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First published in Great Britain 2016
by Egmont UK Limited
The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN
Emily and the Detectives © 2016 Susie Day
Rain on My Parade © 2016 Elen Caldecott. Characters first appeared in the Marsh Road Mysteries series, published by Bloombury 2015
The Mystery of the Green Room © 2016 Clementine Beauvais
The Mystery of Diablo Canyon Circle © 2016 Roman Mysteries Ltd
Mel Foster and the Hound of the Baskervilles © 2016 Julia Golding
Dazzle, Dog Biscuits and Disaster © 2016 Kate Pankhurst
God’s Eye © 2016 Frances Hardinge
The Mystery of the Pineapple Plot © 2016 Helen Moss
The Murder of Monsieur Pierre © 2016 Harriet Whitehorn
Safe-Keeping © 2016 Sally Nicholls
The Mystery of the Purloined Pearls © 2016 Katherine Woodfine
The Mystery of Room 12 © 2016 Robin Stevens
Cover and inside illustraions © 2016 David Wardle
The moral rights of the authors and illustrator have been asserted
First e-book edition 2016
ISBN 978 1 4052 8264 2
Ebook ISBN 978 1 7803 1746 5
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
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CONTENTS
Introduction by Katherine Woodfine
Emily and the Detectives by Susie Day
Rain on My Parade by Elen Caldecott
The Mystery of the Green Room by Clementine Beauvais
CANINE CAPERS
The Mystery of Diablo Canyon Circle by Caroline Lawrence
Mel Foster and the Hound of the Baskervilles by Julia Golding
Dazzle, Dog Biscuits and Disaster by Kate Pankhurst
POISON PLOTS
God’s Eye by Frances Hardinge
The Mystery of the Pineapple Plot by Helen Moss
The Murder of Monsieur Pierre by Harriet Whitehorn
CLOSED-SYSTEM CRIMES
Safe-Keeping by Sally Nicholls
The Mystery of the Purloined Pearls by Katherine Woodfine
The Mystery of Room 12 by Robin Stevens
The very word ‘mystery’ is exciting. It instantly conjures up visions of ruined castles, secret passageways, lost treasures, brave detectives and dastardly villains. Most of all though, it suggests an enigma – a puzzle to solve, a question that characters as well as readers are trying to answer.
From Hercule Poirot to the Hardy Boys, the Secret Seven to Sherlock Holmes, mystery stories have long been favourites on our bookshelves. Whether it’s the Famous Five or Nancy Drew, it’s hard to resist the fun of an old-fashioned mystery tale. But over the last few years we’ve seen an explosion of brand new mysteries appearing in our bookshops and libraries. With page-turning plots, puzzling clues to follow and plenty of heart-pounding action and adventure, these books nod to the much-loved mysteries of the past, but also bring detective fiction bang up to date.
If you want to get a taste of this new generation of crime fiction, the twelve original stories in this collection are the perfect place to start. Showing just how varied and diverse today’s mysteries can be, this anthology takes us from an elegant Georgian country house in Helen Moss’s The Mystery of the Pineapple Plot to the buzzy streets of present-day Marsh Road in Elen Caldecott’s Rain on My Parade. We visit the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Frances Hardinge’s intriguing God’s Eye and explore the streets of 1780s Soho in Harriet Whitehorn’s The Murder of Monsieur Pierre.
These are stories that have plenty of fun with the traditions of crime fiction. Robin Stevens and Clementine Beauvais offer us brain-boggling, Agatha-Christie-style puzzles that even Miss Marple might struggle to solve; while Sally Nicholls’ Safe-Keeping is a tribute to ‘Boy’s Own’ style adventures. Caroline Lawrence’s modern-day mystery has a hint of the American Wild West and Julia Golding’s Mel Foster and the Hound of the Baskervilles even features an appearance from the great detective Sherlock Holmes himself.
The young sleuths in these stories can be anyone, from Kate Pankhurst’s quick-thinking dog-walker Sid to my own Edwardian chorus-girl-turned-detective Lil. But what unites them all is that they are the ones smart enough to unravel the mystery, rather than the adults around them. Sharp-eyed and even sharper-witted, these young heroes are courageous, cool-headed and clever, able to follow the clues and come up with the solution even when no one else can. Susie Day’s Emily and the Detectives illustrates this perfectly: the world believes that clueless Lord Copperbole and scientist Mr Black are brilliant detectives, but in fact it’s Mr Black’s daughter, the capable Emily, who’s