Detective stories for 9+ have boomed in the past decade, thanks to Robin Stevens’ bestselling Murder Most Unladylike series. They’ve also evolved from Enid Blyton-style cosiness to noir lite: these are morally complex stories, in which deadly violence has a lingering emotional impact. Young readers who devour Fleur Hitchcock’s Murder at Snowfall or Sharna Jackson’s High-Rise Mystery display an appetite both for satisfying puzzles and carefully gauged realism.
Lis Jardine’s first novel is a compelling addition to the new canon. A family relocation to Bristol finds Jonno Archer resentfully enrolled at Hanbridge High; missing his friends, he decides to behave so badly that his parents reconsider the move. When he and another boy discover their PE teacher’s body in the sports shed, Jonno is initially horrified – until he realises that investigating a murder might prove top-grade misbehaviour.
