Book Review – Murder Most Unladylike

Hello hello and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. Today I’m sharing with you my review of Murder Most Unladylike, a middle grade murder mystery that is perfect for children and adults alike.

Synopsis
1934. When Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong set up a secret detective agency at Deepdean School for Girls, they struggle to find a truly exciting mystery to investigate. (Unless you count the case of Lavinia’s missing tie. Which they don’t.)

But then Hazel discovers the body of the Science Mistress, Miss Bell – but when she and Daisy return five minutes later, the body has disappeared. Now the girls have to solve a murder, and prove a murder has happened in the first place before the killer strikes again (and before the police can get there first, naturally).

But will they succeed?

And can their friendship stand the test?

Review
Recently I shared my review of Mistletoe and Murder, the Christmas mystery from the series. As I mentioned in my review then, one of the things that works so well with these is the fact that you can read them reasonably independantly with minimal spoilers. Of course you’re always going to gather little bits of the future if you read books further down the series before, but it’s amazing how well the books have been written to read them solo.

Jumping back to book number one, and we are introduced to the foundations of Hazel and Daisy as friends, and to the origins of the Detective Society they form. The two girls are very different, and it’s interesting to observe them starting out as friends, school girls, and detectives.

Working together, and working out how the pieces of the puzzle they’re presented with fit together, is harder than they first anticipated, and it had me smiling throughout so much of it, as they bounce off one another, especially when Hazel knows she is right, and digs her heels in, much to Daisy’s annoyance. These moments are especially fun to see looking back on them from further down the storyline. With a character as stubborn and forceful as Daisy, it’s good to see her challenged, but also realistic in seeing just how often that happens and how effective it is.

The mystery itself was superb, and despite having read this book a couple of years ago, I had completely forgotten all the twists and turns that were coming. It was just like reading it for the first time again, and I loved discovering this story and the characters all over again. I’m going to work my way through all the books now, and I’m so excited for this series to play a major role for me in 2022.

Thanks for stopping by today. Be sure to keep an eye out for future posts about this series, because this will not be the last time you hear about it!