MURDER IS BAD MANNERS, by Robin Stevens

The story: It's one thing to SAY you're a detective, and another thing to investigate a murder--especially when you're a 13-year-old student at an all-girls boarding school, and the murderer is probably one of your teachers! Meet Wells and Wong, who specialize in snooping as an extra-curricular activity (right in between Latin and field hockey) but who never thought that poking their noses into a crime might turn out to be super risky for the detectives...or that it might drive the murderer to kill again!

June Cleaver's ratings: Language PG; Violence PG-13; Sexual content G; Nudity G; Substance abuse PG; magic & the occult G; GLBT content PG; adult themes (murder, an implied lesbian relationship) PG; overall rating PG.

Liz's comments: Wells and Wong are more than your average set of middle-school sleuths: Daisy's strong personality (unlike Nancy Drew's) can get a little obnoxious at times, and Hazel is essentially a Chinese Watson, a minority at a time in England when minorities were Not The Thing. The fact that they're not perfect actually makes them a lot more fun, yet at the same time, believable best friends. This is a murder mystery in a classic setting--Agatha Christie for the middle-school crowd!