Review: Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens

When Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong set up their very own deadly secret detective agency at Deepdean School for Girls, they struggle to find any truly exciting mysteries to investigate. (Unless you count the case of Lavinia's missing tie. Which they don't, really.)

But then Hazel discovers the Science Mistress, Miss Bell, lying dead in the Gym. She thinks it must all have been a terrible accident - but when she and Daisy return five minutes later, the body has disappeared. Now the girls know a murder must have taken place . . . and there's more than one person at Deepdean with a motive.

The first books I can remember really falling in love with as a child were Enid Blyton's Famous Five and Five Find-Outers books, and so began a love of mystery stories. I progressed across the Atlantic to The Three Investigators series, but as I hit the age of 11 or 12 I returned to good old Blighty and Agatha Christie (you have to remember that in those days there was no such thing as YA). I never really gelled with Miss Marple, but I read every single Poirot story, most of them multiple times, and I still have favourites to this day. As far as I was aware at the time with my limited experience, nobody wrote mystery stories quite as well as the English.

Not long ago I was asked at school by a colleague if I knew of any great mystery stories for kids that had been published recently. My colleague's daughter had read all of the aforementioned Blyton stories and wanted to move onto something more contemporary, but still set in Britain. Only three sprang immediately to mind: Clementine Beauvais' Sesame Seade books, Lauren St John's Laura Marlin Mysteries and the Adventure Island series by Helen Moss. Not exactly a huge list given the vast number of children's books published these days. I am happy to say that there is now another to add to that list.

Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens is like Holmes and Watson, but set in a girls' boarding school in the 1930s, and with a soupçon of Jeeves and Wooster thrown in for good measure. Ok, it may not be a modern day setting like those others I have mentioned, but the writing is most definitely 21st Century. Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are both students at Deepdean School for Girls. Daisy in pretty much good at everything - she is the attractive, confident leader-type who breezes through life as one of the most popular girls in school. She forms an unlikely friendship with the timid and introspective Hazel Wong, and together they form the Wells & Wong Detective Society. Soon they find themselves embroiled in a murder mystery within the walls of their school, complete with a disappearing body and multiple suspects.

Robin Stevens has perfectly captured the feel of all of those classic mystery stories that I loved as a child, and wrapped it up in a story that will have great appeal to 9+ kids today. Her story is funny and clever, and her two heroines come across as a very realistic pairing. Although Daisy tends to domineer the less-confident Hazel, often ignoring her wise words of caution which occasionally puts both of the girls in danger, Hazel is certainly more than just a foil to Daisy, and their society could just as rightly be called Wong & Wells. Never having been a student in a girl's boarding school (either now or in the 1930s), I can't really attest to the realness of the setting, but somehow it just feels right. Naturally, being a 1930s boarding school the dialogue is littered with all kinds of boarding school slang (reminding me of the brilliant Molesworth books), but the author very helpfully includes a glossary at the end of the book to help out us mere modern day working class readers.

Murder Most Unladylike is the first in a series (I've no idea how many books are planned) and I've definitely been left wanting more. Although the book is set in a girls' boarding school, with nary a young male character in sight, I still think this book has great appeal to boys who like traditional, British-set mystery stories. 

Review: Shadow of the Wolf by Tim Hall

A world of gods and monsters. An elemental power, rising. This is Robin Hood, reborn, as he has never been seen before…

Robin Loxley is seven years old when his parents disappear without trace. Years later the great love of his life, Marian, is also taken from him. Driven by these mysteries, and this anguish, Robin follows a darkening path into the ancient heart of Sherwood Forest. What he encounters there will leave him transformed, and will alter forever the legend of Robin Hood.

I look back at the 1980s and there were so many TV shows that at the time I thought were brilliant. Some of them are still nostalgia-fuelled favourites, whilst others I now see as pretty dire. One of the former is Robin of Sherwood, which between 1984 and 1986 was essential viewing in our household (although not so much once Michael Praed's Robin died, and was resurrected as Jason Connery). Robin of Sherwood was everything the Middle Ages was (and everything Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves wasn't) - dirty, gritty, and laced with the pagan superstition and folklore that would have been a huge part of English culture in those days. It brought us the legend of Robin Hood in a way that no one had before, and as far as I am aware no one has since. Until now that is.

When I first read the publisher's blurb for Tim Hall's Shadow of the Wolf my interested was immediately piqued. It promised a completely new and original take on the Robin Hood legend and I couldn't wait to read it. However, for the first 200 pages or so I found myself feeling a little short changed. Other than the first chapter, which hints at an element of the supernatural, there was little that made it stand out from all that had come before it. Admittedly, it starts off at a much earlier point in Robin's life than most previous stories have, and Marian is a very different character to the way she has been portrayed by most in the past, but other than that there was little that could justify this so called different take. 

And then boom! About halfway in the unspeakable happens - Robin is completely and utterly defeated, his body brutalised in an horrendous manner, and he ends up broken and near dead in Sherwood Forest, a place that is as far as you can get from the cheerful, leafy glades of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. But just as it looks as if a premature end has come for our hero, nature and mythology intervene and all of a sudden we find ourselves in the middle of a revenge story that has more in common with Swamp Thing than it does with Kevin Costner's outing. All of a sudden the time spent reading those initial two hundred pages of character building and scene setting become worth every single minute spent on them, and as a reader I was gripped until the very final page, and even then I wanted more.

This is a challenging read that you need time to luxuriate in if you want to get the most out of it. It's not a book that is a light read for the beach as it craves for your full attention; it is atmospheric and rich in detail and if you give it the time and attention it deserves it will draw you in completely. It's not perfect: the first 200 pages could have been edited down a bit in my opinion, and after a while Marian's unpredictable and at times brattish temperament can become a little grating, but as far as epic YA fantasy goes it is certainly an excellent and welcome addition to the fold.

I believe Shadow of the Wolf is the first book in a trilogy, and I'm certainly keen to re-enter the dark and brutal world that Tim Hall has created for the legendary Robin and Marian. Shadow of the Wolf was published by the brilliant David Fickling Books at the beginning of July, in a hardcover edition with a stunning cover (one of my favourites of the year so far). My thanks go to the fab people at Riot Communications for my copy of the book.

Review: Haunt: Dead Scared by Curtis Jobling

When Will finds himself in hospital, but unable to make anyone see or hear him, he realises that he never made it home from his first kiss with the school hottie. Knocked off his bike in a road traffic accident, Will is now officially dead - and a ghost. But somehow his best mate, Dougie, can still see him, and, what is more, increasingly Will seems bound to Dougie, going only where Dougie goes. Once they've exhausted all the comic possibilities of being invisible, they set about unravelling the mystery of Will's predicament. Is it something to do with that kiss, or the driver of the car that killed him and didn't stop? Maybe they will find an answer by investigating the rumour that there is an unhappy spirit haunting the ruins in the school grounds, and if so, why? What they discover is a long-buried mystery, which stretches its fingers right into the present...

Long time readers of The Book Zone will already know that I am a huge fan of Curtis Jobling's Wereworld books. That series was epic fantasy for teens at its very best, and ever since it finished I have been waiting with baited breath to see what Curtis produced next. Given that this is the guy who brought us both Bob the Builder and RAA RAA the Noisy Lion I was not at all surprised when I discovered that his new book, Haunt: Dead Scared, was totally different: a creepy comedy story aimed at a slightly younger audience than Wereworld.

Although Haunt treads very similar ground to Tamsyn Murray's brilliant My So-Called Afterlife, and there are elements of the plot's central mystery that are not a million miles away from that of James Dawson's Say Her Name, the quality of Curtis Jobling's writing makes this an original and thoroughly enjoyable read for young teens. The real strengths of the book are the humour, and the tight relationship between Will (who dies in the first chapter but comes back as a ghost) and his best mate Dougie (the only person who can see Will's ghost). These are two somewhat geeky boys having to come to terms with a tragic accident, and the bizarre aftermath that sees Will stranded as a spook. Together they have to work out why on earth Will didn't move on, and in the process of their investigations they come across another stranded spirit, and take it upon themselves to help her too.

I've not read any interviews Curtis Jobling may have given about this new series but I would not be surprised if he has cited Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) as one of his inspirations when it came to writing the book. I loved the original series (watched as repeats - I'm honestly not old enough to have seen it when first broadcast) and even enjoyed the Vic and Bob reboot. The humour in Haunt, as the two boys try to get to grips with their rather unique situation, is certainly reminiscent of that TV show, with a heavy dose of Scooby Doo style shenanigans thrown in for good measure.

If you're looking for a creepy and funny book that is also a fairly quick read this summer then look no further than Haunt: Dead Scared. My thanks go to the fab people at Simon & Schuster for sending me a copy.