Murder Most Unladylike

This is the first murder that the Wells and Wong detective society has ever investigated, so it is a good thing Daisy bought me a new casebook.

Wong is Hazel Wong and so Daisy must be Daisy Wells. Hazel is sent from China to go to a real English school, so her dad can prove he is better than his friend who sent his daughter to a fake English school. Hazel is a proper goody two shoes but she realises that in that particular school this is not the way to make friends. She treads on her text books and doesn't answer questions in class that she knows the answers to. But Daisy notices what she is doing and helps her. They make lots of societies together, and just as they make a detective society, complete with new casebook courtesy of Daisy, they find a body...

Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens (Corgi 2014) is a book for mystery lovers. It is set in a school, which is awesome and it has a map, which is awesome too, but mostly it is a mystery, with an actual casebook of motives, alibis and all sorts. You know as much as Hazel and Daisy know between them, but it is not possible to guess who 'dun it'. It says for readers 9+ but I don't see why, as it's a perfectly normal murder.

My question for Robin Stevens is: when you write, how do you keep it a secret if YOU know all along who did it?

Robin Stevens replies: Robin Stevens here. I'm so glad you liked the book (it goes with your hat!) My answer is that I've had to get really good at keeping secrets. Not even my editor knows who the murderer is going to be before I send her the book, and I never talk about my murderers when I speak at events!

I also think that knowing who the murderer is makes me better at hiding it in each book. I can lay fake clues, and make the real clues seem very unimportant. I have a lot of fun with that, and I love tricking my readers!

I hope that answered your question!

All the best,

Robin