Authors

Now, let us look at a few well known and best selling authors within the genre!

Karen M. McManus

The following is an excerpt from the author’s About page on her website: “Karen M. McManus is a #1 New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling thriller author. Her work includes the One of Us Is Lying series, which was turned into a television show, as well as the standalone young adult novels Two Can Keep a Secret, The Cousins, You’ll Be the Death of Me, Nothing More to Tell, and Such Charming Liars. Karen’s critically acclaimed, award-winning books have been translated into forty-two languages” (M. McManus, 2026).

Her most famous work is One of Us Is Lying (2017) which began her trek into YA murder mysteries. With currently 8 works under her belt and a new novel, Dying To Be Us, slated for a 2027 release, her place in the subgenre is one to take note of for sure… or is she lying?

Maureen Johnson

Taken from her website, Maureen Johnson has two biographies listed, the foremost telling that “Maureen Johnson is the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of several YA novels, including 13 Little Blue Envelopes, Suite Scarlett, The Name of the Star, and Truly Devious. She has also done collaborative works, such as Let It Snow with John Green and Lauren Myracle (now on Netflix), and several works in the Shadowhunter universe with Cassandra Clare. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Buzzfeed, and The Guardian, and she has also served as a scriptwriter for EA Games. She has an MFA in Writing from Columbia University and lives in New York City” as well as an amusingly labeled “A Shorter Bio” with the lone caption of “I write books” (Johnson, 2025).

She has a current total of 29 published novels, her claim in the YA murder mystery genre being Truly Devious published in 2018. More of her devious stories are sure to be in the works.

Holly Jackson

“Holly Jackson was born in 1992. She grew up in Buckinghamshire and started writing stories from a young age, completing her first (poor) attempt at a book aged fifteen.

‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder‘ is a YA Mystery Thriller and her debut novel. She lives in London and aside from reading and writing, she enjoys binge-playing video games and pointing out grammatical errors in street signs” (Goodreads).

She has 7 published works, with a total of 4 books within her A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series, the first book being published in 2019, as well as standalone novels. What other “guides” may she write in the future?

Barry Lyga

On his website, Barry Lyga describes himself as a “Novelist, short story writer,” and “Recovering comic book geek”. His biography discusses his writing journey from comic book industry worker to writer in 2006.

“His most popular series is I Hunt Killers, called by the LA Times ‘one of the more daring concepts in recent years by a young-adult author’ and an ‘extreme and utterly alluring narrative about nature versus nurture.’ The first book landed on both the New York Times and USAToday bestsellers lists” (Lyga, 2026). Said first book, I Hunt Killers, was published in 2012.

He has also written within the comic book space with six books of The Flash based on DC Comics and the CW TV show of the name name. You would think someone would tell him to slow down after 31 novels to his name, but you may think twice on that… he may hunt you too.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes

“Jennifer Lynn Barnes (who mostly goes by Jen) is the author of more than a dozen critically acclaimed young adult novels. She has advanced degrees in psychology, psychiatry, and cognitive science, including graduate degrees from Cambridge University, where she was a Fulbright Scholar, and Yale University, where she received her Ph.D. in 2012. Jen wrote her first published novel when she was nineteen-years-old and sold her first five books while still in college. In additional to writing YA novels, Jen has also written original pilot scripts for television networks like USA and MTV, and she is one of the world’s leading experts on the psychology of fandom and the cognitive science of fiction and the imagination more broadly. Jen is an Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma, where she holds a dual appointment in Psychology and Professional Writing” (Lyne Barnes, 2026).

Known most prominently for her novel and series by the same name, The Naturals, Jennifer Lynn Barnes is currently in all three top YA Murder Mystery Novels on Goodreads, with the first of The Naturals series being first published in 2013. With an impressive stock of 23 published novels and work with television scripts, Lynn Barnes seems to indeed be a natural.