Murder Most Unladylike 5 – Mistletoe and Murder

Robin Stevens's Mistletoe and Murder is a Christmas mystery for 11 year olds about two schoolgirl detectives let loose in Cambridge.

What happens

Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong have already solved four murders between them. This time they're spending the holidays in Cambridge, where Daisy's brother Bertie is a student. The girls are meant to have a grown-up with them at all times. Bertie fixes it so they don't (and they're thrilled).

It doesn't take long to smell trouble. Bertie's friends include the Melling twins, who turn twenty-one on Christmas Day. Donald is five minutes older, so he gets the family fortune. Chummy gets nothing. And Donald keeps having very odd "accidents", like a chunk of stone crashing down on him while the boys are secretly climbing a college building at night.

There's a fun twist on the usual set-up, too. Hazel's friend Alexander and his pal George run their own detective society, and the two teams bet on who'll crack the case first. Daisy is VERY competitive about it.

Hazel tells the story, and she's such good company. She notices everything, worries about everything and adores Daisy, even when Daisy is being impossible. The old-fashioned Cambridge is gorgeous as well, with tea rooms, sticky Chelsea buns, carol singers and bicycles everywhere.

Hazel's feelings are a big part of it. She's nervous about seeing Alexander again, and a bit jealous when he tells Daisy she looks pretty. She's honest about how people in England stare at her because she's from Hong Kong, and about how it feels to meet George and his brother, who know exactly what that's like. It's handled with a light touch.

With murder in the title, you can guess where things are heading, and the rooftop climbing stories are quite hair-raising. But for a reader who likes to puzzle things out alongside the detectives, there's nothing cosier.

What to read next

This is a later case, and the girls mention earlier adventures along the way. It works fine on its own. If you'd rather start at the beginning, though, Murder Most Unladylike is where Daisy and Hazel first set up their Detective Society at boarding school.