HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MYRTLE

Morbid Myrtle, plucky aspiring investigator, must solve a dastardly railroad murder in late Victorian England.

Poor Myrtle. Father thinks she should have a holiday, because a 12-year-old girl needs some time away from solving murders. Horrors! He’s sending her off for “Family Amusements” at the seaside with Aunt Helena. Myrtle’s governess, Miss Judson, usually supportive of Myrtle’s unconventional interests, is a willing collaborator in the effort to keep Myrtle away from crime. When their train to the seaside is robbed, Myrtle is thrilled by the mentoring of a wonderful lady investigator. But the investigator herself is murdered, leaving Myrtle to find both the murderer and the jewel thief without assistance. In the forbidding, unwelcoming coastal town, Myrtle uncovers myriad disquieting mysteries. Each new revelation builds upon the prior discovery until the tense, wonderfully eerie climax on a ramshackle amusement pier. The sleuthing is heartwarming and funny, featuring strong women and girls, packed with characters who genuinely care about each other. Myrtle’s story would be an undiluted treat, if only there weren’t plot points hinging upon insidious stereotypes about how disabled people’s bodies function and others’ right to know details about their abilities. Myrtle and most characters are White; Miss Judson is a Black woman from French Guiana; and a local teen photographer who befriends Myrtle is brown-skinned.

A delightful heroine and an exciting mystery mostly manage to outshine tired, harmful disability tropes.