Murder Most Unladylike

Robin Stevens' Murder Most Unladylike is a boarding-school whodunnit for 11 year olds that starts with a body in the Gym and nobody willing to believe it's there.

What happens

Hazel Wong has come all the way from Hong Kong to Deepdean School for Girls. Her best friend is Daisy Wells, golden-haired, sporty and much cleverer than she lets anyone see. Together they run a secret Detective Society. Daisy is Sherlock Holmes, obviously, and Hazel is Watson.

So far their cases have been things like who pinched a classmate's tie. Then one evening Hazel runs back to the Gym for her pullover and finds Miss Bell, who teaches them Science, on the floor under the balcony. Dead.

By the time she's dragged a prefect back to see, there's nothing there. Hazel gets sent to bed with no dinner for telling lies. The next morning everyone hears that Miss Bell has resigned. Who could have written that letter? It has to be one of the teachers, Daisy decides. Which one?

It's all written as Hazel's casebook, so you get her worries right alongside the clues. She's jumpy and she knows it. Daisy thinks a real murder is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to them. Their friendship is the heart of it (bossy, loyal and very funny).

There's quite a lot to flag for this shelf. Hazel touches the blood before she runs. The school's ghost stories include a girl who killed herself by jumping from that same balcony, and the girls talk about it openly. Hazel also gets hurtful comments about being Chinese, and Matron cuffs both girls round the head. If your reader is sensitive to any of that, have a look first. If they love a proper puzzle, they'll be glued to it.

If you've got a reader who likes making their own suspect list, this is perfect. Daisy draws one up in the airing cupboard after lights out, and every name on it is a teacher!

What to read next

For more secrets at a girls' boarding school, try The Lost Twin. Ivy is sent to Rookwood School to take the place of her twin sister Scarlet, and she's got a lot of questions about what happened to her there.