Murder Most Unladylike is a children's mystery novel by British-American author Robin Stevens, published in 2014. It follows two schoolgirls in 1930s England solving their first murder mystery and is the first book in the ‘Murder Most Unladylike’ series. The story is written in the style of a casebook and follows two fictional boarding schoolgirl detectives, Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong, as they try to find the murderer of their science teacher. The book has been nominated for several awards, including the Carnegie Medal. A sequel, Arsenic For Tea, was published seven months after Murder Most Unladylike. In the US, the book was published under the name Murder is Bad Manners. The series Since the first Murder Most Unladylike book, there have been eight books within the series and four mini books. The main books are as follows: •Murder Most Unladylike •Arsenic For Tea •First Class Murder •Jolly Foul Play •Mistletoe and Murder •A Spoonful of Murder •Death in the Spotlight •Top Marks for Murder •Death Sets Sail
Plot
Hazel Wong and Daisy Wells are students in Deepdean School for Girls. They are the founding members of their school's Detective Society, albeit the only ones in it. One day, Hazel stumbles upon the corpse of their Science teacher Miss Bell in the gymnasium, but when Hazel returns with Daisy and one of the prefects, the body is gone. Together, they work tirelessly to piece together the clues and solve the mystery.
Reception
The critical reception In its review, The Oxford Times praised Stevens for her "sense of place... attention to detail, in-depth characters, authentic documents of events and, most importantly, absorbing plot". The website Crime Review called Murder Most Unladylike "an assured and capable debut",. Children's author Jo Cotterill called it "extremely well plotted", but criticized the pacing of the story. The education website Teachwire said the book is "something that is simultaneously recognisable and totally original". It also won a 2015 Waterstones Children's Book Prize in the 5-12 Fiction category.
