Waiting on Wednesday: Cold-Blooded Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Image: Workman

Cold-Blooded Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce. 368 p. Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery #3. Algonquin Young Readers/ Workman, October 5, 2021. 9781616209209.

Happy Wednesday! One more Wednesday after today! Waiting on Wednesday features Cold-Blooded Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce. I gave a hint to this post when I recommended Premeditated Myrtle on Monday. Here's the publisher synopsis:

Myrtle Hardcastle—twelve-year-old Young Lady of Quality and Victorian amateur detective—is back on the case, solving a string of bizarre murders in her hometown of Swinburne.

When the proprietor of Leighton’s Mercantile is found dead on the morning his annual Christmas shop display is to be unveiled, it’s clear a killer had revenge in mind. But who would want to kill the local dry-goods merchant? Perhaps someone who remembers the mysterious scandal that destroyed his career as a professor and archaeologist. When the killer strikes again, each time manipulating the figures in the display to foretell the crime, Myrtle finds herself racing to uncover the long-buried facts of a cold case—and the motivations of a modern murderer.

Cold-Blooded Myrtle releases on October 5. Be sure to check out the first two books in the series before then. The books do not need to be read in order, but Myrtle is such a firecracker, you won't want to miss any. Happy reading!

Middle Grade Monday Audio Review: Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce

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Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~8 hours, 12 minutes. Read by Bethan Rose Young. Recorded Books, October, 2020. 978190085461. (Review of downloadable audio borrowed from public library.)

Happy Monday! Only two more Mondays left in our school year after today! Middle Grade Monday features Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce. Myrtle Hardcastle is a smart and spunky twelve-year-old who lives with her lawyer father and governess in Swinburne, England. She has a keen and curious mind and full access to all her father's law books and her dead mother's microscope. Her governess, Miss Judson, encourages her curiosity, but also reminds Myrtle that she is also training to be a Young Lady of Quality. Young Ladies of Quality don't spy on their neighbors. Myrtle calls it observing. When she notices that her unpleasant neighbor, Miss Wodehouse wasn't up and about for her morning routine, Myrtle calls the constabulary, who find the old woman dead in her bathtub. The death is ruled to be of natural causes, but Myrtle isn't so sure and launches her own investigation.

This intriguing whodunit will have you guessing. It's set in the Victorian Era and Myrtle constantly struggles with her drive to learn and the constraints on women and girls at the time. She's a spunky, endearing main character surrounded by a cast of colorful secondary characters. It's a long book and the vocabulary is fairly difficult, but if you love a good mystery and have outgrown the mild, middle grade stuff, Myrtle's your gal!

I just adored the audiobook energetically narrated by a new-to-me narrator. Perfectly paced and energetic. The voice made me love Myrtle even more. 

Premeditated Myrtle is book one of the Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery series. It was published last year and won an Edgar Award in the children's book category. If you enjoy it, move right on to book two, Premeditated Myrtle as I did! I can't wait for #3, Cold Blooded Myrtle, due out in October.. 

Teen Tuesday: Overturned by Lamar Giles

Image: Scholastic Inc.

Overturned by Lamar Giles. 346 p. Scholastic Press/ Scholastic Inc., March, 2017.9780545812504. 

Teen Tuesday features Overturned by Lamar Giles. All Nikki Tate wants is to save enough money to leave Las Vegas, the casinos and her dad, who is on death row for a murder he claims he didn't commit. Whatever. New evidence suddenly emerges that clears her father and suddenly he is back in her life. Just as suddenly, he is murdered and Nikki, who is a card sharp finds herself drawn into the hunt for his murderer. Compelling and suspenseful, fans of mystery and detective stories will eat this up. 

Waiting on Wednesday: Tyrannosaurus Wrecks by Stuart Gibbs

Image: Simon & Schuster

Tyrannosaurus Wrecks by Stuart Gibbs. 336 p. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, March 24, 2020. 9781534443754.

Publisher synopsis: In the latest novel in New York Times bestselling author Stuart Gibbs’s FunJungle series, Teddy Fitzroy returns as FunJungle’s resident sleuth to solve his most improbable mystery yet—with a victim that’s 65 million years old.

Teddy was all set for a campout at his friend Sage’s family ranch—but then Sage gets terrible news: The skull of a rare dinosaur that was being excavated on his property has mysteriously vanished overnight in the middle of a rainstorm, even though it weighed 500 pounds. Not a single footprint has been left behind. Since the dinosaur was top secret, the police don’t believe anyone outside the dig could have stolen it.

A T-rex skull can sell for millions of dollars, and everyone is a suspect—including J.J. McCracken, the owner of FunJungle.

Meanwhile, Teddy’s old foes, the Barksdale twins, have gotten into trouble with an illegally purchased anaconda, and Teddy’s girlfriend Summer wants to find out who’s behind the local trade in black market reptiles. The two cases will drag Teddy into more danger and chaos than ever before, in this mystery that’s stranger than fiction.

All of Stuart Gibbs series are top circulators at my school and, with good reason, they are consistently fantastic. I had the privilege of reviewing the first and second Funjungle books for SLJ. I haven't been able to continue the series partly due to time and mostly due to the fact that Gibbs' shelf is usually empty from the second week of school through the end of the school year!

#tbt: The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley

Image: Abrams

The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley. Sisters Grimm #1. 192 p. Abrams, October, 2005. 9780810959255.

#tbt features The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley. Book one of what would become eight books in the Sisters Grimm series was published in 2005 and features sisters Daphne and Sabrina Grimm. When their parents disappear the sisters are sent to live with a grandmother they thought was dead in Ferryport. Once there, they find that they are expected to become detectives and carry on the legacy that stretches back to the original brothers Grimm. This series is a TMS favorite.