The Deadly Daylight

by Ash Harrier

Overview

12-year-old Alice has a hard time making friends. Maybe it's because she works in a funeral home and receives messages from the dead.

While the kids at school taunt her and call her “Alice in Zombieland," Alice England finds refuge at her father’s funeral home, where the dead tell her stories. As she arranges the deceased’s personal mementos, an item will hum with meaning–resonance–and Alice will see the story of their life.

When she "meets" George Devenish, a man who died of a rare sunlight allergy, Alice knows George was murdered. Her only leads are George’s niece, “Violet the Vampire,” who shares her uncle’s allergy and a friendly, but secretive boy named Cal.

As a determined Alice investigates, she is surprised to find Violet and Cal become more than just suspects, but allies—maybe even friends. However, Alice soon finds navigating her first real friendships might be harder than solving a murder.

Clever humor and twisty clues abound in this cozy middle grade mystery about a group of misfits finding courage in the truth and friendship in each other. Delightful, dark, and quirky, The Deadly Daylight is perfect for fans of Nancy Drew and Winterhouse.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823457618
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	03/05/2024
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	480,464
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Ash Harrier lives in Perth, Western Australia. She is an Ambassador for the Books in Homes Australia charity, which helps children in disadvantaged circumstances build their home libraries. Ash has a great fondness for puzzles, scientific facts, birds and the smell of dried tea. Some of her favorite pastimes are reading, daydreaming and spending time in the garden with her small flock of hens.

Editorial Reviews

12/18/2023

Australian author Harrier imbues a classic whodunit with poetic melancholy in this haunting debut. Twelve-year-old Alice England, who has muscular atrophy in her leg due to complications during birth that also killed her twin sister, lives alone with her father in a seaside town and helps tend her family’s funeral home. Shunned and unkindly dubbed “Alice in Zombieland” by her classmates both for her limp and her father’s profession, Alice is friendless until she meets Violet Devenish, a fellow student who is deathly allergic to light and wears a black veil to protect herself from the sun. Harrier deliberately unspools the jam-packed plot at an unhurried pace, even when Violet’s beloved uncle George—who shares Violet’s allergy—is found dead of light exposure. Analytical Alice is immediately suspicious, thanks to the insight granted by her supernatural ability to “read the resonance” of objects belonging to the deceased, and her preoccupation with uncovering George’s murderer soon puts her at odds with the town, the insular Devenish clan, and eventually Violet herself. While Alice’s diversions occasionally slacken the tension, offbeat characters and lyrical writing sustain a thoroughly clever and engrossing riff on the murder mystery formula. Ages 9–12. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Enjoyably quirky tween detectives."—Kirkus Reviews

"An intriguing mystery with a clever resolution, and a slight supernatural element to the plot adds to the engaging atmosphere."—Booklist
 
"Simultaneously wholesome and somewhat ghoulish, this murder mystery is fun for children seeking an eccentric ­detective novel."—School Library Journal

"Offbeat characters and lyrical writing sustain a thoroughly clever and engrossing riff on the murder mystery formula."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

01/01/2024

Gr 4–6—Alice, almost 13, loves dinosaurs, gathering (but not collecting) items from the beach, and helping her father prepare corpses at the funeral home where they live and work. What truly sets Alice apart is her ability to connect with the memories of the departed through objects she calls "resonant." This gift comes in handy when her new friend Violet's uncle dies in a series of "unfortunate accidents" that Alice suspects was ultimately murder. Violet and her family share a life-threatening allergy to sunlight, acting as the central force of the plot. Alice uses her curiosity and ability to read people to solve the mystery with the help of her friends Violet and Cal. While the story does not shy away from morbid subjects, Alice's matter-of-fact nature and inability to be anything other than her authentic self balance the macabre plot. The side characters are quirky and lovable, adding a layer to the story as Alice learns how important yet difficult friendship can be. The mystery itself is satisfying, with plenty of twists to keep readers guessing until the end, but also enough hints being dropped for would-be detectives to try to solve it themselves. Alice is presented as light-skinned with red hair, and Violet is depicted with very pale skin and blond hair. VERDICT Simultaneously wholesome and somewhat ghoulish, this murder mystery is fun for children seeking an eccentric detective novel.—Nicolette Pavain

School Library Journal

2023-12-16
An Australian girl who works in a funeral home hopes to solve a murder.

Eighth grader Alice, who has muscular atrophy of one leg, loves to help out at her family’s business, Tranquility Funerals. She assists with aesthetic services—“the beautification of the corpse”—and she’s perplexed that anyone finds that odd. Alice also has a secret ability: Sometimes a body’s accessories are “resonant,” and they tell her a story about the owner’s previous life. It’s unsurprising that Alice has no friends. While she’s perfectly happy being friendless, she’s equally unbothered when a protective teacher matches her up with bullying victim Violet, who has a rare and extremely dangerous sunlight allergy called solar urticaria. Soon after, Violet’s uncle George is found dead on the pier where he worked, and Alice has a resonant moment while helping to prepare his body. She’s convinced he was murdered and ropes Violet in to her investigation. There are so many suspects! Was it George’s widow, the rough teens who gather under the pier, the overwrought security guard, the sender of an anonymous note, or the terrifying celebrity allergist? Alice possesses a precocious vocabulary, tends toward pedantry, is obsessive to an extent that annoys her new friend, and struggles with empathy and tact (“Tact meant concealing your curiosity”). But they do make an excellent team, Alice finds she appreciates having Violet in her life, and readers will have fun getting to know them. Most characters read white.

A series opener that introduces enjoyably quirky tween detectives. (Mystery. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews