Read Scarlet and Ivy 6 – The Last Secret free for 7 days. £7.99/month after - less than a paperback.
Sophie Cleverly's The Last Secret is the sixth and last Scarlet and Ivy mystery for 10 year olds, opening with a message from the twins' mother hidden inside a music box.
Scarlet and Ivy are twins who never knew their mother. Their father is distant, their stepmother can't stand them, and home is not a cosy place. So when Father suddenly invites them back for Christmas, it feels very odd.
He's strange all holiday. Forgetful. Pale. Coughing. But he does give them something wonderful. It's a box of their mother's things, with their parents' wedding photograph and a little wooden music box with a ballerina that spins to Swan Lake.
Scarlet notices a tiny click in the tune. Press at exactly the right moment and a secret drawer shoots out. Inside are pages in a code they've seen before, and a note from their mother that sends a shiver down your spine.
Back at Rookwood School, their clever friend Ariadne sets about decoding it. Then a smartly dressed young man strolls into assembly, leans against the wall and announces that he's the new owner of the school. And he wants to close it.
It's told in turns by Ivy and Scarlet, chapter by chapter, and that's a big part of the fun. Ivy is careful and worries. Scarlet slams her fist on a desk and shouts "Everyone shut up!" at a noisy Latin class. You feel how close they are, and how differently they see things.
It has everything a school mystery fan wants. Late-night meetings by candlelight, a code to crack, Ariadne's spiky new roommate (who used to pretend to be a witch), and a school that's cold and creaky but somehow still home.
This is the last book, and it's built on everything the twins have found out so far. Your reader will get far more out of it if they start with The Lost Twin and read the series in order.
If they love it and want another school full of secrets, try Murder Most Unladylike. Hazel and Daisy set up a secret detective society at their boarding school and then find they have a real body to investigate.
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