Books featuring teenage spies were always among my favorites when I was a teen myself. I loved the idea of someone my age delving into a profession (let’s call it that) that was restricted to adults as well as highly dangerous. It’s one of the best kinds of literary escapism that doesn’t require magic or dragons or a dashing hero (though there are certainly some great spy novels that do include those things). A spy was something I could actually become! Why yes, I did read Harriet the Spy as a child and then follow members of my family around the house taking notes in a tiny notebook.

2016 is shaping up to be a great year for teenage spies. Here’s a roundup of eleven titles being published this year, plus one for early 2017. I expect there will be more to add as pre-publication information and catalogs for the fall season start making their way to us. Which ones are you looking forward to?

Descriptions are via Worldcat unless indicated otherwise.

Zero Day by Jan Gangsei (January 12)

Eight years after being kidnapped Addie Webster, now sixteen, resurfaces under mysterious circumstances, significantly changed, and her childhood best friend, Darrow Fergusson, is asked by a national security advisor to spy on her to uncover whether she is a threat to her father’s Presidency or the nation.

Assassin’s Masque by Sarah Zettel (January 12)

In 1716 England, with the Jacobite uprising stalking ever closer to the throne, it’s imperative that seventeen-year-old Peggy discover whom she can really trust. Can she save herself and the royal family, or is she doomed as a pawn in this most deadly game?

Desert Dark by Sonja Stone (January 30)

At Desert Mountain Academy, sixteen-year-old Nadia Riley begins a punishing routine to become an undercover CIA agent, but when a double-agent is reported on campus, she is the top suspect.

Dawn of Spies by Andrew Lane (March 29)

Rescued from a deserted Caribbean island, 17-year-old Robinson Crusoe and his female friend, Friday, find themselves in late 1600s London, a bustling city that proves as treacherous for them to navigate as the remote island they just left behind. Thanks to their honed survival skills, Crusoe and Friday are recruited by a young writer named Daniel Defoe to work as agents for Segment W, a covert spy group that reports directly to the Crown. Crusoe, Friday, and Defoe must rescue the Countess of Lichfield from a kidnapping plot. They are shocked to discover that a mystical and mysterious organization known as the Circle of Thirteen is behind the kidnapping. – Goodreads

Crossing the Line by Meghan Rogers (April 12)

Jocelyn Steely was kidnapped as a child and trained as a North Korean spy, but the tables turn when she becomes a double agent for the very American spy organization she has been sent to destroy.

Love, Lies and Spies by Cindy Anstey (April 19)

In the early 1800s, when her father sends her to London for a season, eighteen-year-old Juliana Telford, who prefers researching ladybugs to marriage, meets handsome Spencer Northam, a spy posing as a young gentleman of leisure.

Exile for Dreamers by Kathleen Baldwin (May 24)

Tess Aubreyson is being haunted by prophetic dreams of death and grief. She discovers that her dreams can help Lord Ravencross, the man she loves, and her fellow students at Stranje House. Which is good, because the traitorous Lady Daneska and the Ghost have returned to England to help make way for Napoleon’s invasion, and the young ladies at Stranje House might be the only ones who can save England from a power-mad dictator.

City of Spies by Nina Berry (May 31)

Celebrating her escape from East Germany and the success of her new film, teen starlet Pagan Jones returns to Hollywood to reclaim her place among the rich and the famous. She’s thrilled to be back, but memories of her time in Berlin–and elusively handsome secret agent Devin Black–continue to haunt her daydreams. The whirlwind of parties and celebrities just isn’t enough to distract Pagan from the excitement of being a spy or dampen her curiosity about her late mother’s mysterious past. When Devin reappears with an opportunity for Pagan to get back into the spy game, she is eager to embrace the role once again–all she has to do is identify a potential Nazi war criminal.

Lies I Live By by Lauren Sabel (May 31)

Callie Sinclair is seventeen years old, lives in San Francisco, and works for a secret governmental agency as a psychic spy.

Julia Vanishes by Catherine Egan (June 7)

Julia has the unusual ability to be . . . unseen. Not invisible, exactly. Just beyond most people’s senses.
It’s a dangerous trait in a city that has banned all forms of magic and drowns witches in public Cleansings. But it’s a useful trait for a thief and a spy. And Julia has learned–crime pays.
Her latest job is paying very well indeed. Julia is posing as a housemaid in the grand house of Mrs. Och, where an odd assortment of characters live and work: A disgraced professor who sends her to fetch parcels containing bullets, spiders, and poison. An aristocratic houseguest who is locked in the basement each night. And a mysterious young woman who is clearly in hiding–though from what or whom?
Worse, Julia suspects that there’s a connection between these people and the killer leaving a trail of bodies across the frozen city. – Goodreads

The Darkest Hour by Caroline Tung Richmond (July 26)

In 1943 sixteen-year-old Lucie Blaise is the newest recruit of Covert Ops, a secret espionage and sabotage organization of girls, and her mission in German occupied France is to track down information about a weapon that could wipe out all of Western Europe–and then dismantle it before it can be used.

You Don’t Know My Name by Kristen Orlando (January 10, 2017)

Sixteen-year-old Reagan, raised to be an elite spy, is torn between honoring her family’s legacy and living a normal life with the boy she loves.