book cover

First Class Murder

by Robin Stevens

Interest age: 9+
Reading age: 9+

Published by Corgi, 2016

  • Adventure
  • Historical

About this book

After their last distressing case, Wells and Wong Detective Agency have been ordered on holiday. They're bound for Istanbul on the Orient Express, chaperoned by Hazel's father, and detecting strictly forbidden. 

But when fellow passenger, Mrs Daunt, is brutally murdered and her diamonds stolen, Hazel and Daisy instinctively swing into action. There's a puzzling array of suspects: a magician, a spiritualist, a wronged brother, a Russian Countess, and a British policewoman in glamorous disguise. Lies are uncovered! Motives multiply! But, with the train conveniently stranded in remote terrain, will the murderer strike again?

The glorious mixture of glamour (note Mrs Vitellius' racy red peignoir!), suspense, puzzlement and female pluck are underpinned by Hazel's wisely self-aware, tongue-in-cheek, narrating voice, with historical background details adding extra interest. Great fun!

About the author

Robin Stevens was born in California and grew up in an Oxford college. She spent her teenage years at Cheltenham Ladies' College, reading a lot of murder mysteries and hoping that she'd get the chance to do some detecting herself (she didn't). 

She studied crime fiction at university, and then worked in children's publishing. She is now a full-time writer and the creater of the bestselling, award-winning Murder Most Unladylike series. Murder Most Unladylike was the bestselling middle-grade debut of 2014, winning the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Younger Fiction and sparking a trend for middle-grade mysteries. Robin lives in London with her pet bearded dragon, Watson.

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