It's especially fun having the young detective herself narrate Premeditated Myrtle and address the reader directly:

Myrtle is quick to jump to conclusions, but her wise and beloved governess, Miss Judson, is there to keep her on the right path, and more than once she discovers that things, and people, are not at all what they she first thought. A Victorian 12-year-old's fascination with Sherlock Holmes and 'penny dreadfuls' (sensational stories sold for a penny) serves her well in as she discovers a murder right next door. This is a lively romp with appealing characters, melodramatic situations, and many perils. Myrtle falls victim to mean girls who lock her up in a morgue - which she finds more intriguing than scary. Along the way, there's lots of arcane but intriguing knowledge, like how to use quicklime as an explosive, and the fact that lilies are poisonous to cats. Guns, explosives, and poisons play a part in the story, as do a lot of people who aren't what they first appear to be. Myrtle is quite the know-it-all, but often she's right, so when she (correctly) discovers that her neighbor's been murdered and suspicion falls on her innocent friend, she has to learn some prudence and strategy from Miss Judson. Bunce, featuring 12-year-old Victorian detective Myrtle Hardcastle, her beloved widowed dad (a prosecutor), and her also-beloved governess, Ada Judson, the biracial child of White British and Black French Guianese parents who sent her to England for her education and health. Parents need to know that Premeditated Myrtle is the first book in a new series by Elizabeth C. With stakes this high, her sleuthing has put Myrtle, her family, and the patients and staff at the Royal Swinburne Hospital In Myrtle Peril.Adult characters smoke cigars and cigarillos.ĭid you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide. Or does he? With no body at the scene, Myrtle and her governess, Miss Judson, fear the so-called murder was a feverish delusion-until a critical piece of evidence appears.īut where’s the victim? And who at the hospital could be harboring murderous intent? Myrtle is determined to find out before the killer comes after her father.

Hardcastle’s pursuit of the case takes a detour when he’s hospitalized for a tonsillectomy-only to witness a murder. Is this truly Ethel Snowcroft, believed to be lost at sea with her parents, or a con artist chasing a windfall? Mr. When a mysterious girl attempts to stake her claim to the Snowcroft family fortune, Myrtle Hardcastle’s father, a lawyer, is asked to help prove-or disprove-the girl’s identity. Myrtle Hardcastle-twelve-year-old Victorian Amateur Detective-returns to investigate the case of a missing heiress lost at sea, an inquiry that runs aground when a murder in plain sight has no apparent victim.

Myrtle hardcastle mysteries