In the tradition of Nancy Drew and other well-known girl sleuths and detectives let's give a nod to Women's History Month by reading mysteries and adventures featuring girl sleuths, detectives, and crime solvers. They use their minds, guts, and sheer good luck to solve the case!

Friday Barnes, Girl Detective by R. A. Spratt; illustrations by Phil Gosier

Using reward money for solving a bank robbery to attend an exclusive boarding school, Friday Barnes tackles mysteries ranging from disappearing homework and a yeti in a swamp to the reason the school's most handsome boy hates her.

 

 

 

 

The Fairy-Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley 

The sisters learn they are descendants of the Brothers Grimm, whose famous book of fairy tales is actually a collection of case files. The girls are the latest in a long line of fairy-tale detectives, and their new hometown is filled with Everafters (as magical folks like to be called)â€"some good and some very, very bad. When a mysterious Everafter sets a giant loose on the town, it's up to the Sisters Grimm to save the day.

 

 

The Girl From Felony Bay by John Thompson

Forced to move in with her alcoholic uncle after her father is framed for a terrible crime, sixth-grader Abbey resolves to clear her father's name while outmaneuvering a bully and tackling a mystery on her family's estate with the help of a curious newcomer.

 

 

 

 

The Case of The Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery by Nancy Springer

Enola Holmes, much younger sister of detective Sherlock Holmes, must travel to London in disguise to unravel the disappearance of her missing mother.

 

 

 

Goldie Vance: The Hotel Whodunit by Lilliam Rivera

In early 1960s Florida, sixteen-year-old Goldie, an aspiring detective at the Crossed Palms Resort Hotel, investigates when a diamond-encrusted swim cap goes missing during the filming of a movie.

 

 

 

 

The Great Cake Mystery by Alexander McCall Smith 

Before becoming the first female private investigator in Botswana, eight-year-old Precious Ramotswe tracks down a thief who has been stealing her classmates' snacks.

 

 

 

 

 

The Case of The Missing Moonstone by Jordan Stratford

A first installment in a series set in an early 19th-century alternate universe finds brusque 11-year-old genius Ada and romantic 14-year-old Mary forming a detective agency and investigating a stolen heirloom using their math, science, and analytic talents.

 

 

 

 

Cold-Blooded Myrtle  by Elizabeth Bunce 

Twelve-year-old Young Lady of Quality and Victorian amateur detective Myrtle Hardcastle returns, and now she is on the trail of a serial killer in her hometown of Swinburne.

 

 

 

 

 

Poison is Not Polite by Robin Stevens 

In 1930s England, schoolgirl detectives Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are at Daisy's home for the holidays when someone falls seriously, mysteriously ill at a family party, but no one present is what they seem—and everyone has a secret or two—so the Detective Society must do everything they can to reveal the truth ... no matter the consequences.

 

 

 

Murder at the Museum by Lena Jones 

Thirteen-year-old Agatha Oddlow's set to become the youngest member of the Gatekeepers' Guild, but before that, she's got a mystery to solve. There's been a murder at the British Museum and, although the police are investigating, Agatha suspects that they're missing a wider plot going on below Londona plot involving a disused Tube station, a huge fireworks display, and five thousand tonnes of gold bullion.

 

 

 

The Dollhouse by Charis Cotter

Alice and her mom are heading to a small town where Alice's mom will be a live-in nurse to a rich elderly lady. The house is huge, imposing, and spooky, and everything inside is meticulously kept and perfect— not a fun place to spend the summer. Things start to get weird when Alice finds a dollhouse in the attic that's an exact replica of the house she's living in. Then she wakes up to find a girl asleep next to her in her bed —a girl who looks a lot like one of the dolls from the dollhouse .

 

 

A Girl, A Raccoon, and the Midnight Moon by Karen Romano Young; illustrated by Jessixa Bagley

Eleven-year-old Pearl Moran cannot imagine life without the historic but under-utilized branch of The New York Public Library where she was born (in the Memorial Room) and where her single mother works as the circulation librarian; the other librarians, the neighborhood people, the raccoons, and most of the 41,000 plus books all form the structure and essence of her life—but when someone cuts off the head of the Library's statue of Edna St. Vincent Millay she realizes that the Library is under attack, and it is up to her to save it.

 

Agatha, Girl of Mystery. Kenyan Expedition by Sir Steve Stevenson; illustrated by Stefano Turconi; translated by Siobhan Tracey; adapted by Maya Gold

A missing white giraffe brings Agatha Mistery and her cousin Dash to the heart of Africa. A rare species of white giraffe, venerated by the Masai tribe as a divinity, has disappeared from the savanna, and it's up to Agatha and Dash to find it! Together with a third cousin and safari expert, the pair must track down the poacher who has stolen the priceless animal.

 

 

 

Zenobia July by Lisa Bunker 

Zenobia July is starting a new life. She used to live in Arizona with her father; now she's in Maine with her aunts. She used to spend most of her time behind a computer screen, improving her impressive coding and hacking skills; now she's coming out of her shell and discovering a community of friends at Monarch Middle School. People used to tell her she was a boy; now she's able to live openly as the girl she always knew she was. When someone anonymously posts hateful memes on her school's website, Zenobia knows she's the one with the abilities to solve the mystery, all while wrestling with the challenges of a new school, a new family, and coming to grips with presenting her true gender for the first time.

 

The Book Case: An Emily Lime Mystery  by Dave Shelton

Sent to exclusive St. Rita's boarding school for girls after an expulsion, book-smart Daphne discovers that the school is not quite what she expected before finding herself working as a library assistant to crime-solving genius Emily Lime.

 

 

 

 

Jolly Foul Play: A Wells & Wong Mystery by Robin Stevens

Daisy and Hazel must solve another murder at Deepdean when a bullying Head Girl turns up dead on Bonfire Night.

 

 

 

 

 

Effie Starr Zook Has One More Question by Martha Freeman

City girl Effie Starr Zook is not excited about spending the summer on her aunt and uncle's farm in Nowheresville, Pennsylvania until she stumbles across a mystery that leads her smack into an old family feud.

 

 

 

 

The Girl With The Glass Bird by Esme Kerr

At Knight's Haddon, a remote all-girls boarding school, feisty orphan Edie is assigned to spy on fragile, exotic Anastasia. Instead, the two become best friends—and discover a sinister mystery.

 

 

 

 

North of Nowhere by Liz Kessler

Rushing to the sleepy seaside village of Porthaven to help her grandmother when her granddad mysteriously vanishes, Mia discovers a diary on an empty fishing boat and begins exchanging notes with a local girl who makes excuses for not meeting Mia in person, adding to an already mystifying situation.

 

 

 

 

The Disappearance of Emily H by Barrie Summy

Eighth-grader Raine, a new girl at Yielding Middle School, uses her supernatural ability to see other people's memories to solve the disappearance of a teenage girl.

 

 

 

 

 

Conspiracy  by Patricia Finney writing as Lady Grace Cavendish

After an assassination attempt goes wrong and claims the life of one of her Gentlewomen of the Bedchamber, Queen Elizabeth I decides to give the woman's young daughter, Lady Grace, special treatment in her Royal Court, yet as more mysterious events unfold, Lady Grace becomes fearful for her queen and so decides to look into the strange happenings in order to find out who is involved—and bring them to justice.

 

 

 

Unstoppable Octobia May by Sharon G. Flake 

In 1953 ten-year-old Octobia May lives in her Aunt's boarding house in the South, surrounded by an African American community that has its own secrets and internal racism, and spends her days wondering if Mr. Davenport in room 204 is really a vampire—or something else entirely.

 

 

 

 

Under The Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald 

Her grandfather's dying words lead thirteen-year-old Theodora Tenpenny to a valuable, hidden painting she fears may be stolen, but it is her search for answers in her Greenwich Village neighborhood that brings a real treasure.

 

 

 

 

Vanishing Acts: A Madison Kincaid Mystery by Philip Margolin 

In Portland, Oregon, between soccer games and beginning seventh grade, twelve-year-old Madison Kincaid and new classmate Jake try to track down her missing best friend, while also helping her attorney father solve a missing-persons case.

 

 

 

 

Pepper's Rules of Secret Sleuthing by Briana McDonald 

Amateur detective Pepper Blouse, a rising seventh-grader, cannot resist investigating when her Great Aunt Florence passes away under mysterious circumstances, but strictly following her mother's Detective Rulebook may not be the best plan.

 

 

 

 

Snowize & Snitch : Highly Effective Defective Detectives by K. H. Briner 

A once-intrepid spy, a dignified rodent, and a girl with a perplexing past team up to find out who is draining the minds of great scientists of their knowledge.

 

 

 

 

 

The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson 

Twelve-year-old Candice Miller is spending the summer in Lambert, South Carolina, in the old house that belonged to her grandmother, who died after being dismissed as city manager for having the city tennis courts dug up looking for buried treasure—but when she finds the letter that sent her grandmother on the treasure hunt, she finds herself caught up in the mystery and, with the help of her new friend and fellow book-worm, Brandon, she sets out to find the inheritance, exonerate her grandmother, and expose an injustice once committed against an African American family in Lambert.

 

 

Matasha by Pamela Erens

It's 1970's Chicago. Eleven-year-old Matasha Wax is fixated by the story of Martin Kimmel, a nine-year-old boy who disappeared a few months ago, and whose body has yet to be found. But none of these ongoing problems could have prepared Matasha for her mother's sudden disappearance. When the letters start coming from Switzerland, she knows something is very, very wrong—but no one will tell her what's going on, so Matasha has to figure it all out for herself.

 

 

Girl's Best Friend  by Leslie Margolis

In Brooklyn, New York, twelve-year-old dog-walker Maggie, aided by her twin brother Finn and best friend Lucy, investigates someone she believes is stealing pets.