CREAM BUNS AND CRIME

Stevens and her fictional characters offer some background to the collection of A Murder Most Unladylike books.

Stevens’ nine-book series is a satisfying and highly successful combination of English boarding-school tales and traditional detective stories, all set in the 1930s. This entertaining companion title includes an invitation to would-be detectives; suggested reading, mostly from the adult world, for mystery aficionados; and four new, interconnected short stories. Readers will encounter instructions on how to set up their own clubs for finding and solving mysteries from Stevens’ characters, including Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong of the Wells & Wong Detective Society (who were first introduced in 2015’s Murder Is Bad Manners), and George Mukherjee and Alexander Arcady of the Junior Pinkertons (the girls’ friends from Weston Boys’ School). The author and her characters take turns narrating the short stories, sharing tips and tricks for detection, and they offer a short history of detective novels. Hazel introduces crime-writing queens Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham; Daisy writes profiles of her 10 favorite fictional detectives, including Inspector Alan Grant, Father Brown, and Nancy Drew; and Stevens shares her favorite mysteries and their influences on the stories she wrote. Readers will also enjoy learning more about spies, codebreaking, and famous unsolved cases and trying the recipes for food mentioned in earlier books. Altogether, this is jolly good fun.

Fans will be thrilled and encouraged to go on exploring the worlds of mystery reading—and solving.