Hazel has been sent from her home in Hong Kong to drizzly, cold England by her fabulously rich father who wishes her to experience an English education. She is able to hide her extreme cleverness under a laissez-faire attitude from everyone but the equally smart new girl, Hazel Wong. Daisy Wells appears to be a quintessential upper-class English school girl: blonde hair, blue eyes, beautiful and from an aristocratic family. As if this wasn’t enough – there are always maps inside the front covers and I adore books with maps! Pull up a comfy chair, get yourself a plate of cakes for bunbreak and enjoy!ġ934, deep in the English countryside we encounter Deepdean School for Girls. They look beautiful on your bookshelf with their rainbow coloured covers and sumptuous 1930s-style title font. I shall try not to give away any plot spoilers…but please read on for short summaries of each of the books in the Murder Most Unladylike series. Will you be able to solve the clues, discard the red herrings and spot the murderer before the intrepid “Detective Society” duo of Daisy and Hazel? All wrapped up in hugely enjoyable detective mysteries. It might seem strange to say this, considering that each story features gruesome murder, but the recurring themes of this series are kindness, bravery, friendship and loyalty. They are set in the 1930s, so no internet or mobile phones exist to spoil the suspense.

These books cleverly combine the joys of boarding school stories (where the parents are out of the picture, so the kids can have adventures) think Malory Towers, St Claire’s, Hogwarts, with the delights of page-turning detective fiction (Agatha Christie for example).

Intrigued, we downloaded the first book to the Kindle that night…and we were hooked!Īt the time of writing this review, there have been seven full-length books, a guide to detecting and three shorter mysteries published, with Book 8 due in summer 2019. The author was Robin Stevens, the book was called Murder Most Unladylike. My sister phoned one evening to tell me she had heard an interview with a young writer on Woman’s Hour, and she was sure the story discussed would appeal to my book-mad youngest child. I simply cannot believe that it is only five years since I first encountered The Detective Society! October 2014 was memorable. I am prompted to write this post just before the release of the special 5th anniversary edition of Book One in the Murder Most Unladylike series.

Murder most unladylike books in order