Middle Grade Pick: Premeditated Myrtle

Premeditated Myrtle
A Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery (Book 1)
by Elizabeth C. Bunce
AlgonquinYoung Readers
318 pages
2020
ISBN: 9781616209186

Available October 6, 2020. Book 2, How To Get Away With Myrtle, available on the same date!


Clever and captivating, Premeditated Myrtle is the best young detective story in years! Set in Victorian England in a small town, the story satisfies with historical details and quaint setting.

Twelve-year old Myrtle Hardcastle is smart and inquisitive, armed with her mother's microscope and her father's love of the law, Myrtle is incorrigible and fearless. She loves science and forensics--certainly not conventional subjects for young ladies of her era and frowned upon by society--but Myrtle throws caution to the wind and fearlessly ventures where no young lady of breeding should ever tread. Young Ladies of Quality are not supposed to go gallivanting off  OUTSIDE AFTER DARK or poke their noses into mysteries and murder, but that doesn't stop the irrepressible Myrtle! With her loving governess at her side, Myrtle sets out to solve the mystery of her elderly neighbor's death. Miss Wodehouse's death was deemed "natural causes," but Myrtle knows something is fishy.

She finds evidence that Miss Wodehouse was murdered, and her father, the town prosecutor, arrests Miss Wodehouse's grounds keeper. Myrtle suspects her father has arrested the wrong man and sets out to prove it. When Miss Wodehouse's cat goes MIA, Myrtle wonders where Peony could have gone. And why were all of the old lady's lilies  burned in the garden? Who is covering up something much more sinister? A long lost niece arrives from America, but Myrtle doesn't trust her. Soon, a nephew also arrives. Suddenly, the deceased Miss Wodehouse has all sorts of relatives coming out of the Victorian carved woodwork.

Myrtle searches for clues to free Mr. Hamm and finds that Miss Wodehouse was creating a new species of rare lily. Could she have been killed for her flowers? If so, where are these magnificent flowers? Mr. Hamm burned all of them in the garden. Was he instructed to get rid of evidence or cover up something more nefarious going on?

Thank goodness for Myrtle Hardcastle who finds all the answers and pieces together means, motive and opportunity. Think Sherlock Holmes x Agatha Christie x Harriott the Spy, and you have the most fun character in kidlit in forever! Myrtle Highcastle is a hit! Readers won't have to wait for the next book in the series, How To Get Away With Myrtle (Book 2) is available on the same date.

Definitely a book that will win awards, you MUST READ Premeditated Myrtle. A MUST HAVE for all middle grade readers. A rollicking great tale full of unexpected twists, evil criminals, double dealings, a get rich quick scheme, THE will and estate, and deceptive, quick talking cons.

Highly, highly recommended! You must not miss this book. Pre-order today!

A Courtly Pick: Dangerous Deceptions

Dangerous Deceptions
(A Palace of Spies novel, book 2)
by Sarah Zettel
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2014
371 pages
ISBN: 9780544074095

Read an excerpt

Entertaining, fun, flirty, and fabulous, Dangerous Deceptions brings the court of King George I of England to life.

Peggy Fitzroy is a lady in waiting for the Queen--in a remarkable situation to spy. While she seems to be flirting with the men and playing cards with the ladies, she is picking up valuable information about who would want to topple the throne. Her Uncle Pierpoint  promised her hand in marriage to Sebastian, the man who attacked her in Palace of Spies. Peggy refuses to marry him, but Sebastian is not one to back down from a fight.

Peggy's heart belongs to Matthew but there is no way she can marry him. Peggy needs to figure out a way to stay unmarried and dis-engage herself from Sebastian. She suspects Uncle Pierpoint is up to no good and begins spying on his bank and sneaking into his office at his mansion. Her cousin Olivia decides to help her even though she is sure her father has nothing to hide.

Court life is full of intrigue and innuendo and Peggy has to learn to tread carefully in the face  of deception. Gossip and braggadocio seep into every corridor of the castle. Everyone is not who they appear to be and some spies hide in plain sight.

Peggy uncovers a plot to overthrow the King and unmasks an old friend--which leaves her defenseless and humiliated. She will have to choose her own future. Will she return to court? Will she choose love over duty? Will she move to the country and give up court life?


Sarah Zettel captures the period of history with delightful prose and attention to detail--both historical details and the period's fashion and manners. Readers will delight in Peggy's narrative and how she is able to outsmart men in power even though she's supposed to be a mere lady in waiting.

Recommended grade 7-up. Two instances of mild profanity. No sex.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

Dystopian Fiction Pick

Incarceron
by Catherine Fisher
Dial Books, 2010 (orginally published in Britain in 2007)
442 pages

Provocative, compelling, thrilling, dark, dangerous, gritty, and disturbing. This is a book that I dreamt about for a week after reading it. Not a novel that one will soon forget. Although it takes about thirty pages to set up, from there on, the reader will be enveloped in a fantasy world gone wrong. Creatures beyond description haunt Incarceron's walls.

The setting acts as a character in this dystopian fantasy. Incarceron is a prison that was set up to house the worst of all society--it has been sealed up for centuries and has evolved into a living, breathing, thinking entity. Like Hal, the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the prison takes over. It sees all and knows all. No one has ever escaped except one man; one man who has become a legend, a myth, and a fairy tale. Only Sapphique has escaped and knows the way.

Finn is not like the other prisoners; he remembers Outside. He is sworn to his oath brother Keiro and is tied to Gildas, a Sapienti who seeks the Outside. Because Finn sees visions, he is known as a starseer. He even has dreams of Sapphique leading him from Incarceron.

The warden of Incarceron holds the fate of the prison, and his daughter Claudia will marry and become Queen of the realm. That is, until she finds a key that unlocks Incarceron. Claudia and Finn are able to communicate through this key.

On the Outside, life seems perfect, and it is except that there is no freedom. "We are chained hand and foot...enslaved to a static, empty world where men and women can't read, where scientific advances of the ages are the preserve of the rich, where artists and poets are doomed to endless repititions and sterile reworkings of past masterpieces. Nothing is new. New does not exist. Nothing changes, nothing grows, evolves, develops. Time has stopped. Progress is forbidden." (Incarceron, p. 243)

Once Incarceron is threatened, the realm will tremble.

Book Two: Sapphique due out December 2010.

Highly, highly recommended grades 8-up. May not be suitable for younger readers due to violence. No sex, no language.


FTC Required Disclaimer: I bought this book for my library. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this review.

High School Pick

Riker's High
by Paul Volponi
Viking (Penguin), 2010
246 pages

Gritty and disturbing, Riker's High follows a few weeks in the troubled life of Martin--Prisoner #40 at Riker's High, a dentention center for minors. Martin is in for a minor criminal offense, but thanks to an insane youth criminal system--one that gives him a "free" lawyer who won't listen to him, who tells him he's guilty though he assures her he's innocent, who sends him back to jail because she tells the judge she's not ready--the same lawyer who won't answer the phone even though Martin calls nearly 100 times. A system where on the next attempt, the judge is sick and Martin's trial is moved another two weeks. Martin is at the end of his rope.Surviving in a detention center is no easy feat. It's rougher inside that out on the streets with the gangs.


The world of Riker's High is a warped one--where there are no rules and even the good guys aren't the good guys. Readers won't easily forget this novel. Volponi shows us the youth criminal system in all its ugliness.

Violence, language, prison sex, suicide.
Not recommended for collections under grade 9.
Recommended for grades 10-12.

FTC Disclosure: I originally bought this book for my middle school library since it had good reviews from library publications. One said okay for grade 8. After reading it and reviewing it, I sent my copy to the high school. I received no monetary compensation for my review.