Sometimes I feel like a curmudgeon for not liking a book — books do many things, and one book can be something entirely different to so many people, that it feels rather lousy when something just passes you by entirely.
Continue reading
An aristocratic family, a big house in which an aged relative resides, everyone converging for a party, said elderly relative being the victim of a crime, a precocious young girl keen to investigate, rumours of a family treasure hidden in the grounds…lordy, I hope I’m not reading The Swifts (2023) again.
Continue reading
A twenty-first outing for Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews, and the fourth to be written by Mary Virginia Carey, The Secret of the Haunted Mirror (1974) is another fast-paced and engaging turn for The Three Investigators, even if it doesn’t quite hit the highs that this series or this author have achieved before now.
Continue reading
A second mystery for Roger, Diana, Snubby, Loony, Barney, and Miranda — and one with a hint of the impossible, about it, to boot.
Continue reading
I had hoped to diversify these Minor Felonies posts this month, and to bring in some new authors who might produce well-structured juvenile detective fiction. But, well, that didn’t work out, and so instead I guess I’ll just have to return to Stuart Gibbs’ FunJungle, perhaps the best series of detective novels for 8 to 12 year-olds currently on the market.
Continue reading
A third entry in the delightfully silly Montgomery Bonbon series, from the mind of the equally delightfully silly Alasdair Beckett-King, Mystery at the Manor (2024) is…delightfully silly.
Continue reading
An isolated, snowbound mansion, a wealthy family at each other’s throats…you’d frankly be disappointed if this setup didn’t result in a murder.
Continue reading
Recently made into a series for British TV, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (2019) by Holly Jackson was recommended to me about a year ago…and it’s taken almost that long for it to be available at my local library, its popularity no doubt enhanced by recently coming to wider public awareness.
Continue reading
Having co-written one of the great modern crime and detective series of books for younger readers, Sam Sedgman ventures out on his own for the first time with The Clockwork Conspiracy (2024). So let’s have a look, eh?
Continue reading
On the day that a child is born into the ancient, vast Swift clan, the family Dictionary is placed before the new mother and, with her eyes closed, she opens it and runs her finger down the page until it settles “on the word and definition that would become her child’s name”. What Beth Lincoln chooses to do with this intriguing idea in her debut The Swifts (2023) is…a little confused.
Continue reading
The Invisible Event 