Just So Stories

Harper Collins Australia

March 2024

• ISBN: 9781803705422
• ISBN 10: 1803705426
• Imprint: Usborne GB
• RRP: $19.99

I really do love me a good cozy murder mystery, going right back to when I had almost every single Agatha Christie title, so I’m absolutely relishing this trend in YA fiction.

This is the second of this author’s books I’ve read [see This Book Kills] and it’s even twistier than the first – which is saying something, I can assure you. It has tropes galore and every single red herring you could imagine, and your readers who adore playing detective are going to lose their minds over it.

A huge mansion in an isolated part of the country, a freak snowstorm, no power or phones including no mobile signal, cars all disabled, a truly odious, filthy rich family of liars and three teenage girls, all strangers to each other and to the family, caught up in an insanely convoluted murder mystery.

It’s outrageously good and has kept me so glued to each page that the other day, when I’d taken it to the beach to keep reading from the previous night, I missed almost every single one of The Kid’s excellent rides (surfing) because I kept ducking back to the page I was on. (OOPS! 😳).

Devi, Jayne and Lizzie are so very different to each other, but when they find themselves stranded by a snowstorm at the Vanforte mansion, and wealthy (but nasty) Emily Vanforte is murdered, they team up to piece together the mystery.

What with gold-hilted knives hidden under the floor disappearing, a reckless cousin waving around an antique gun, secret passages and even creepier spyholes there’s no shortage of leads to follow, but can the girls not only crack the case, but actually survive?

There are no loose ends in this one for sure, everything ties up neatly at the end but oh what a tangled web it is along the way. Readers from about 14 will love it and there is a very handy discussion notes guide which makes it a perfect book club or readers circle choice.

Highly recommended for amateur sleuths from lower secondary upwards.