hey all!  i am new to pbs and love it.  i have a 14 y/o boy with an insatiable appetite for books.  any ideas for mysteries/thrillers that are challenging to read but not full of smut?

You could try him on C.J.Box's books.  They all take place in Wyoming with a game warden as the main character.  Some violence and language but pretty smut free. The first book is "Open Season".  Craig Johnson's Sheriff Walt Longmire series (also set in Wyoming) would be good too.  As a fourteen year old, I read anything and everything that I could get my hands on.  I'm sure your 14 y/o will enjoy these.

I really like the CJ Box books...but I do remember a there being a fairly graphic sex scene in the first book...can't remember it exactly--just that it kind of startled me and seemed a little out of place.  But--the books definitely aren't full of scenes like that.

Another author that I really like--and I think would be appropriate (don't remember any smut) is Tony Hillerman.

You might want to try James Patterson's Maximum Ride Series.

Robert Muchamore's Cherub series.

Laura, I don't remember that about the first C.J. Box book at all!! Of course, I read it more than 10 years ago so I guess that makes sense!  I don't recall a lot of sex in any of the other books.

LeeAnne--The only reason I recall it is that the scene really seemed out of place and gratuitous to me...It certainly wasn't necessary to the plot.  I'm really enjoying the C.J. Box Joe Pickett series--I've read all but the last two.  I grew up on a cattle ranch in southern Montana so reading this series always brings back some memories for me.

I have met C.J. Box on a number of occasions and he has said that he meant to write one book.  He saw "Open Season" as a single, stand alone book when he wrote it.  Maybe that's why that books reads a bit differently than the rest of the series.  Who knows?!  I enjoy his books so I guess that's what counts.  I live about 100 miles south of the Wyoming/Colorado border so his settings are very familiar to me. :)

You might have him try the classic mysteries such as Agatha Christie and Rex Stout.  They are certainly clean, but he has to realise that they are set in a different time period.  Also, Dick Francis books are more contemporary and are clean. 

The Cat Who books have no sex scenes, but they're not real challenging.  They are fun fast reads, though, so he might like them.  My friend calls them bubblegum for the mind.  The Joan Hess books about Maggody are very funny and I don't believe they have sex scenes. 

They aren't mysteries, but the Louis L'Amour westerns are excellent books.  They aren't the bang bang shoot-em-up the bad guys are dead we can go home type of westerns.  They are just great stories.  He also wrote some mysteries, but they aren't up to the same quality as his westerns.  The Sackett series would be good for starters. 

Has he tried any science fiction?  Andre Norton's books are clean and he might enjoy such books as Beastmaster and Lord of Thunder; Daybreak 2250 A. D. and No Night Without Stars, or The Stars are Ours and Star Born.