Inquiring female minds
Here’s a flock of mysteries all solved by smart girl detectives
THE GREAT CAKE MYSTERY By Alexander Mccall Smith, illustrated by Iain Mcintosh, Anchor, 74 pages, $15.99 Ages 5-9 How did Precious Ramotswe, celebrated sleuth of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, get started? Mccall Smith takes us into Precious’ childhood and a tiny Botswanan schoolhouse where the theft of a piece of cake and the quest to prevent false blame make for Precious’ first case. The author’s breezy prose and affable narrative voice, along with Mcintosh’s woodcut-style illustrations, conjure a bright, friendly little girl in this quick, pleasant mystery. Good for emerging readers and for reading aloud. THE AGENCY: THE TRAITOR IN THE TUNNEL By Y.S. Lee, Candlewick, 373 pages, $19.00 Ages 11 and up Ontarian Y.S. Lee has turned her degree in Victorian studies into a series about sleuth Mary Quinn, whose Irish mother and Chinese father have left her a virtual orphan. In this final case in The Agency, Mary goes undercover as a parlour maid in the home of none other than Queen Victoria and family. Hired to solve the mystery of a string of petty thefts, she must fend off the advances of dissolute Prince Bertie, heir to the throne — when she isn’t exploring a shipment of explosives in the sewers beneath Buckingham Palace. Lee depicts Victoriana with unabashed latititude, harnessing the conventions of feisty-girl-romance in this confection. Despite its anachronisms, the series offers young readers an introduction to Victorian London. I AM HALF-SICK OF SHADOWS By Alan Bradley, Doubleday, 275 pages, $29.95 Ages 13 and up At eleven years old Flavia de Luce is precociously informed about the chemistry of poisons and is relentlessly curious when it comes to solving murders. In this fourth case, she’s at first starstruck when her father rents out their dilapidated family mansion, Buckshaw, as a movie set. Then the film’s star is murdered and the whole population of the house is trapped by heavy snow — leaving Flavia free to do her detecting without too much interference from the police. A cross between a 1950’s British period piece and an Agatha Christie, this is written for adults but is perfect for adolescents with a taste for humour, literary froth, murder mysteries and decaying British gentry — and who can appreciate an improbably knowledgeable child detective who has an utterly realistic streak of stubbornness. All four volumes (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie; The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag; and A Red Herring without Mustard) are a hoot. THE WICKED AND THE JUST By J. Anderson Coats, Harcourt, 344 pages, $19.99 Ages 12 and up Not mystery but hardship afflicts two girls in this work of historical fiction. Arrogant, spoiled Cecily and her father move from England to take up powerful positions in Wales when the English take it over in the 1290’s. Cecily hates the snooty coterie of English burgesses and takes out her frustration on her Welsh servant Gwinny. Then the Welsh rise up in rebellion, and it’s Gwinny’s turn to lord it over Cecily, now terrified. Terse, cantankerous and vivid, Cecily’s first-person voice brings this tense situation to life, as does Gwinny’s alternating voice— by turns haggard, starved and vengeful. The two girls are both sympathetic and unsympathetic in this unusually honest portrait of the effects of power. TINFOIL SKY By Cyndi Sand-eveland, Tundra, 216 pages, $19.99 Ages 10-13 With a mother who has drug, drinking and boyfriend problems, Mel is used to moving from place to place at short notice. But when she’s landed with her frosty-tempered grandmother and abandoned, she finds herself making friends, getting her first job and even, best of all, getting a library card — all of which gives her strength to resist her mother’s drifting life. Briskly paced and transparent in message and style. Deirdre Baker is the author of Becca at Sea, Groundwood Books.