it wasn't supposed to go like this. All we wanted was to get near The Ruperts, our favorite boy band. We didn't mean to kidnap one of the guys. It kind of, sort of happened that way. But now he's tied up in our hotel room. And the worst part of all, it's Rupert P. All four members of The Ruperts might have the same first name, but they couldn't be more different. And Rupert P. is the biggest flop out of the whole group.

Goonies-meets-James-Bond-style hijinks continue with a group of unpopular fifth-graders who run a spy network right under their teachers’ noses. Their tech-loving, geeky ways may get them shunned by the “it” crowd, but with a little help from science, these kids’ most dweeby qualities become big-time weapons in the fight against super-villains.

Herobrine, the artificially intelligent virus, was deleted. The computer it resided in was completely destroyed. Without their leader, the few survivors of its evil army were cast away into the shadows. It looked as if there would finally be peace and happiness throughout the servers of Minecraft.

As Head of Ranch Security, Hank knows that it's his job to clear the ranch of all intruders - and that includes gophers. But when Hank's efforts to rid the yard of one such critter causes a stampede in the middle of the cattle roundup, Loper decides that he just can't take it any more. He wants Hank to learn some manners, so he's sending him to - gulp! - obedience school.

A slumber party over at Lucille's richie nanna's big giant house is sure to be a dream come true for Junie B.! 'Cause what could possibly go wrong?

Boy hero Tom, Hugo the Averagely Spooky Ghost, and famed ghoul hunter Hetty Hyssop have formed an agency dedicated to dealing with difficult apparitions. No spook can defeat them, until their too close encounter with a Gruesome Invincible Lightning Ghost (or "GILIG" in ghosthunter-speak).

After leaving Fathoms of Fun, the kids are on their way to the next odd summer destination their aunt has chosen for them. This time, they find themselves dropped off at the Sanguine Spa in the “little Transylvania Mountains.” There they meet the owners: Mina, her mysterious little sister, Lucy (who is extremely pale, can’t go in the sunlight, and has an affinity for hanging upside down from the ceiling), and their intimidating guardian, the Count.

Sammy accidentally makes a deadly mistake, but all clues point to her nemesis, Heather, and she gets blamed. As Sammy struggles with her conscience, she should confess, but there's a certain justice in Heather finally getting what she deserves, and she gets distracted helping an ailing senior citizen in her fight against urban renewal.

What will Gameknight999 do when his own friend is infected with the evil Herobrine virus? With the destruction of the infected Ender Dragon, the monster kings were forced to retreat. Herobrine's poisonous XP has been captured in an obsidian box and sealed tightly. Gameknight999 and his friends know that the obsidian box will have to be destroyed to eliminate the evil virus once and for all. But how? And who will be brave enough to do it?

The Kidds - treasure hunting family extraordinaire - are heading to China on a journey that will lead them beyond the Great Wall and into the underbelly of Berlin. Bick and Beck Kidd are desperately trying to secure the ancient Chinese artifact that will buy their mother's freedom from renegade pirates.

While looking out the window with her grandma's binoculars, Sammy witnesses a crime across the street at the Heavenly Hotel. What's worse, the thief saw her spying! As Sammy attempts to find the burglar who has made several other hits in the neighborhood, she finds herself trying to keep him from uncovering her - or worse, the police discovering that she's living illegally with her grandmother in the seniors-only housing!

Welcome to another kind of terror as Peter Straub leads us into the outer reaches of the psyche. Here the master of the macabre is at his absolute best in seven exquisite tales of living, dying, and the terror that lies in between.

Rising sixth grader Miss Moses LoBeau lives in the small town of Tupelo Landing, NC, where everyone's business is fair game and no secret is sacred. She washed ashore in a hurricane eleven years ago, and she's been making waves ever since. Although Mo hopes someday to find her "upstream mother," she's found a home with the Colonel--a café owner with a forgotten past of his own--and Miss Lana, the fabulous café hostess. She will protect those she loves with every bit of her strong will and tough attitude.

Emelda made a mistake she'll regret for the rest of her life—and it's put Kane in danger. Now, she has to right that wrong, and time is running out. She'll have to face unholy monsters, killer spy drones, and not one but two shadowy global organizations that want her dead. Or worse. To save Kane, she'll have to become something she'd never thought she had in her. Their pack of two is broken, and to save Kane, she will have to be clever. Fearless. Dangerous. Emelda Thorne will now be a lone wolf.