Mary Virginia Carey would, in time, write more books in the Three Investigators series than any of the four other writers so employed, but got off to a slightly wobbly start with The Mystery of the Flaming Footprints (1971). So will her second title, The Mystery of the Singing Serpent (1972), find her on better form?
Continue readingJuvenile Mysteries
#1042: Minor Felonies – The Good Turn (2022) by Sharna Jackson
Well, it took seven-and-a-half years and over one thousand posts, but it’s finally happened: I have read a book about which I can find nothing to say.
Continue reading#1041: Sisters Are Doin’ it for Themselves in Enola Holmes (2020) [Scr. Jack Thorne, Dir. Harry Bradbeer]
#1039: Minor Felonies – The Case of the Missing Marquess (2006) by Nancy Springer
I think I’ve been dimly aware of Nancy Springer’s series centred on Enola Holmes, much younger sister of the more famous Sherlock and Mycroft, for a number of years, but it was only the recent(ish) filming of the first book which brought the series more firmly into my orbit.
Continue reading#1036: Minor Felonies – This Book Kills (2023) by Ravena Guron
Another exclusive boarding school, another murderer on the loose — if mysteries for younger readers are anything to go by, put your kids in the local comp to keep them safe.
Continue reading#1033: Minor Felonies – Montgomery Bonbon: Murder at the Museum (2023) by Alasdair Beckett-King [ill. Claire Powell]
#1020: It Gets Worse Here Every Day in The Mystery of the Nervous Lion (1971) by Nick West
#1008: Minor Felonies – Sabotage on the Solar Express (2022) by M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman [ill. Elisa Paganelli]
If the genre’s Golden Age had one commendable attribute, it’s that there was no pressure to outdo previous entries in a series by going bigger, louder, or more preposterous with each successive entry.
Continue reading#1005: Minor Felonies – Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: Peril at Owl Park (2020) by Marthe Jocelyn
This second entry in Marthe Jocelyn’s Aggie Morton series — featuring juvenile sleuths inspired by both Agatha Christie and her arguably most famous creation Hercule Poirot — contains much of the charm that made the series opener stand out, but also falls down in ways that leave me a little underwhelmed.
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