Scarlet and Ivy 3 – The Dance in the Dark

Sophie Cleverly's The Dance in the Dark is the third Scarlet and Ivy mystery, a ballet and boarding school story for 10 year olds with something creeping around Rookwood at night.

What happens

If your reader is new to the twins, start with The Lost Twin. So much of this one rests on the first two books that reading it first would spoil them both.

It's spring term, and for once Rookwood is calm. Kind Mrs Knight is in charge, nobody has been caned and the twins are, frankly, a bit bored.

Then comes the big announcement. The ballet class will dance Sleeping Beauty at a real theatre in town, and Scarlet badly wants the part of Aurora. The trouble is she's out of practice, and her old enemy Penny knows it.

So Scarlet sneaks off for secret extra lessons with Miss Finch, who teaches ballet, and won't tell Ivy where she's been. Ivy has secrets of her own. Penny is picking on her when nobody's looking, and she doesn't want Scarlet getting into trouble over it.

And strange things are happening. A stuffed Chihuahua has gone missing from an empty office. Someone has been leaving treats for a horse in the stables. And late at night Ivy hears clacking heels and jangling keys outside the door, a sound she hoped she'd never hear again.

The story is told by both twins in turn, which is a real treat. Scarlet is bossy, funny and a bit of a show-off (she tells Penny that Queen Victoria will rise from the grave to dance the Sugar Plum Fairy before Penny beats her). Ivy is thoughtful and anxious. Watching them keep secrets from each other is half the fun.

There's also a thread about their mother. Ivy keeps dreaming of a woman on a hill who won't turn round, and the twins still don't know who she really was.

It's worth knowing that Penny's bullying gets physical, with a shove into the sinks and Ivy pinned against a wall. There are also passing mentions of some very dark goings-on from the earlier books. A reader who has come this far with the twins will take it in their stride.

What to read next

Murder Most Unladylike is a great one to try next if they love a boarding school full of secrets and girls who decide to investigate. Hazel and Daisy run a secret detective society at their school, and it's Hazel who finds a teacher's body in the gym.