The Seaside Corpse (2022), Martha Jocelyn’s fourth novel to feature the Agatha Christie-inspired 13 year-old sleuth Aggie Morton, recently won the Edgar for Best Juvenile Mystery, so let’s jump back into the series where I’ve reached to date: book 3, The Dead Man in the Garden (2021).

Attending the Wellspring Spa near Harrogate — Jocelyn makes it clear in an afterword that she’s aware of the significance of the location in Christie’s life — in the hope that her mother might find some rejuvenation, 13 year-old Aggie Morton is somewhere between appalled and delighted to learn that a female guest died on the grounds just prior to their arrival. When — not really a spoiler — a second dead body turns up in the same place, Aggie begins to sense something amiss…

“I find it particularly suspicious,” I said, “that he died right after a telephone call that required him to rush out into the night…I think we’ve stumbled across another murder. Do you not agree?”

“You mustn’t get your hopes up, Agatha dear,” said Grannie Jane.

And so, with her Belgian refugee friend Hector Perot in tow, and enabled by the Miss Marple-alike Grannie Jane, Aggie begins to investigate…on the sly, of course, and in the face of the spa’s management insisting that, really, now, there’s nothing to investigate.

“I have never held coincidence in much esteem,” said Grannie Jane. “It always disappoints as a plot device in a novel and even more so in real life. The notion that two people should die on park benches across the road from each other within a matter of days…and have no connection? Pish.”

All three of Jocelyn’s books that I’ve read to date have done very good work juggling the dual sides of young Aggie’s personality: the insatiable curiosity that drives her desire to get to the bottom of even the most trifling issue, and the more emotional side that frets about her mother and misses her dead father (“The pink-cheeked Mummy in high spirits had been in hiding for nearly two years, during the time of Papa’s illness and then her hibernation after his death.”). Here, Joceyln excels again, mixing in the additional considerations of Aggie’s own morbid curiosity in a way that humanises her young sleuth and adds another layer to this very enjoyable mystery.

My Papa died in his bed, after a long illness, perhaps the dullest way to go. A short illness would have meant less suffering for Papa. But for a daughter with an aching heart, each extra day that he could talk with me, or hear me read, or simply breathe nearby…that was all I wanted. Why was it, then, that when a stranger was found dead, I did not consider the family or the loss but dwelt instead upon the death itself? How had it happened? Why in this place? Did the person feel pain? Was wrongdoing involved? And what happened now that a body had become a corpse?

As a mystery, this is also perhaps the clearest and cleanest that Jocelyn has yet put down. I mean, sure, the adults among you will solve this the instant future corpse Mr. Hart begins to act suspiciously, but there’s something about the clarity with which Jocelyn explores this mystery which harks back to Christie’s own clear-sighted plotting. I still can’t shake the feeling that these books are a little too long, but I also can’t fault Jocelyn for allowing her juvenile sleuth — and Hector really is the Watson here — to investigate these crimes in a way that actually feels like two young people who don’t know what they’re doing and must, therefore, go about things in a slightly long-winded way.

Plus, Jocelyn’s writing is very enjoyable — c.f. a man’s hands “clenched around a napkin as if squeezing it for juice” — and she works in several themes which are important in writing for younger readers without ever beating you over the head about how Important they are: her treatment of the wheelchair-bound George, the consideration that some time in the future Aggie is going to have to decide what she wants to do for herself rather than out of deference to those around her, the shades of grey which must inevitably creep into any discussion around wrongdoing (“There is a great distance between keeping a lost scarf for oneself and murdering a gentleman.”). Perhaps the only slight fumble here is that Jocelyn is keen to preserve the surprise about reporter Augustus ‘Gus’ Fibbley sprung on us in the first book, and it results in some…confusing writing for anyone starting the series here. Given what that character represents, it would be nice to see those shackles removed, and Jocelyn accepting that anyone silly enough to jump in here first frankly deserves a few spoilers.

Inevitably, we get a few slightly too modern attitudes placed into this historical context, but given the important role played by Miss Eva Napoli — allowing some pleasingly R. Austin Freeman-esque forensic evidence concerning poisons (which might have been an interest of Christie’s, we’ll never know) — and, once again, the fact that this allows this mystery solved by children to actually feel like the way intelligent children would go about this type of endeavour (showing a respect for and interest in typically disregarded menial-task-fulfilling adults…who would, alas, become somewhat overlooked as a feature of Christie’s own writing…) means that I’m more than happy to kick back and enjoy the ride. The irrepressible Aggie is such good company, and the text is littered with so many delightful touches (marmalade on bacon…?!?!), that it would take a sterner soul than I to find legitimate fault in these conceits.

Running through this like a stick of rock is also a playful streak of Christie references that the nerds among us will have a delightful time picking out: I caught three titles for Christie books, and the essential plot mechanics for at least one, plus the Miss Marpling of Grannie Jane, which remains a delight (“This all brings to mind Mrs. Trumble’s unfortunate son…”) and I hope never gets abandoned. Jocelyn is writing in the best possible tradition: respectfully, with full awareness of the world into which she is reaching for inspiration, and with acuity when it comes to the mores and trapping of what young people should be allowed to take away from their enjoyment of fiction. I have not yet read The Seaside Corpse, but I celebrate its success as part of the wider success of this series as a whole, and I hope there is much more Aggie Morton to come.

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The Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen series by Marthe Jocelyn: