Premeditated Myrtle
by Elizabeth C. Bunce
Narrated by Bethan Rose Young
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Pub Date Oct 06 2020 | Archive Date Oct 26 2020
RB Media | Recorded Books
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Description
Introducing Myrtle Hardcastle, your favorite new amateur detective: a wickedly smart 12-year-old with a keen interest in the new tools of criminology and a nose for murder in the Victorian English village where her father is the local prosecutor.
Twelve-year-old Myrtle Hardcastle has a passion for justice and a Highly Unconventional obsession with criminal science. Armed with her father’s law books and her mum’s microscope, Myrtle studies toxicology, keeps abreast of the latest developments in crime scene analysis, and Observes her neighbors in the quiet village of Swinburne, England.
When her next-door neighbor, a wealthy spinster and eccentric breeder of rare flowers, dies under Mysterious Circumstances, Myrtle seizes her chance. With her unflappable governess, Miss Ada Judson, by her side, Myrtle takes it upon herself to prove Miss Wodehouse was murdered and find the killer, even if nobody else believes her — not even her father, the town prosecutor.
With sparkling wit and a tight, twisty plot, Premeditated Myrtle, the first in a series from an award-winning author, introduces a brilliant young investigator ready to take on hard cases and maddening Victorian rules for Young Ladies of Quality in order to earn her place among the most daring and acclaimed amateur detectives of her time or any other.
A Note From the Publisher
* Subtle STEM emphasis: Myrtle solves her crimes through wit, ingenuity, close-observation, and also the emerging field of Victorian forensic science--in which tools like fingerprints and mug shots are relatively new.
* Adult mystery readers will love Myrtle, too: Adult fans of series that feature a precocious child detective, like Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce mysteries, will be hooked on Myrtle and her supporting cast, along with their meticulously researched and authentically presented immersive Victorian world.
Advance Praise
"A joyful thing to behold. Set in Victorian England, this mystery gleefully overturns sexist norms and celebrates independent women of intellect, with Myrtle Hardcastle leading the charge." —Booklist, starred review
"Premeditated Myrtle is a book young readers will love and adults may well sneak out of backpacks and off of nightstands for their own enjoyment… Here’s hoping for more adventures with this delightful, heroic protagonist." —BookPage, starred review
"A saucy, likable heroine shines in a mystery marked by clever, unexpected twists." —Kirkus Reviews
“Bunce’s detective series opener features a quirky, winning narrator and a lively secondary cast . . . A generous, well-wrought relationship between governess and charge complements tightly plotted twists . . . Myrtle is as clever as she is determined, and her expertise—seen in evidence collection and courtroom antics—is certain to delight genre stalwarts and mystery novices alike.” —Publishers Weekly
Available Editions
| EDITION | Audiobook |
| ISBN | 9781980085492 |
| PRICE | $24.99 (USD) |
| DURATION | 8 Hours |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Melanie W, Reviewer
What a delight this middle-grade murder mystery is. Myrtle Hardcastle is a whip-smart 12-year-old with ambitions to join the Detective Bureau. She’s a wordsmith with an enquiring mind, a scholar’s vocabulary, and a telescope.
The trouble starts with that telescope. Something’s amiss at the house next-door. Myrtle investigates, and before you can spell Celastrina argiolus, a murder is discovered, clues accrue, and red herrings swim invitingly through the narrative current. Or should I say they sprout like weeds in the garden, for this is a mystery of botany and horticulture.
True to classic form, Myrtle not only sports a deerstalker, but has a sidekick: modern-minded governess Miss Judson - a Mary Poppins figure with impeccable poise and sang-froid: a foil to Myrtle’s occasional outbursts of bubble and pique.
In a fun bit of intertextual gameplay, each chapter begins with an epigraph quoting from the Principles of Detection: A Manual for the Amateur and Professional Investigator, 1893 by H.M. Hardcastle. The reader can deduce who the writer of this authoritative work is.
Wordplay abounds; in fact it was the pun on Myrtle in the title which initially drew my attention. And thumb’s up for the commodious bathroom. Booknerds can watch out for the literary genealogy running through the novel: the setting is Swinburne, and key characters are named Hardy, Wodehouse, and Blakeney. On the subject of the latter, Reader, I adored him and hope he reappears in subsequent novels.
I encountered this book in audio format, narrated by Bethan Rose Young with all the crunch and sweetness of a candy-apple. Her voice was warm and clear, with smugness and triumph in all the right places. I would love to read Premeditated Myrtle now, but will probably have to rush straight to the sequel.
Premeditated Myrtle is a delightful, witty, and intelligent historical novel. As for Myrtle, she is the kind of heroine with stuff in her pockets. Highly recommended for children aged nine plus and amateur sleuths of all ages.
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