Will you be able to solve the clues, discard the red herrings and spot the murderer before the intrepid “Detective Society” duo of Daisy and Hazel? All wrapped up in hugely enjoyable detective mysteries. It might seem strange to say this, considering that each story features gruesome murder, but the recurring themes of this series are kindness, bravery, friendship and loyalty. They are set in the 1930s, so no internet or mobile phones exist to spoil the suspense.
These books cleverly combine the joys of boarding school stories (where the parents are out of the picture, so the kids can have adventures) think Malory Towers, St Claire’s, Hogwarts, with the delights of page-turning detective fiction (Agatha Christie for example). Intrigued, we downloaded the first book to the Kindle that night…and we were hooked!Īt the time of writing this review, there have been seven full-length books, a guide to detecting and three shorter mysteries published, with Book 8 due in summer 2019. The author was Robin Stevens, the book was called Murder Most Unladylike.
My sister phoned one evening to tell me she had heard an interview with a young writer on Woman’s Hour, and she was sure the story discussed would appeal to my book-mad youngest child. I simply cannot believe that it is only five years since I first encountered The Detective Society! October 2014 was memorable.
I am prompted to write this post just before the release of the special 5th anniversary edition of Book One in the Murder Most Unladylike series. In addition to the postures of the figures on the cover, Tara also incorporates a collection of symbols and images from the story and weaves them into the cover design, cleverly dropping clues but giving little away about the plot of Death Sets Sail. It is the classic and very recognisable pose of an explorer. The other silhouette figure adopts a bold pose, with one hand on her waist and the other shielding her eyes. She is doubled over, crouched low to the ground and looks as though she is running away from, or perhaps towards, something just out of frame. One of the girls runs along the word ‘Death’ in the title, carrying a lantern. The posture of two silhouette figures on the cover position the book very firmly in the mystery genre. Death Sets Sail, and the ‘Murder Most Unladylike’ series as a whole, fits comfortably into the mystery genre and I love how Tara incorporates particular elements and symbols to effectively convey the genre of the book through imagery.
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