Tag Robin Stevens

The Skeleton Puzzle / A Stocking Full of Spies

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The Skeleton Puzzle
Lisa Thompson
Scholastic

The young detectives of Chestnut Close – Matthew, Melody and Jake – return to try and solve another mystery. A skeleton is discovered buried in the garden of their neighbour, Old Nina and the three are determined to find out who it is, how it got there and who was responsible. Jake has also found what looks like a wedding ring.

Then Nina’s long-lost son turns up, with a young son of his own. The boy is obsessed with a shape-shifting puzzle that he manipulates all the time. Are the two really who they claim to be? The three friends are suspicious and think they could well be imposters. The deeper they dig, the more they suspect the father, who calls himself Michael, almost certainly is.

Meanwhile Jake is struggling at home with his sick mother and is trying to keep this to himself; and Matthew is acting somewhat mysteriously.

With priceless jewels possibly hidden somewhere on the Close, this twisting-turning mystery will keep you on tenterhooks, right through to the final page, which sets things up for the next in the series.

A Stocking Full of Spies
Robin Stevens
Puffin Books

It’s almost Christmas in 1941 and a bomb has fallen on Deepen School for Girls : May and Nuala have been removed from the chaos there and sent to join May’s and Eric’s elder sister, Hazel Wong, who is working at Bletchley Park. Almost immediately they find themselves working on their most dangerous case thus far. One of the codebreakers has been shot and in his pocket is discovered a top-secret message.

Was he in fact a spy, was the message planted on him; was this just a tragic accident or murder?: Whatever it was Daisy’s brother, Bertie has been blamed; even Bertie himself is unsure whether he was actually responsible for the death. Hazel and Daisy set Nuala, May and Eric the task of finding out what actually did happen and thus proving Bertie’s innocence. The three of them are acting as messengers between the huts but Bletchley Park is a secretive place wherein a number of Britain’s most brilliant minds are at work, they will have to listen, watch and they hope, unearth the truth. They are very different characters: May is impulsive and Nuala and Eric more considered in their actions, so they’re an interesting team.

Then a second murder takes place – are they linked? Was it the same murderer again? What a challenge the three face.

A clever cracker of a story for confident readers from Y4 onwards: it works was a standalone but it would be better to read the previous two books first.
(In her author’s note, Robin Stevens suggests that many of the Bletchley Park staff were neurodivergent though in the story we’re never told if this applies to any of the characters featured.)

The Super Sunny Murder Club

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The Super Sunny Murder Club
ed. Serena Patel & Robin Stevens, illustrated by Harry Woodgate
Farshore

This follow up to The Very Merry Murder Club has thirteen tales written by almost the same authors as the previous book: Abiola Bello, Maisie Chan, Benjamin Dean, Roopa Farooki, Sharna Jackson, Patrice Lawrence, Elle McNicoll, E.L. Norry, Serena Patel, Annabelle Sami, Dominique Valente and Nizrana Farook, with Robin Stevens contributing one of his own.

With suspense aplenty, not all the stories involve a murder but each tells of a mysterious, disturbing happening, the perpetrator of which, young investigators set out to discover.

Robin Stevens’ offering is a murder mystery that takes place in a second-hand book shop called Mystery and Mayhem that the mother of Gracie, the story’s narrator visits to do some research of her own. It’s there young Gracie meets the shop owner’s offspring, Why, and three days later the two of them have to turn detective, Why clad in a trench coat and sporting dark glasses. It’s crucial they discover the real murderer of customer Mr Rustin because Gracie’s mother has been arrested for the crime.

In Roopa Farooki’s A Midsummer Night’s Murder Mystery, an awful lot of yogurt is consumed in the run up to the school play but there’s something not right about Yoglicious: people start getting stomach problems after eating it. Teacher Mr Ofu is concerned there won’t be any children left to act as they’re all stuck in the loo. But who is responsible for the dodgy yogurt? Ali and Tulip’s Nan-Nan is on the case: can she get to the bottom of what Ali calls ‘a proper medical mystery. A poison plot and a bad guy in disguise!’ ?

There’s a story that stands out as being very different from the others: Mistlight takes the form of a diary written by Jormun Jaegerson who is to turn twelve in just two months time. On that fateful day, so his grandma, Ska, tells him, he must leave the island and make a new life, forgetting all about his previous one. Either that or be turned into a sea serpent on account of a curse-bargain struck between the world of monsters and that of humans. But then Jormun finds a scale has grown on the back of his neck and soon after his sister Elowen notices it too. She though suggests it might be a feather. Does that mean that perhaps her brother could be the one to break that curse and what then?

There’s no need to read the stories in order; readers can just dip in and out of the book and almost immediately their little grey cells will be working overtime along with the young detectives’ in the stories. And make sure to take time to appreciate Harry Woodgate’s black and white illustrations; there’s one for each mystery.

The Very Merry Murder Club

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The Very Merry Murder Club
edited by Serena Patel & Robin Stevens, illustrated by Harry Woodgate
Farshore

This bumper collection of wintry mysteries wasn’t quite the novel I originally anticipated.. Rather it brings together stories by thirteen authors: Elle McNicoll, Roopa Farooki, Annabelle Sami, Abiola Bello, Patrice Lawrence, Maisie Chan, Dominique Valente, Nizrana Farook, Benjamin Dean, Joanna Williams, Serena Patel, E.L. Norry, and Sharna Jackson.

Only some of the tales are of murders: the first, set in Inverness, tells of a ballerina’s death, which, main character Briar, an underestimated autistic girl, is determined to show was the result of foul play.
Another murder (also taking place in a hotel) is Nizrana Farook’s ‘Scrabble’ mystery narrated by young Saba, a member of the Hassan family who are on their way to spend the Christmas holiday with Grandma. However an impassible road results in an overnight stop in an isolated hotel an hour away from their destination, and that’s where another guest is discovered stone dead after a game of Scrabble.

Other Christmas tales involve theft, sabotage and a Christmas Eve visit to a very weird funhouse that really sends shivers down your spine.

However if you want to be really chilled, then turn to Dominique Valente’s The Frostwilds which is a fantasy set in an icy-cold world wherein children’s lives are under constant threat from the mysterious Gelidbeast.

It’s impossible in a short review to mention every story but suffice it to say that with a wealth of interesting and determined, often brave protagonists, settings modern and historic, as well as invented, there’s sure to be something for everyone to puzzle over and enjoy, especially snuggled up warm with a hot chocolate and a mince pie close at hand.

Harry Woodgate’s black and white illustrations (one per story) are splendid – full of detail and there’s also a clever ‘book cover’ that serves an a visual introduction to each one:

Be sure to look under the book’s dust jacket where a colourful surprise awaits.