Quercus ISBN: 978178650782 £6.99
Justice Jones has sleuthing written into her DNA. Her mother is the author of the Leslie Light crime novels and her father is a QC specialising in murder cases. After the death of her mother, Justice is packed off rather swiftly to boarding school, where even before she arrives at the gates, the taxi driver has set her on the trail of a murderer by mentioning that his brother, the local undertaker, had been there the previous week to collect a body. There is also the mystery of how Justice’s father knows Miss de Vere, the headmistress, to resolve. The book is set in the 1930s and references a range of other novels, possibly unintentionally, from the four turrets of the building reminiscent of Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers series, to Harry Potterish creeping around in the dark at boarding school, which will delight many readers. I won’t reveal whodunnit, but safe to say that Justice does eventually work it out. A book that will generate a good deal of speculative talk if it is used as a class reader, and is highly likely to be enjoyed if read privately. Well worth adding to the KS2 class library. It is to be hoped that this is not Elly Griffiths’ only venture into writing for children.
Liz Broad