Elementary       

Unquiet Graves
Allan Frewin Jones, retold by Margaret Tarner

A second ghost/mystery story for this list, by this popular and prolific writer of teenage fiction, featuring the four friends – Frankie, Regan, Tom and Jack.
During their school holidays, the teenagers join an archaeological dig in southeast England. Their teacher and the archaeologist in charge give them some facts about the historical background to the site and the Glanville family who had once lived there. When Frankie and Jack accidentally fall into the Glanville family’s vault in the local graveyard, Frankie finds an old silver coin clipped in half. Shortly after her return to the graveyard, she meets an angry young man dressed in dark clothes.
As Regan, Tom and Jack start to piece together the sad tale of Eleanor, the ward of the ruthless nineteenth century owner of the manor house and the local village, the friends begin to get seriously worried about Frankie’s increasingly disturbed behaviour.

The Seventh Scroll
Wilbur Smith, retold by Stephen Colbourn

This romantic thriller, which is set in modern times, follows on from the adventure described in River God.
The account of the exile journey of Lostris, a Queen of Ancient Egypt, and the location of her husband’s tomb was recorded by the scribe, Taita, onto a set of papyrus scrolls.Now Duraid and Royan Al-Simma – respected Egyptologists and married to each other – have found the scrolls and begin to plan an expedition to search for the tomb of Pharaoh Mamose.
But Duraid is murdered and Royan, running from the murderers who stole her translations, enlists the help of an adventurer – Nicholas Quenton-Harper. Together they travel to the source of the Nile, to the mountains in the Horn of Africa, to search for Mamose’s hidden tomb which was built by Taita thousands of years ago.

Recommended for older readers. See also, River God,  The Eye of the Tiger and The Diamond Hunters, by the same author.

The Jewel That Was Ours
Colin Dexter, retold by Anne Collins

The second book to be included in this series from Colin Dexter, prize-winning writer of British detective fiction. His Inspector Morse novels have been made into hugely successful TV films that have been shown around the world.
Sergeant Lewis assists Inspector Morse to find the connections between a stolen medieval artefact, the sudden death of an American tourist and the murder of a philandering Oxford academic. As usual, there seems to be a host of suspects, motives and clues for Oxford’s finest detective intellect to sort through.

Recommended for older readers. See also, The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn at Intermediate Level.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Stephen King, retold by John Escott

A chilling tale from one of America’s pre-eminent thriller writers.
A nine-year-old girl gets lost while on a walking trip with her mother and brother on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.
Of the few items and scant supplies of food and drink that Trisha has with her, her radio is the most precious. As the passing days and nights render the little girl weaker and ever more vulnerable, she listens to the games played by her beloved Boston Red Sox baseball team, and prays that someone will find her and save her from the terror that stalks her in the woods.

River God
Wilbur Smith, retold by Stephen Colbourn

A retold version of Wilbur Smith’s romantic adventure set in Ancient Egypt.

Taita is an intelligent, cultured and loyal teacher, architect, healer and mystic. He is the storyteller in this novel. He is also a slave – owned by Intef, the cruel and greedy Governor of Upper Egypt. In Taita’s charge is the beautiful and wilful Lady Lostris, daughter of Lord Intef. Intef has plans to wed his daughter to Pharaoh Mamose, an old and weak-willed king. But Lostris is in love with Tanus, a handsome, ambitious and charismatic commander in the Pharaoh’s navy.
When Egypt is at its weakest – divided into two kingdoms by opposing rulers – the land is invaded by a superior military force from the west, the Hyksos. Pharaoh Mamose’s army is heavily defeated, he is killed, and the royal family flee south along the River Nile. Keeping the secret of the passionate love between Tanus and Queen Lostris, Taita faithfully serves his mistress during the long exile of the royal household deep in the mountains below the southern borders of Egypt. And he is part of the triumphant return when Lostris’s son is enthroned as Pharaoh Tamose.

Recommended for older readers. See also, The Seventh Scroll, The Eye of the Tiger and The Diamond Hunters, by the same author.

B is for Burglar
Sue Grafton, retold by John Escott

A retelling of another gripping alphabet murder mystery by Sue Grafton, one of the most popular and successful American novelists writing today.
Kinsey Millhone – the twice divorced, 32-year-old, junk food-eating private detective starts another case whose clues twist and turn as many times as she has to travel to and from Boca Raton, Florida and her home town of Santa Teresa, California.
Kinsey’s search for a missing sister who is due to inherit some money, somehow seems to be tangled up with break-ins in the woman’s apartments and a neighbour’s violent and suspicious death.

Recommended for older readers. See also, A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton.