With her unflappable governess, Miss Ada Judson, by her side, Myrtle takes it upon herself to prove Miss Wodehouse was murdered and find the killer, even if nobody else believes he -not even her father, the town prosecutor. When her next-door neighbor, a wealthy spinster and eccentric breeder of rare flowers, dies under Mysterious Circumstances, Myrtle seizes her chance.

Armed with her father’s law books and her mum’s microscope, Myrtle studies toxicology, keeps abreast of the latest developments in crime scene analysis, and Observes her neighbors in the quiet village of Swinburne, England. Twelve-year-old Myrtle Hardcastle has a passion for justice and a Highly Unconventional obsession with criminal science. Introducing Myrtle Hardcastle, your favorite new amateur detective: a wickedly smart twelve-year-old with a keen interest in criminology and a nose for murder in Victorian England. (historical note) (Historical mystery.A 2021 Edgar® Award Winner, Best JuvenileĪ BookPage Best Book of 2020: Middle Grade Clues abound, giving astute readers the chance to solve the mystery along with Myrtle.Īnother excellent whodunit with a charming, snarky sleuth. Comical footnotes pepper the text, adding wit to prose which is already dryly funny. Can they unravel the killer’s motives while Swinburne’s worthies are all implicated? What if Caroline’s and Myrtle’s parents are guilty? And why won’t Miss Judson and Myrtle’s father just kiss, already? Classical allusions and a secret society accentuate the Victorian feel, but Myrtle explains the history as much as she explains 19th-century engineering, so readers should only be puzzled by the mystery itself.

Blakeney, who still calls Myrtle by the nickname “Stephen” and Indian British Caroline, whose father was Myrtle’s Mum’s college friend and who is also connected to the killings. Myrtle, a White 12-year-old, has excellent detecting assistants: her French Guianese governess, Miss Judson, who is almost more dedicated to Investigating than Myrtle White Mr. Of course, Myrtle would be determined to solve the crimes under any circumstances, but these serial killings seem to have some connection to her dead Mum. This time around, the murderer signs the elaborate executions by rearranging The Display: each death scene meticulously created in the scale model of the village set up each year for Christmas. It’s convenient that the Swinburne Village’s murderers are every bit as over-the-top and elaborate as Myrtle is dedicated to Investigating. Morbid Myrtle to the rescue once more, solving murders in her Victorian English village.

Myrtle hardcastle