12 Days of Mysteries: Day 4

The clock is ticking. Faster. Faster. Your heart is in your throat as December 25 bears down on you. Your shopping isn't done. In fact, you haven't even started!

If you have young thriller fans in your life, we can save you. To celebrate Day 4 of our 12 Days of Mysteries (and thrillers) are some thrillers that are sure to make great gifts!

Elle Cosimano says, "I LOVED 'THE LOCK ARTIST' by Steve Hamilton. This beautifully written and character-driven thriller unfolds slowly, and non-linearly, drawing out the reveal for an intense and satisfying conclusion." This book one the Edgar Award for YA in 2011. Here's the description:

 

 

 

"I was the Miracle Boy, once upon a time. Later on, the Milford Mute. The Golden Boy. The Young Ghost. The Kid. The Boxman. The Lock Artist. That was all me.

But you can call me Mike." 

 

Marked by tragedy, traumatized at the age of eight, Michael, now eighteen, is no ordinary young man. Besides not uttering a single word in ten years, he discovers the one thing he can somehow do better than anyone else. Whether it's a locked door without a key, a padlock with no combination, or even an eight-hundred pound safe ... he can open them all. It's an unforgivable talent. A talent that will make young Michael a hot commodity with the wrong people and, whether he likes it or not, push him ever close to a life of crime. Until he finally sees his chance to escape, and with one desperate gamble risks everything to come back home to the only person he ever loved, and to unlock the secret that has kept him silent for so long.

Avast! How about a thriller at sea? With pirates? Diana Renn really enjoyed the newly-released YA thriller by Nick Lake, HOSTAGE THREE. "I'm always looking for good YA fiction set in different countries. This unusual thriller takes us off the coast of Somalia, where a yacht is taken over by pirates. This is a character-driven thriller that will get you shifting your perspectives and redrawing your lines of allegiance, over and over again."

 Here's the official summary:

The last thing Amy planned to do this summer was sail around the world trapped on a yacht with her father and her stepmother. Really, all she wanted was to fast-forward to October when she’ll turn
eighteen and take control of her own life. Aboard the Daisy May, Amy spends time sunbathing, dolphin watching and forgetting the past as everything floats by . . . until one day in the Gulf of Aden another boat appears. A boat with guns and pirates – the kind that kill.

Immediately, the pirates seize the boat and its human cargo. Hostage One is Amy’s father – the most valuable. Hostage Two: her stepmother. And Hostage Three is Amy, who can’t believe what’s happening. As the ransom brokering plays out, Amy finds herself becoming less afraid, and even
stranger still, drawn to one of her captors, a teenage boy who wants desperately to be more than who he has become. Suddenly it becomes brutally clear that the price of life and its value are two very different things . .