A Box Full of Murders
Janice Hallett
Puffin

Janice Hallett adopts a similar style for this, her first children’s story, as she does for her adult crime/mystery books, making clever use of letters, diary entries, press cuttings, police reports and emails.

Siblings Ava and Luke live in different homes with parents who have separated; Ava lives with Mum and Luke with Dad. Both children keep in touch via their mobiles and when Luke discovers a box marked ‘Top Secret’ in Dad’s loft, he shares its contents by means of text messages, quickly realising that it tells the story of a crime that took place at a Scout and Guides’ summer camp in 1983 – the last to be held at that location as the campsite land has been bought for questionable reasons. Because of this the leaders of each tent group have been asked to write diaries about their experiences. These groups have names like The Fun Girl Three, Hunky Dory, Ventures, Duran Spandau – apt for the times.

As the siblings read through these diaries they are introduced to the campers, the Scout and Guide leaders, some mysterious strangers lurking in the forest and rumours of a shrieking ghost. Along with Ava and Luke, we readers see events at the camp playing out and every so often there’s a Progress Report summarising the information so far to help in solving the case. Things become very dangerous for the campers when two bodies are discovered, one of a botanist, the other his assistant, and even more alarming when one of the guides goes missing.

Luke and Ava work diligently through the clues and it becomes clear that this whole mystery is not something left in the past; the murderer is still at large and perhaps nearer than they think.

A pacy, gripping read with a multi-layered plot, some humour, two terrific characters in Ava and Luke and an ending that hints of more to come. I can hardly wait.