Everyone knows American Girl, but in a brief space in the early 2000s, they branched out to two other series. The History Mysteries series is aimed more for older lower-schoolers and middle schoolers with slightly darker themes like racism, discrimination, and murder. Of course, mysteries are at their core too. These were my favorites as they kept me at the edge of my seat and here are some of my favorites.

1. Riddle of the Prarie Bride: This one gets number one spot for nostalgia reasons. It was the second one I read but I reread it the most because of how exciting it was. It’s the prarie years and Ida Kate’s papa has a mail-order bride coming in the East to help at the homestead and be a mother figure for Ida Kate. She’s excited for a maternal figure and while the bride is nice, things aren’t adding up from the letters she had sent. And slowly, Ida Kate realizes it’s an imposter! So who is this woman? What does she want and what happened to the real one? It’s a thrilling turn as Ida Kate tries to figure out this secret inside her home plus it has its ties into Civil War in a way that one doesn’t think about.
2. Gangsters at Grand Atlantic: I’ve said this before, but I love the 20s! And this is epitome of what I imagine the 20s with gangsters and flappers abound in the Jersey Shore where Emily and her sister are staying for vacation because their apartment is being threatened by gangsters who want money for their “protection.” The problem is Emily witnessed this interaction and she worries that the same mob boss has followed her all the way to the Grand Atlantic Hotel. A fun tale involving Prohibition and the pressure to get money to fit in with the decadent lifestyle of the party era.
3. Mystery at Chilkoot Pass: I enjoyed this one because it is set during the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska where hetty and her family are hoping for a second chance and a chance for gold. However, their meager belongings are disappearing, threatening their chances for making it to Canadian border. She has a number of suspects, but the one that hurts most of all is her gambling, careless uncle and whether she should turn him in?
4. The Strange Case of Baby H: Clara’s still dealing with the death of her older brother. A death that has shattered her family physically in her father’s case and emotionally. But all that fades in the background when the San Francisco Earthquake hits them. Their home and borders are scrambling to find shelter, heat and protection from the looters. And then someone leaves a baby at the doorstep? Clara’s mother quickly becomes attached but Clara is suspicious of where the baby has come from, why he was left there and if the looters are not after their few jewels but the baby himself?! It’s a twisty story filled with fast-paced action as the erathquake brings out the best and worst in strangers and forces Clara to confront her fears.
5. Trouble at Fort La Pointe: Suzette’s family are heading to Fort La Pointe for the summer season and she couldn’t be more thrilled. She’s Metis and as part of the fur trading contract, her father is away from the family for most of the year. But the happy reunion is ruined when her father is framed for theft. So it’s up to Suzette to save her father from life-imprisonment within the space of four days. I enjoyed how it tackles the topic of feeling stuck between worlds and the discrimination that comes from anti-miscegenation feelings.
6. Circle of Fire: I think this may be the darkest book in the series as young Mendy faces off the Ku Klux Klan and their plans to assassinate the visiting Eleanor Roosevelt. It’s heartbreaking as Mendy realizes some of the people she thought she knew hate her just for the color of her skin and that her best friend, Toby is also becoming distant. It’s an intese book because of how real it is but also provides some hope that things will get better.
7. Enemy in the Fort: Rebecca used to think her biggest problem was keeping an eye out for her slightly-disabled sister while compleating all the household chores in time. But now a wealthy family wants to indenture her sister, splitting them apart forever. Worse, still is that a captured boy has returned. Rebecca doesn’t trust this “uncivilized savage” who shows more loyalty to the Native Americans than the colonists but she needs his help for news about her captured parents and baby sister. A good look into the
8. The Smuggler’s Letter: New Orleans is a fascinating place for its blend of cultures and it’s this book that made me have a slight obsession for the Lafiette siblings. Anyway, Elisabet has been sent to live with her relatives after her father was pressed into the British warships due to the War of 1812. She’s determined that the only chance she has to get money for a hostage negotiator is to find the treasure her dead uncle supposedly smuggled ten years before in the swamps. However, there’s someone else on the hunt for the treasure. So how do the Lafiette brothers play into this? Well, you got to read to find out. Plus Elisabet gets a nice rich girl learns to work for the first time inher life side-development.
9. The Ministrel’s Melody: Orphelia loves to sing but her mother forbids her from doing anything more than church hymns. So when she’s forbidden from seeing her idol, Madam Merrita, she stowsaway to the 1904 World’s Fair. On the road, she learns about the hard work required to be a performer, and the dark side of minstrel shows as well as the underlying secrets of her mother’s past.
10. Watcher in the Piney Woods: Cassie Willis wishes the Civil War would soon be over so her older brother may return home. She needs him now because she has spotted a deserter lurking near her home. Feral deserters can be dangerous especially if they’re Union. The author does a good job in building suspense and keeping the specific Appalachian dialect, hwoever I wish it did discuss more about the cause behind the Civil War.
11. Under Copp’s Hill: Innie is the wild child in her large Italian immigrant family and her nona hopes daily lessons at the Wednesday House will keep her under control. But Innie has a special reason for her wild ways, one she tries to deny. But she behaves for the most part, thrilled with the new library at the house and new friends despite language barrier. However, when pottery gets broken and books are stolen, Innie is the first culprit so she makes trouble to get out of trouble and clear her name. The mystery is a little trite but I enjoyed the message of girls from different backgrounds coming together to form lasting friendship and see their similarities.
12. Secrets on 26th Street: Susan’s family is taking in a new border but while Bea seems super fascinating and British but when her mother goes missing, Susan is the only one who seems to be concerned. While the answer seems obvious now, young readers will enjoy trying to figure it out as well as its message on first wave feminism and workers’ rights and its connections between the US and UK suffrage.
13. Mystery on Skull Island: Rachel’s life is changing in more ways than one. Her father has moved them to South Caroline, and brought a new wife, a young pretty woman called Miranda. It’s disconcerting but Rachel is willing to give her a chance. Until Miranda forbids her friendship with Sally because she’s the daughter of a tavern keeper. The girls make a plan to meet up at a secluded island, but their secret hideaway turns out to be a haven for pirates. Including Miranda’s father?! How will Rachel confront her step-mother and her plans to fleece her father? Just as with New Orleans, South Carolina seems to be just as fascinating in regards to its pirate lore.
14. Night Flyers: While everyone knows the anti-German hatred in WW2 but WW1 was just as fierce maybe even fiercer. That’s why Pam is so distrustful of the German stranger and his requests to buy her pigeons. When they start disappearing from her roost, she is determined to find out the truth behind the stranger and how he plans to ruin the war from the inside. Less exciting compared to the other adventures above but a fascinating history relating to pigeon’s roles in the war.
15. Ghost Light on Graveyard Shoal: Rhonda’s father takes his role as lighthouse keeper very seriously and Rhonda hopes to follow his footsteps by solving the mystery of the lights bobbing along shore at night. Is it a real life wrecker encouraging shipwrecks for the loot or is she facing off against a ghostly phantom? The supernatural element is a bit weak but entertaining nonetheless for the unique lore.
16. Mystery of the Dark Tower: It’s 1920s time again, but it’s less flappers but the more serious side of the era. When Bessie and her brother are sent to live with their aunts in New York, abandoning her mother in North Caroline, she worries that a divorce is immenient. Especially as her father disappear all night long and holes up in his room all day, working for some woman named A’Leila. While it may not be the 1920s most people know, it explores the heyday of the Harlem Renissance and the conflusion of the African American experiences from country sharecroppers to elite luminaries to Barbarados immigrants.
17. Whistler in the Dark: Emma Henderson isn’t thrilled when her mother has the crazy idea to pack up their lives to move to Colorado Territory to open up the town’s first newspaper. It’s enough that her mom embarasses her all the time with the ridiculous bloomers, why must she agitate for women’s rights and independence all the time? Especially as it only brings them hostile looks and danger in the new town. Someone doesn’t want a lady reporter and while Emma wants a more conventional mother, she’s not going to stand for it and comes to realize
18. Shadows in the Glass House: Unlike other people who travel to the New World in search for better life, Merry had no choice when she is kidnapped from the streets of England to indentured as a maid for a master glassblower. This puts Merry in a precarious position but she becomes fast friends with an Italian glassblower and pledges to help him when a rival threatens to kick him out of the colony. Details a little-known part of early American history with glassblowing and the competition for the elusive blue color.
19. Betrayal at Cross Creek: We all know about the Revolutionary War between the patriots and British but did you know the Scottish community was placed in the middle. They don’t want any part of it especially with helping the British that defeated them in Scotland. Elspeth wishes there was a way to keep the peace but as both sides continuously threaten her family and friends, she wonders if America was really the safe haven they were promised?
20. Voices at Whispers Bend: Charlotte’s class is working together to help the war effort with a scrap metal drive but when the scrap metal soon disappears from the premises, it’s clear that its inside sabotage. And Charlotte’s friends who are German-descent are being beaten up and accused. Soon accusations are flying everywhere at Italians, Germans and draft dogers, representing the paranoia of the era. The real culprit was a clever subversion yet kinda a letdown compared to the lead up though.
21. Danger at the Wild West Show: Rose Taylor loves her life as part of Bill Cody’s Wild West Show and hopes to join someday but money troubles threaten to close down. And then a prominant Senator is murdered in full view of the crowd and her brother is the main suspect! It’s all very exciting and has a good message about the broken promises and stereotyping of Native Americans but it felt a bit at odds with the action of the story.
22. Hoofbeats of Danger: It’s ironic to me, but this is the first book I read in the series. But while it got me hooked on the rest, it’s the shortest book in the whole and more aimed at those who loves horses than taking advantage of the larger historical background. In my opion, it makes this less interesting compared to all the others.