For True Crime Fans

Last Updated: March 8, 2024

After You Vanished by E.A. Neeves

After You Vanished
by E.A. Neeves

Teddy’s favorite place is Bottomrock Lake, where sunfish swim in their little saucer nests and lily pads edge the shore. She’s worked there as a lifeguard every summer, including last year, when her twin sister Izzy waded into the lake for a midnight swim and never came out. Now, Teddy can’t stop scripting stories for where she went. Izzy was an accomplished swimmer, so she couldn’t possibly have drowned. And if she did somehow drown, where’s her body and why is her passport missing? When Toby, the gorgeous jerk who was with Izzy on the night she vanished, comes to Bottomrock to work as a lifeguard alongside Teddy, she can’t help but be suspicious. How many of her sister’s secrets does he hold? And how can Teddy unearth them–without falling for the boy who watched her sister disappear?

Dark Room Etiquette by Robin Roe

Dark Room Etiquette
by Robin Roe

Sixteen-year-old Sayers Wayte has everything: popularity, good looks, perfect grades–there’s nothing Sayers’ family money can’t buy. Until he’s kidnapped by a man who tells him the privileged life he’s been living is based on a lie. Trapped in a windowless room, without knowing why he’s been taken or how long the man plans to keep him shut away, Sayers faces a terrifying new reality. To survive, he must forget the world he once knew, and play the part his abductor has created for him. But as time passes, the line between fact and fiction starts to blur, and Sayers begins to wonder if he can escape… before he loses himself.

Girl Forgotten by April Henry

Girl Forgotten
by April Henry

Seventeen years ago, Layla Trello was murdered and her killer was never found. Enter true-crime fan Piper Gray, who is determined to reopen Layla’s case and get some answers. With the help of Jonas—who has a secret of his own—Piper starts a podcast investigating Layla’s murder. But as she digs deeper into the mysteries of the past, Piper begins receiving anonymous threats telling her to back off the investigation, or else. The killer is still out there, and Piper must uncover their identity before they silence her forever.

Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed

Hollow Fires
by Samira Ahmed

After discovering the body of fourteen-year-old Jawad Ali in Jackson Park, seventeen-year-old journalism student Safiya Mirza begins investigating his murder and ends up confronting white supremacy in her own high school.

My Flawless Life by Yvonne Woon

My Flawless Life
by Yvonne Woon

Two years ago, Hana Yang Lerner’s life fell apart when her father was forced by a scandal to resign from his position as a Democratic senator from Virginia. Though Hana still attends the same prestigious Washington, D.C., school, she no longer speaks to her best friend, Luce Herrera. Her other friends no longer speak to her either—at least not in the open. Behind the scenes, Hana’s classmates hire her to make sensitive problems go away. Now, an anonymous person going by Three has hired her to fix something for Luce. But the job turns out to be about much more than Luce; it involves Luce’s boyfriend, Hana’s one-time friend group, and interconnected secrets that spiral out and back around again. And Hana isn’t the only one on the case: James Li, her former childhood friend, is also investigating for their school newspaper. As the two work together, unspoken truths threaten to push them apart once again. Hana is determined to complete Three’s job, but to do so, she may have to confront mistakes she’s made and her own stalled life.

Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf

Queen of the Tiles
by Hanna Alkaf

Fifteen-year-old Najwa Bakri is forced to investigate the mysterious death of her best friend and Scrabble Queen, Trina, a year after the fact, when her Instagram comes back to life with cryptic posts and messages.

The Lies We Tell by Katie Zhao

The Lies We Tell
by Katie Zhao

During her freshman year at college, Anna Xu investigates the unsolved on-campus murder of her former babysitter, as she and an old rival have to team up to look into the hate crimes happening around campus.

That's Not My Name by Megan Lally

That’s Not My Name
by Megan Lally

Told in two voices, a seventeen-year-old battered and bruised girl struggles to remember who she or the man claiming to be her father is while seventeen-year-old Drew stops at nothing to find his missing girlfriend.

Wander in the Dark by Jumata Emill

Wander in the Dark
by Jumata Emill

Two brothers must come together to solve the murder of the most popular girl in school after one of them is caught fleeing the scene of her death.