In Myrtle Peril (Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery 4)

by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Overview

An Edgar® Award Winning Series

A cold case. A missing heiress. And a murder in plain sight. But . . . where is the body?

When a mysterious girl attempts to stake her claim to the Snowcroft family fortune, Myrtle Hardcastle’s father, a lawyer, is asked to help prove—or disprove—the girl’s identity. Is she truly Ethel Snowcroft, believed to be lost at sea with her parents, or is she a con artist chasing a windfall? Myrtle is enthralled by the case, but Mr. Hardcastle’s investigation takes a detour when he’s hospitalized for a tonsillectomy—and then witnesses a murder. Or does he?

​With Mr. Hardcastle incapacitated and possibly hallucinating, Myrtle must step into the breach, and find the murder victim and the real Miss Snowcroft before the killer comes after her father.

With stakes this high, sleuthing puts Myrtle, her family, and the patients and staff of the hospital all In Myrtle Peril.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643753317
Publisher:	Workman Publishing Company
Publication date:	10/04/2022
Series:	Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery , #4
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	10 - 18 Years

About the Author

Elizabeth C. Bunce is the Edgar Award-winning author of Premeditated Myrtle and the Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery series, a three-time finalist for the Agatha Awards, and a finalist for the Edgar and Anthony Awards. She’s also penned several young adult historical fantasies, including Morris Award winner A Curse Dark as Gold. She lives in Kansas City with her husband and their cats. Read more about Elizabeth and her books at www.elizabethcbunce.com.

Editorial Reviews

Silver Falchion Award Winner, Juvenile/YA
Anthony Award Finalist
Agatha Award Finalist

“Another thrilling mystery from our young Victorian sleuth…Enthusiastically, chaotically delightful.”

—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

★ 2022-07-27
Another thrilling mystery from our young Victorian sleuth.

All the members of Myrtle’s household are suffering from malaise at the lack of crimes to investigate. Myrtle; her father, the Prosecuting Solicitor; and her brilliant governess, Miss Judson have no villainies to uncover, and it’s so dull. It’s exciting when Father gets pulled into the case of a long-ago shipwreck—is Sally, a White girl about Myrtle’s age, an heiress or a fraud? But the case of Sally-the-possible-heiress will have to wait; Father needs his tonsils removed (a dangerous surgery in 1894, even in a “marvelous specimen of modernity” like the Royal Swinburne Hospital). When Father witnesses a murder in the hospital, is it real or a delusion? Only Myrtle and Miss Judson, ably assisted by Sally and Peony, Myrtle’s talkative cat, can expose the truth. Myriad secrets all come back to the central mystery, and though some tertiary subplots are lightly developed, the mystery as a whole is charming. How can it be otherwise when solved by “a cat, a dog, two doctors, a journalist on crutches, an unemployed law clerk, a solicitor in pyjamas, a nurse with a cricket bat, a governess, an off-duty housekeeper, and one small frantic Investigator”? Myrtle’s family is White; multiple characters of color are present, including biracial French Guianese Miss Judson.

Enthusiastically, chaotically delightful. (Historical mystery. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews