Premeditated Myrtle (Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery 1)

by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Overview

A 2021 Edgar® Award Winner, Best Juvenile
A BookPage Best Book of 2020: Middle Grade
A Mighty Girl's 2020 Books of the Year

Introducing Myrtle Hardcastle, your favorite new amateur detective: a wickedly smart twelve-year-old with a keen interest in criminology and a nose for murder.

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 he —not even her father, the town prosecutor.

With sparkling wit and a tight, twisty plot, Premeditated Myrtle, the first in a series from an award-winning author, introduces a brilliant young investigator ready to take on hard cases and maddening Victorian rules for Young Ladies of Quality in order to earn her place among the most daring and acclaimed amateur detectives of her time or any other.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643750637
Publisher:	Workman Publishing Company
Publication date:	10/13/2020
Series:	Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery , #1
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	579,260
Lexile:	740L (what's this?)
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	10 - 18 Years

About the Author

Elizabeth C. Bunce grew up on a steady diet of Sherlock Holmes, Trixie Belden, and Quincy, M.E., and always played the lead prosecutor in mock trial. She has never had a governess, and no one has ever accused her of being irrepressible, but a teacher did once call her “argumentative”—which was entirely untrue, and she can prove it. She was the inaugural winner of the ALA's William C. Morris Award for a debut work written for young adults, for A Curse Dark as Gold. She lives in Kansas City with her husband and their cats. Premeditated Myrtle is her first book for middle-grade readers. You can find her online at elizabethcbunce.com.
 

Editorial Reviews

09/14/2020

Channeling classic Victorian whodunits, Bunce’s (the Thief Errant series) detective series opener features a quirky, winning narrator and a lively secondary cast. Thanks to governess Miss Judson, 12-year-old Myrtle Hardcastle, who is middle-class and white, is training to become a Young Lady of Quality. Inspired by the examples of her late mother, who was a medical student, and her widowed lawyer father, Myrtle tends to be anything but proper, for example erecting an observation point from which to chronicle neighborhood events. When elderly next-door neighbor, scornful Miss Wodehouse, doesn’t follow her routine one morning, Myrtle summons the constabulary. After the revelation of Miss Wodehouse’s death and the arrival of the elderly woman’s heretofore unknown relatives, Myrtle suspects she was murdered and enlists Miss Judson to solve the mystery. A generous, well-wrought relationship between governess and charge complements tightly plotted twists. As “the precocious daughter who lurked about everywhere being impertinent and morbid,” Myrtle is as clever as she is determined, and her expertise—seen in evidence collection and courtroom antics—is certain to delight genre stalwarts and mystery novices alike. Publishing simultaneously: How to Get Away with Myrtle (A Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery #2). Ages 10–up. Agent: Erin Murphy, Erin Murphy Literary. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

A 2021 Edgar® Award Winner, Best Juvenile
A BookPage Best Book of 2020: Middle Grade
A Mighty Girl's 2020 Books of the Year

"A joyful thing to behold. Set in Victorian England, this mystery gleefully overturns sexist norms and celebrates independent women of intellect, with Myrtle Hardcastle leading the charge."
—Booklist, starred review

"Premeditated Myrtle is a book young readers will love and adults may well sneak out of backpacks and off of nightstands for their own enjoyment… Here’s hoping for more adventures with this delightful, heroic protagonist."
—BookPage, starred review

"Bunce crafts a truly captivating murder mystery, throwing in a delicious mix of twists, red herrings, and relatives excluded from the family fortune. Myrtle is an entertaining protagonist, not afraid to get her hands dirty, sneak into mansions after dark to find a clue, or call out sexism of men toward her scientific interests or the racism toward her governess. The book will make readers yearn for more of Myrtle’s (mis)adventures."
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"A saucy, likable heroine shines in a mystery marked by clever, unexpected twists."
—Kirkus Reviews

"[A] clever and lively Victorian English village murder mystery . . . Bunce does an excellent job of making Myrtle the lead actor but gives her a strong set of (mostly female) supporters."
—The Horn Book

“Bunce’s detective series opener features a quirky, winning narrator and a lively secondary cast . . . A generous, well-wrought relationship between governess and charge complements tightly plotted twists . . . Myrtle is as clever as she is determined, and her expertise—seen in evidence collection and courtroom antics—is certain to delight genre stalwarts and mystery novices alike.”
—Publishers Weekly

“In the tradition of heroines like Flavia de Luce and Harriet the Spy, Myrtle is a fine example of the Victorian scientific female—smart, inquisitive and fearless. Written with a terrific mixture of humor and suspense, Premeditated Myrtle is a perfect read for any budding detective.”
—Rhys Bowen, New York Times bestselling author of the Her Royal Spyness series

From the Publisher

04/17/2020

Gr 5–8—Twelve-year-old Myrtle Hardcastle is not your typical well-bred young lady of 1893 English society, and she has little interest in becoming one. Myrtle's interests lie more in solving crimes, proving her aptitude to her prosecutor father, and arranging his marriage to her beloved and continually supportive governess. When her next-door neighbor, an eccentric elderly woman known for cultivating exotic lilies, dies suddenly, Myrtle finds herself in a mystery worthy of her mettle. Was it a murder? Will Myrtle finally prove herself to her father and the many adults who underestimate her deductive prowess? What can Myrtle do about the incorrigibly flirtatious young woman threatening Myrtle's well-laid plans for the stepmother she has already chosen? A well-plotted mystery, a stubbornly brilliant yet fallible female protagonist, and adorably clever footnotes make this novel shine. The vocabulary is massive, with many potentially unfamiliar terms left undefined. Young readers without background knowledge of Victorian-era England may be confused by some references to historical events and concepts. It is a fantastically large jump from many mystery novels in this target age range to Myrtle Hardcastle, in both lexicon and depth of historical reference. VERDICT While many young readers may struggle with the advanced vocabulary, those history buffs who have long outgrown simple mysteries will find a relatable and delightful companion in Myrtle.—Emily Beasley, Omaha Public Schools

School Library Journal

2020-02-09
An aspiring sleuth in Victorian England is convinced her neighbor’s death was no accident.

Twelve-year-old Myrtle, who might have just been spying—er, Observing!—the neighborhood with her telescope, is convinced that prickly Miss Wodehouse has been the victim of foul play. Though the police say the old lady had a heart attack, Myrtle disagrees. With her magnifying lens, her specimen jars, and her stubbornness, Myrtle will prove the old lady was killed—and find the murderer, to boot. Though unpopular Myrtle leans in to a self-image as “the precocious daughter who lurked about everywhere being impertinent and morbid,” she has allies. Her interest in detecting comes from her affection for her adoring prosecutor father and the memory of her medical-student mother. Myrtle, middle-class and white, is encouraged by her equally quirky and exceedingly clever governess, Miss Judson (the multilingual, biracial daughter of white British and black French Guianese parents), who is at best half-hearted in her attempts to keep Myrtle out of trouble. Meanwhile, Caroline, a British Indian girl who’s been mean before, disassociates herself from Myrtle’s bully and becomes a staunch and equally geeky friend. Witty prose doesn’t always hew to historical accuracy but keeps the characters accessible and quite charming while Myrtle (surrounded by beloved and supportive adults) avoids many of the more tired tropes of the eccentric-detective genre.

A saucy, likable heroine shines in a mystery marked by clever, unexpected twists . (Historical mystery. 10-12)

Kirkus Reviews