Special Collections

Sammy Keyes and the Art of Deception

Sammy Keyes has a lot of nerve, turning up in sneakers to a fancy art gallery reception and asking why a framed orange splat is worth $10,000. Eyebrows raise. Noses are turned up. But then Sammy tackles a thief who tries to break up the soiree with a stick-up. Now the patrons of the arts are glad she has a lot of nerve. Or are they?

Sammy may have stopped a criminal, but the real crime has yet to be discovered. The real crime is more subtle, more artful than anything Sammy has ever seen. Who would have thought art could be so dangerous?

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash

Sammy Keyes has three wads of cold hard cash in her hot little hands. An old guy gave them to her. Well, actually, he told her to throw them away. Begged her. With his last dying breath. Which he was taking because Sammy had just scared the life right out of him.

So . . . she's got to get this man some help. She's got to do it without being seen herself. And she's got to figure out how to stash that cash. Aw, c'mon! You'd keep the money too, right? No one ever needs to know. . . . From the Hardcover edition.

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Curse of Moustache Mary

What's supposed to be a quiet weekend in the country turns into a crossroads adventure when Sammy and her friends meet Lucinda Huntley walking her 200-pound pig down the middle of the road. She tells them a true tale of the Wild West, a story of tough times, wagon trains, her great-grandma Moustache Mary, and a century-old family feud.

But this feud is hardly ancient history. Past and present collide -- and combust! -- when Mary's pioneer cabin burns to the ground. Sammy thinks the cause of the fire may be a hundred years old, but still, the gas can she finds near the scene of the crime is shiny and new. . . .

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Dead Giveaway

The bad news: Sammy's made a deadly mistake. The good news: No one knows she did it. The delicious dilemma: Everyone thinks her archenemy Heather is to blame.

Now Heather's in a major jam, and in some ways it's only fair--Heather's pinned more than a few crimes on Sammy. Besides, there are distractions galore to keep Sammy from confessing. Like the end of the school year. And the Farewell Dance. Especially the dance, because she's going with Heather's brother, Casey.

But Sammy knows that the truth has an uncanny way of resurfacing, and when it does, the stench can be more vile than the junior high cafeteria.

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy

The elusive Lady Lana (a. k. a. Sammy's mom) ran off to Hollywood nearly a year ago to get "discovered." But when Sammy discovers that her mom has changed her name, dyed her hair, and told everyone she's only 25, she decides Lana needs a little reality check. I mean, it's one thing to have her mom ditch her. But it's another to find out she's created a life for herself where Sammy can't possibly exist.

But Hollywood is a shock. Everyone is pretending here. No one is who or what they seem in this starlet-eat-starlet world. So when a woman is killed in the room next door, Sammy's hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't have a motive . . . including her own mom. .

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief

Although she's a girl detective starring in a new series, Sammy is not Nancy Drew. She's smart-mouthed & hard-hitting, unpopular at school & on the outs with the law.

Readers follow the sleuth through her saucy first-person narrative as she tries to find a burglar who's made a number of hits in her neighborhood, one of which she witnessed while spying on her neighbors with binoculars.

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Killer Cruise

Sammy knew that getting to know her new rockstar dad on a cruise would be a little uncomfortable. . . . But when the heiress to a perfume empire disappears from the ship, it turns out everyone's in for a rocky ride.

In this penultimate book in the Sammy Keyes mystery series, Wendelin Van Draanen pays homage to the mystery genre. This book is a classic locked-room whodunnit--Sammy Keyes style.

The Sammy Keyes mysteries are fast-paced, funny, thoroughly modern, and true whodunits. Each mystery is exciting and dramatic, but it's the drama in Sammy's personal life that keeps readers coming back to see what happens next with her love interest Casey, her soap-star mother, and her mysterious father.

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Kiss Goodbye

Sammy doesn't go looking for trouble, but she seems to find it everywhere. She's forever sniffing out clues and chasing down bad guys--and driving her friends a little nuts. She's gone up against thieves and counterfeiters and gangsters and blackmailers and murderers, and always stayed one step ahead.

Until now.

Last night, one of the bad guys caught up. Last night, someone followed Sammy up the fire escape and pushed her from the third story. Now she's in the hospital, out cold. And her friends are left with the questions Sammy's always been so good at answering: Why? How? But most of all . . . WHO?

In this emotional conclusion to her beloved long-running series, Wendelin Van Draanen shows just how many lives one nosy girl can touch and pays tribute to a life well sleuthed.

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Night of Skulls

In her newest adventure, junior high detective Sammy Keyes and her friends take a detour through a graveyard on Halloween night and find themselves in the middle of a mystery.

Sammy must figure out how three missing people, two human skulls, and one ghoulish embalmer add up before she winds up six feet under herself!

And school presents its own set of tricks and treats. Sammy knows that a classmate is guilty of beating up a man on Halloween night. Should she obey the law and tell Officer Borsch? Or should she obey the junior high code and keep quiet?

Life and death and truth and justice have never been so tangled up...

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Power of Justice Jack

Sammy thought she'd seen all the weirdness her town had to offer--and then she met Justice Jack, Santa Martina's very own superhero. Well, really he's just a guy in spandex and a mask who rides around town on a dirt bike, hoping to find some crime to fight.

The old folks in town think he's wonderful. So wonderful that they've asked him to track down Sammy's neighbor Mrs. Wedgewood, who seems to have disappeared--along with a lot of other people's cash. Sammy's friends think Justice Jack is funny and cool. Billy Pratt's even auditioning to be his sidekick!

But Sammy thinks he's kind of . . . lame. He's more of a showstopper than a crime stopper. And when a real mystery comes along, Sammy finds herself right in the middle of it. . . .

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen

This time the 13-year-old sleuth is up against a cat burglar - literally! Cats are disappearing and Sammy is finding some of them in neighborhood garbage cans - dead!

Just as Sammy discovers that her archenemy Heather is her "star" sister and shares her birthday, Sammy's mother arrives to inform her that she isn't really turning 14 - so it's another year of unlucky 13!

But the savvy sleuth has been up against a lot worse and come out on top so maybe this is the year Sammy's luck will change!

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf

It's Christmastime in Sammy's hometown of Santa Martina, but some people are being very, very naughty. Pranksters dressed as wise men sabotage the Christmas Parade. In the ensuing chaos, some thugs dognap a prize Pomeranian. Then the Pom's owner blackmails Sammy into finding the dog so she won't have to pay the ransom.

Sammy doesn't have to check her list twice to know that these people belong in the naughty column! But in the course of her search for the doggone dog, Sammy also comes across some characters who are harder to figure: a runaway elf, an embittered old biddy, a puffed-up policeman, and a sneaky Secret Santa.

Still, someone's got that dog and whoever it is had better watch out--'cause Sammy Keyes is nosing around...and she's willing to be pretty naughty herself to make sure the bad guys pay.

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes

In her most dangerous mystery to date, Sammy is literally left "holding the bag"!

When a strange girl who is trying to escape from a scary looking guy at the mall asks her to watch her shopping bag and then flees, Sammy is alarmed to discover that inside the bag is a baby!

In her seventh adventure, the intrepid detective puts her life on the line as she confronts the seamy gang life of her hometown in her search for the baby's mother.

And, as usual, her attempts to solve the case are thwarted along the way by her high school nemesis Acosta and problems with her grandmother's nosy new neighbor in this edge-of-the seat mystery.

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Showdown in Sin City

In this pivotal book in the Sammy Keyes series, Sammy tackles the persistent mysteries of her own life.

Mysteries like: Who is her father? And why has her mother kept it such a secret? How long can she manage to hide out in Grams' seniors-only building before someone catches on? Is her mother really planning to marry her boyfriend's father? (Ew.) And why, why is Heather Acosta so nasty?

During one crazy weekend in Las Vegas, with the help of an entire army of Elvis impersonators, Sammy finally gets some answers. But of course knowledge comes at a price--and solving the mysteries of her own life will cost Sammy more than she ever meant to pay. . . .

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy

She is supposed to be in church to get out of trouble...Sammy is working off some junior high detention time by helping out at St. Mary's, but when Father Mayhew discovers that his ivory cross has been stolen, Sammy becomes the prime suspect.

While she's looking for the real culprit, Sammy is amazed to find how much gossip and petty jealousy there is bubbling under the church's serene surface. This is just like junior high! And school is abubble with intrigue as well. Sammy's in the middle of softball playoffs when her catcher's mitt is stolen. She's sure the hated Heather must have it, but knowing whodunit and getting the mitt back are two different things. With a cast that includes a trio of singing nuns, a homeless girl in high tops, a former safecracker, and a red-hot shortstop, it's not so easy to tell the saints from the sinners...

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man

What does Frankenstein have that a skeleton wants? Sounds like a bad Halloween joke. But Sammy Keyes isn't laughing. She's the one who collided with the skeleton while he was making his getaway. And she's the one who discovered Frankenstein tied to a chair with his head twisted around. Someone's taken "trick or treat" way too far.

When Sammy starts to investigate what really happened Halloween night, she's amazed at how many people have something to hide. Of course, Sammy's got a few secrets herself. And more than a few tricks up her sleeve... there has eleven more books in the exciting Sammy Keyes mystery series.

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher

For junior high detective Sammy Keyes, eighth grade begins with an accusation, an inquisition, and several assorted death threats!

The history teacher, Mr. Vince, is being threatened, which at first seems funny. He's horrible! Every student wants Mr. Vince gone. But as the threats become more serious, the question becomes-who wants him dead and gone?

With her own name near the top of the suspect list, Sammy's determined to get to the bottom of things. But she's distracted by a mother bearing bad news, an almost-boyfriend ducking her calls, and a date with a poofy lavender bridesmaid dress.

This latest Sammy Keyes adventure blends mystery, comedy, and a dusting of fairy tale magic as Sammy takes off her high-tops, puts on some party shoes, and steps into a whole lot of trouble.

Date Added: 04/03/2018

Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things

Sammy Keyes trades in her hightops for hiking boots--and winds up with blisters.

This is not the summer camping trip of Sammy's dreams. She imagined shady glades, meandering streams, a deer or two. What she gets are scrubby shrubs, blazing sun, rattlesnakes, ticks, and scorpions. Her fellow campers are desperate to catch a rare glimpse of an endangered condor. To Sammy, the trip is nothing more than the painful in pursuit of the unspeakably ugly.

But when she and two other girls find an injured condor, Sammy's intrigued at last. As they track down a clue, they stumble onto two classmates and wind up lost. Which leaves three girls and two boys in a canyon with one tent and six billion biting flies. Oh--and an armed and dangerous high stakes poacher. S'mores anyone?

Date Added: 04/03/2018