Teen/YA Crime

One of the best ways to engage teenagers with books is to give them stories that they can’t put down, and few genres are more gripping than crime. Here we share some of our favourite crime thrillers for teens and young adults.

  • Netta Becker and the Timeline Crime

    by Jennifer Claessen 

    2025 9 to 14 years 

    • Around the world
    • Historical
    • Myths and legends

    In this atmospheric time-slip fantasy, Netta is dragged back thousands of years to Ancient Greece, where a power-crazed king is building a treacherous labyrinth – and the monster at its centre demands human sacrifice.

  • Ghost Boys: The Graphic Novel

    by Jewell Parker Rhodes, illustrated by Setor Fiadzigbey 

    2026 11 to 14 years 

    • Graphic novels
    • Ghost story

    The graphic novelisation of Jewell Parker Rhodes’ hit novel from 2018, about a 12-year-old boy who is killed by a police officer, but remains as a ghost. 

  • Needle

    by Patrice Lawrence 

    2022 11 to 14 years 

    • Coming-of-age

    How come, if there’s any kind of incident’ at school, at home, at the shopping centre, it’s always the Black kid in care who gets the blame?

  • Splinters of Sunshine

    by Patrice Lawrence 

    2021 11 to 14 years 

    • Diaries and journals
    • Thriller

    Spey receives a mysterious parcel full of torn up paper flowers from a long-lost friend – just as his ex-prisoner dad arrives back into his life. Spey can sense that his friend is in danger, but can his father help him find her?

  • I Know You Did It

    by Sue Wallman 

    2021 11 to 14 years 

    • Thriller

    Ruby’s hoping for a fresh start at her new school – and that no one will know she was involved in a little girl’s death many years ago. But then her fellow students start dying… A pacy, gripping crime thriller.

  • Things the Eye Can’t See

    by Penny Joelson 

    2020 11 to 14 years 

    • Thriller
    • Visual impairment
    • Disability

    When a former classmate gives 15 year old Libby a mysterious envelope, she finds herself drawn into a a very strange and potentially dangerous mystery.

  • The Knife That Killed Me

    by Anthony McGowan 

    2008 11 to 14 years 

    • Coming-of-age

    Paul isn’t one of the tough kids, but when he ends up delivering a message from Roth, the terrifying school bully, he finds himself drawn into a dangerous rivalry. 

  • Five Hundred Miles

    by Kevin Brooks 

    2016 11 to 14 years 

    • Coming-of-age

    In the industrial wastelands of east London, two brothers are delivering forged vehicle documents. As soon as they walk into the pub, Cole knows something is going on. This is a stark, intense, plot-driven, cinematic story of hoping for better.

  • Crongton Knights

    by Alex Wheatle 

    2016 11 to 14 years 

    • Coming-of-age

    McKay’s life on the South Crongton Estate is rough. His Mum has died, his Dad works all hours of the day to keep away the Bailiffs, and his brother is always out looking for trouble.

  • The Outsiders

    by SE Hinton 

    2016 11 to 14 years 

    • Classics
    • Coming-of-age
    • Thriller

    SE Hinton was just 17 years old when she wrote this exciting story of gang rivalry. The story features the Socs and the Greasers and explores themes of class conflict, affection, brotherly love and coming of age. This is teenage fiction at its best.

  • Saint Death

    by Marcus Sedgwick 

    2016 11 to 14 years 

    • Around the world
    • Coming-of-age

    Arturo lives in Anapra, one of the poorest neighbourhoods around the Mexican border city of Juarez, where drug lords rule. A tightly plotted, dark and thrilling tale of crime, poverty and desperation.

  • Orangeboy

    by Patrice Lawrence 

    2016 11 to 14 years 

    • Coming-of-age
    • Thriller

    A boy that no one notices becomes a target on the run, when a tragic event prompts him to mix with a world of street gangs and drug dealers. This pacey crime thriller feels unique, realistic and truthful.