Description
Holly Jackson meets Agatha Christie in this cosy modern-day YA murder mystery where your closest family are your prime suspects.
Ruth is not thrilled to be spending the weekend at the family farm visiting the ancient GG, her coolly distant step-grandmother. With no internet or phone coverage, Ruth occupies herself by re-reading old Agatha Christie novels, eavesdropping on the adults, and definitely not daydreaming about her sort-of-cousin Dylan.
But when GG dies under suspicious circumstances, Ruth's dull weekend turns into an enforced-family-holiday-slash-possible-murder-investigation - and she's not about to let the police get in the way of her chance to solve a real-life murder mystery. With Dylan as the Watson to her Holmes, Ruth soon discovers that plenty of people had reasons to be rid of GG, and her list of suspects grows to comprise everyone in the house. Including, in the interests of fairness, herself.
Review
Ruth is spending the weekend with her family at her ancient step-grandmother’s farm, that Ruth calls GG. As the farm has no internet, no wifi and no phone reception, her only option is spend her time reading more murder mysteries (which is not really that challenging as she loves reading murder mysteries).
When GG is found dead on the floor of her bedroom with the window broken, Ruth and her sort-of-cousin Dylan decide to investigate for themselves. There is no way that Ruth is going to let the chance to be real detective slip away, especially when all the clues point to someone in the house being the killer. But could someone in her family really be that bad? And can they find the killer before anyone else gets hurt?
This is a fantastic story full of a cast of amazing characters, a murder to be solved, and so much humour entwined throughout that you really won’t want the story to end at all. With an intriguing mix of personalities that make up the family, and the kind of shared history that makes each family unique, this is a great read.
Perfect for everyone who loves a murder mystery, this is a fabulous read for anyone 14 and up, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it gets shortlisted by the CBCA next year. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this book!
