Author of Easy Read YA and Hi/Low MG Books
Premeditated Myrtle (Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries #1)
Description:
Twelve-year-old Myrtle Hardcastle has a passion for justice and a Highly Unconventional obsession with criminal science. Armed with her father’s law books and her mum’s microscope, Myrtle studies toxicology, keeps abreast of the latest developments in crime scene analysis, and Observes her neighbors in the quiet village of Swinburne, England.
When her next-door neighbor, a wealthy spinster and eccentric breeder of rare flowers, dies under Mysterious Circumstances, Myrtle seizes her chance. With her unflappable governess, Miss Ada Judson, by her side, Myrtle takes it upon herself to prove Miss Wodehouse was murdered and find the killer, even if nobody else believes her — not even her father, the town prosecutor.
Reader's Review:
I truly enjoyed reading Elizabeth C. Bunce’s Premeditated Myrtle. The MG novel is about a precocious young girl in the 1890’s who is following in the footsteps of her father, the local Prosecutor. She uses her intellect along with her curiosity to solve the murder of a neighbor. She is helped and guided by her nanny, Miss Judson. Together, they make a formidable crime solving pair in this first installment of A Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery.I already have the second book in the series at hand to start reading after penning this review. I do say that the vocabulary and reading level, while being described as for readers of 10-years and up, grades 4-6 seem a little young for the actual writing style that was deftly inspired by the Sherlock Holmes stories that the writer said she grew up reading. I’d surely suggest it would take a middle school aged reader to enjoy this story.Lastly, as a side note, I’d like to say that the pacing of this book was, in my opinion, excellent. Thank you Ms. Bunce.