A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery – First Class Murder Robin Stevens

The worst part about sharing stories with your children that you’ve grown up reading, is when they don’t sound as fantastic as you remember them being. I keep feeling nostalgic for the classics of my childhood but then I stumbled upon the Murder Most Unladylike series, which is like revisting my favourite stories but in a new and exciting way.

This year at school in the library I have been looking at ‘Murder Most Unladylike’ and ‘Arsenic for Tea’ with a real longing as the covers are so striking and intriguing. Now the summer holidays have arrived I have taken the opportunity to find out all about them. I then disovered that the latest book was about to be published and it was set on the Orient Express. I was desperate to read this having had a slight obsession with this luxury train since a very young age.

 

 

                 

 

I started with ‘Murder Most Unladylike’ where we first meet the founding members of the Detective Society Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong at their school ‘Deepdean School for Girls’. It opens up with Hazel finding the body of Miss Bell the science mistress who has been murdered but then mysteriously disappears, the girls then have to find out what has happened and identify the murderer. The story is set in the 1930s and has a very vintage feel but at the same time feels really modern and relevant which is quite a feat to acheive. Suspects are drawn up and eliminated as the girls get closer and closer to discovering what really happened.  The ending is far from predictable and I failed miserably to guess who had actually committed the dastardly deed. This book contained everything I desire from a boarding school story, containing all my favourite references ‘lacrosse’. ‘tuck box’ and one of the key aspects of the story the ‘bun break’. I feel that when your child reads this they may end up with a deep longing to go to boarding school just as I did reading these type of stories growing up.

I then committed a fatal error in my enjoyment of the series and feel I was not being a ‘good egg’ by doing this awful thing, which I must reveal.  I know that Daisy and Hazel would see straight through me and identify my crime and wouldn’t be able to keep up the pretence any longer. I’m going to say it very quickly and get it over with ‘IskippedArsenicforTeaandwentstraighttoFirstClassMurder.’ In my haste to board the Orient Express with Daisy and Hazel and sample the opulence and luxury onboard, I bypassed ‘Arsenice for Tea’! Readers this is a serious mistake which I urge you not to repeat, it was like receiving the spoiler alert as to who has gone out in the GBBO when you haven’t yet watched it. I will be paying for my misdeameanour in good time, watch this space!!

However let’s try and forget what I have just said and let’s join our detectives aboard the Orient Express where we can be sure that something is about to go horribly wrong. Onboard we are introduced to our cast of characters who we know by now, will all be playing some signifcant role as events unravel.  In this story Daisy and Hazel seem to find themselves with a case which seems impossible to solve as the body is found behind a locked door. The girls assemble their list of suspects and go on the hunt to uncover who has  murdererd the wealthy heiress and stolen her jewels. It moves on at such a fast pace with twists and turns which made it impossible for me to again to discover what had happened, Although I did come quite close which made me feel like I had learned something from our detective duo.

This series is such a delight and joy to behold and I really couldn’t put it down. The best thing is its great to have discovered a book where you can have the instant gratification of two more books to devour. I have it from good sources that there is more on the way in this series which I am thrilled to hear.

Ever since I read ‘Murder Most Unladylike’ which was only a week ago  I have been recommending it to everyone that I can and urge you to go ahead and try it, I know you will love it as much as I do.

i’m now off to my dorm for a well deserved bun break which I have kept hidden in my tuck box.

 

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