13 Potential Heirs To The Veronica Mars Throne

Hey there marshmallows: Veronica Mars might be all grown up now, but there are several new YA detectives on the scene. Here are some of our faves, in no particular order.

1. Mickey Bolitar (Mickey Bolitar series by Harlan Coben)

Who's the sleuth? High school basketball star Mickey Bolitar, nephew of famous sports-agent-turned-crime-solver Myron Bolitar. His dad has died, his mom is in rehab, and he's the new kid at school, but at least he has his girlfriend, Ashley.

What's the mystery? Ashley has disappeared, and Mickey is determined to figure out what happened to her.

2. Jasper Dent (I Hunt Killers series by Barry Lyga)

Who's the sleuth? Jasper "Jazz" Dent, the charming, athletic, smart son of infamous serial killer.

What's the mystery? When murders start piling up with his dad's MO, the police try to keep Jazz away from the case--but Billy's teachings in murder and manipulation make Jazz the perfect detective to discover who the copycat killer is.

3. Rory Deveaux (Shades of London series by Maureen Johnson)

Who's the sleuth? Louisiana-born Rory Deveaux, a smart Southern girl who's a fish out of water at her new London boarding school.

What's the mystery? As if starting a new school isn't hard enough, London is in the grip of "Rippermania" due to several recent brutal murders fitting Jack the Ripper's MO. After a brush with death, Rory discovers that she can now see ghosts, and she may just have caught a glimpse of the killer. Now she has to find him--before he finds her.

4. Torey Adams (The Body of Christopher Creed duet by Carol Plum-Ucci)

Who's the sleuth? Torey Adams, a popular high school musician.

What's the mystery? After Christopher Creed goes missing, Torey is the only person worried about him; the rest of the town is plagued by apathy so pervasive, it’s downright creepy. Torey becomes obsessed with uncovering the mystery behind Chris’s unhappy life, family, and disappearance.

5. Becca King (The Edge of series by Elizabeth George)

Who's the sleuth? Becca King has always been a little different from her peers. Ever since she can remember, she’s been able to hear “whispers”—the thoughts of others.

What's the mystery?: In danger after accidentally overhearing whispers that shed light on her stepfather’s criminal activities. Becca begins to create a new home for herself on Whidbey Island, but the farther she tries to run from her past, the more the mysteries surrounding her past and present grow.

6. Cammie Morgan (Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter)

Who's the sleuth? Cammie Morgan, an average student at a run-of-the-mill boarding school. Nothing at all special about her.

What's the mystery? Okay, okay, we confess: Cammie isn't average, and her school is far from ordinary. She's a student at the prestigious Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, which is most definitely (don’t tell anyone) a school for spies. But Cammie (code name: the Chameleon) and her fellow spooks find themselves investigating many mysteries over the course of their six-book series, so we definitely think they qualify.

7. Nearly Boswell (Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano)

Who's the sleuth? Nearly Boswell is something of an outsider--she lives in a trailer park, her mom is an exotic dancer, she's obsessed with personal ads, and she can taste the emotions of others when she touches their skin. She's also a math and science whiz, which turns out to be even more useful than your high school algebra teacher claimed.

What's the mystery? When a serial murderer goes on a killing spree, Nearly is the only one who can stop him—by deciphering the cryptic codes he leaves behind—putting all her secrets in danger in the process.

8. Nora Kane (The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman)

Who's the sleuth? Nora Kane is a smart teenager whose life revolves around her two best friends and her one true love, Max.

What's the mystery? When her friend Chris is murdered, Nora is desperate to prove that Max is not his killer, which takes her all the way to Prague. While she's there, she happens to uncover the mysteries of a legendary manuscript--ones that the secret society Lumen Dei would kill for. A proficiency in Latin has to be good for something, right?

9. Tory Brennan (Virals series by Kathy Reichs and Brendan Reichs)

Who's the sleuth? Tory Brennan is the grand-niece of Temperance Brennan, a.k.a. Bones. (Yes, that Bones.) Just like her great-aunt, Tory has a group of friends with very special talents.

What's the mystery? After they’re accidentally exposed to a rare, experimental strain of canine parvovirus, Tory and the Virals develop super-heightened wolf-like abilities, and they use them to solve a series of crimes in and around Charleston, South Carolina. In Exposure, the newest book in the series, the Virals investigate the disappearance of twin classmates, but as their powers grow wilder, their pack bonds start to weaken, and it becomes harder and harder to protect their secret.

10. Maggie Silver (Also Known As series by Robin Benway)

Who's the sleuth? Maggie’s got the right idea—avoid high school as much as possible by traveling the world with your crime-solving parents. It’s working for her. She gets to see the world, learn how to crack safes, and she’s even getting her first solo assignment, in New York City!

What's the mystery? When Maggie finds out her new assignment requires her to go to private high school, things start to get a little bit more complicated. And the fact that her mark is a very cute teenage boy makes it all the harder. Maggie keeps on cracking (safes, that is) in Going Rogue, just out in January.

11. Quentin Jacobsen (Paper Towns by John Green)

Who's the sleuth? Quentin's a funny, observant teen boy with a handful of good friends and a raging crush on Margo Roth Spiegelman, the popular, elusive girl next door.

What's the mystery?Q has always loved Margo—but she’s always been a puzzle to him, too. When Margo suddenly vanishes, it’s up to Q to follow the clues she’s left behind.

12. Becca Williams (Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield)

Who's the sleuth? Over-achiever Becca, a high school salutatorian and an aspiring lawyer with big-city dreams, who has just been dumped by her too-smooth slacker boyfriend, James.

What's the mystery? The discovery of an unidentified dead girl on the side of a dirt road sends the town into a tailspin, and the seemingly senseless violence deeply affects Becca. She's a reluctant detective, but as the tense, hot summer marches on, she begins to get pulled into the whirlpool surrounding the mysterious death of Amelia Anne Richardson, and question everything she thought she knew about life in her little town.

13. Lauren Woodman (17 and Gone by Nova Ren Suma)

Who's the sleuth? Seventeen-year-old Lauren is a normal high school girl--well behaved, quiet, and in love with her boyfriend, Jamie.

What's the mystery? When a girl named Abigail Sinclair goes missing from a nearby town, Lauren becomes inexplicably obsessed with her disappearance. Then she begins to have visions of other girls, all seventeen, all gone without a trace. Through Lauren’s search for clues, things begin to unravel, and when a brush with death lands Lauren in the hospital, a shocking truth changes everything.