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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
When Nancy Parker gets her first position as a housemaid to the very modern Mrs Bryce, it’s not exactly her dream job – she’d rather be out and about solving mysteries. But she soon discovers that there are plenty of mysteries right on her doorstep.
Who’s sneaking about stealing silver and jewels? What is Cook’s dark secret? And, most thrilling of all, could Mrs Bryce be mixed up in murder?
It’s 1920 and 14-year-old Nancy Parker has just left school. Nancy loves detective novels (the gorier the better) and dreams of being a detective but in the meantime she has to find work and is lucky to be taken on by the thoroughly modern Mrs Bryce as a maid in her household. When Mrs Bryce moves to the seaside town of Seabourne to find investors for her latest movie, Nancy meets Ella, the daughter of a famous archaeologist and Quentin, a schoolboy staying with the vicar while his parents are on holiday. Their arrival coincides with a series of strange thefts that sets the town to gossiping, the investigation of which causes a rivalry between Nancy, Quentin and Ella. But there are darker goings on in the town than any of them can imagine, events that will force them to band together if they’re to crack the case …
Julia Lee’s historical mystery novel for children aged 9+ (the first in a series) is a good alternative for fans of the WELLS AND WONG SERIES. I particularly liked that Nancy is from a working class background as it gives her a different perspective to the more privileged Quentin and Ella but I wish Lee hadn’t made her so bad at spelling as it makes her seem uneducated and less intelligent than she is. Ella’s smart and academic and has snobbish preconceptions about Nancy and Quentin but I liked the warm relationship she has with her father (a bit of a vague professor type) and the way she really wants to help. My favourite character was Quentin, the forgotten son of thoroughly unpleasant parents, who wants to be a secret agent but who’s managed to alienate himself at boarding school and is taking remedial lessons because he’s not as smart as he thinks he is. All three characters need the friendship that develops between them and I loved how Lee gives them all separate storylines that shows what they think of each other and how their preconceptions change as the storylines come together. I think that Lee could have made more of the period than she does, but I believed in the reactions characters had to things like films and motor cars as they began to pick up in popularity and became more affordable. All in all, I thought this was an entertaining read and I look forward to the sequel.
The Verdict:
Julia Lee’s historical mystery novel for children aged 9+ (the first in a series) is a good alternative for fans of the WELLS AND WONG SERIES. I particularly liked that Nancy is from a working class background as it gives her a different perspective to the more privileged Quentin and Ella but I wish Lee hadn’t made her so bad at spelling as it makes her seem uneducated and less intelligent than she is. Ella’s smart and academic and has snobbish preconceptions about Nancy and Quentin but I liked the warm relationship she has with her father (a bit of a vague professor type) and the way she really wants to help. My favourite character was Quentin, the forgotten son of thoroughly unpleasant parents, who wants to be a secret agent but who’s managed to alienate himself at boarding school and is taking remedial lessons because he’s not as smart as he thinks he is. All three characters need the friendship that develops between them and I loved how Lee gives them all separate storylines that shows what they think of each other and how their preconceptions change as the storylines come together. I think that Lee could have made more of the period than she does, but I believed in the reactions characters had to things like films and motor cars as they began to pick up in popularity and became more affordable. All in all, I thought this was an entertaining read and I look forward to the sequel.
NANCY PARKER’S DIARY OF A DETECTIVE was released in the United Kingdom on 3rd March 2016. Thanks to Amazon Vine for the ARC of this book.
When Nancy Parker gets her first position as a housemaid to the very modern Mrs Bryce, it’s not exactly her dream job – she’d rather be out and about solving mysteries. But she soon discovers that there are plenty of mysteries right on her doorstep.
Who’s sneaking about stealing silver and jewels? What is Cook’s dark secret? And, most thrilling of all, could Mrs Bryce be mixed up in murder?
It’s 1920 and 14-year-old Nancy Parker has just left school. Nancy loves detective novels (the gorier the better) and dreams of being a detective but in the meantime she has to find work and is lucky to be taken on by the thoroughly modern Mrs Bryce as a maid in her household. When Mrs Bryce moves to the seaside town of Seabourne to find investors for her latest movie, Nancy meets Ella, the daughter of a famous archaeologist and Quentin, a schoolboy staying with the vicar while his parents are on holiday. Their arrival coincides with a series of strange thefts that sets the town to gossiping, the investigation of which causes a rivalry between Nancy, Quentin and Ella. But there are darker goings on in the town than any of them can imagine, events that will force them to band together if they’re to crack the case …
Julia Lee’s historical mystery novel for children aged 9+ (the first in a series) is a good alternative for fans of the WELLS AND WONG SERIES. I particularly liked that Nancy is from a working class background as it gives her a different perspective to the more privileged Quentin and Ella but I wish Lee hadn’t made her so bad at spelling as it makes her seem uneducated and less intelligent than she is. Ella’s smart and academic and has snobbish preconceptions about Nancy and Quentin but I liked the warm relationship she has with her father (a bit of a vague professor type) and the way she really wants to help. My favourite character was Quentin, the forgotten son of thoroughly unpleasant parents, who wants to be a secret agent but who’s managed to alienate himself at boarding school and is taking remedial lessons because he’s not as smart as he thinks he is. All three characters need the friendship that develops between them and I loved how Lee gives them all separate storylines that shows what they think of each other and how their preconceptions change as the storylines come together. I think that Lee could have made more of the period than she does, but I believed in the reactions characters had to things like films and motor cars as they began to pick up in popularity and became more affordable. All in all, I thought this was an entertaining read and I look forward to the sequel.
The Verdict:
Julia Lee’s historical mystery novel for children aged 9+ (the first in a series) is a good alternative for fans of the WELLS AND WONG SERIES. I particularly liked that Nancy is from a working class background as it gives her a different perspective to the more privileged Quentin and Ella but I wish Lee hadn’t made her so bad at spelling as it makes her seem uneducated and less intelligent than she is. Ella’s smart and academic and has snobbish preconceptions about Nancy and Quentin but I liked the warm relationship she has with her father (a bit of a vague professor type) and the way she really wants to help. My favourite character was Quentin, the forgotten son of thoroughly unpleasant parents, who wants to be a secret agent but who’s managed to alienate himself at boarding school and is taking remedial lessons because he’s not as smart as he thinks he is. All three characters need the friendship that develops between them and I loved how Lee gives them all separate storylines that shows what they think of each other and how their preconceptions change as the storylines come together. I think that Lee could have made more of the period than she does, but I believed in the reactions characters had to things like films and motor cars as they began to pick up in popularity and became more affordable. All in all, I thought this was an entertaining read and I look forward to the sequel.
NANCY PARKER’S DIARY OF A DETECTIVE was released in the United Kingdom on 3rd March 2016. Thanks to Amazon Vine for the ARC of this book.
