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Wednesday, January 25, 2023

A Girl Called Justice: The Smugglers' Secret by Elly Griffiths

 
First Lines: January 1937. The dark shape of Highbury House was getting closer and closer.
 
It's spring term at the Highbury House boarding school for young girls, and second-year students like Justice Jones are expected to perform good deeds in the village each week. Justice is assigned to blind World War I veteran Mr. Arthur. She finds herself enjoying spending time in Smuggler's Lodge talking with Mr. Arthur and reading the newspapers to him. The food the housekeeper gives her is much superior to the dreck served at Highbury House, too, and Justice couldn't be happier when he asks her to help him solve a mystery.

But when Mr. Arthur dies unexpectedly, Justice finds herself with questions she needs to answer. Why wasn't Mr. Arthur given a proper military funeral? Why doesn't the new Matron at Highbury House know much about first aid? And what secrets does Smuggler's Lodge really hold?

~

When I discovered that one of my favorite authors, Elly Griffiths, was writing a series of mysteries for nine to twelve-year-olds featuring a young sleuth named Justice Jones, a girl who's attending a boarding school on the Romney Marshes of England's south coast, I decided those nine to twelve-year-olds were not going to have all the fun. I quickly discovered that this children's series is every bit as good as the series Griffiths writes for adults. 

The setting of the Romney Marshes reminds me of a favorite childhood Disney program starring Patrick McGoohan, Dr. Syn Alias the Scarecrow, and the landscape and its history of smuggling are perfect for this series. Justice Jones' father is a criminal lawyer, and her recently deceased mother wrote crime novels. With that sort of parentage, it's no wonder that this young girl has a mind like a steel trap. The boarding school with its Tudor Era cellars beneath a Victorian mansion is perfect for all sorts of late-night wanderings as Justice has midnight feasts with her classmates or tiptoes up to her friend Dorothy the maid's room in the attics.

Having the second-year girls perform good deeds each week in the local village is a perfect way to lead Justice straight into a mystery-- although there's already one in Highbury House itself. When our intrepid young sleuth learns that Mr. Arthur lives in Smuggler's Lodge, a former lighthouse that's supposedly haunted, she dismisses the idea immediately. After all, "in her experience, saying that a place is haunted is often a ruse to stop people going there."
 
Adults as well as children will be kept entertained by Justice's investigations as she treks between Smuggler's Lodge and Highbury House to answer all the questions she writes down in her journal every night. Who killed Mr. Arthur, and why? Why didn't he have a military funeral? Why doesn't the new Matron at school know much about first aid? And will she ever get a real speaking role in one of the school plays?
 
Although it makes me supremely happy that I was never sent to a 1930s English boarding school, Elly Griffiths' Justice Jones series is just plain fun, no matter your age. I highly recommend it.
 
 
A Girl Called Justice: The Smugglers' Secret by Elly Griffiths
ISBN: 9781786540577
Quercus © 2020
Paperback, 220 pages
 
KidLit, #2 Justice Jones mystery
Rating: A
Source: Purchased from Amazon UK.

12 comments:

  1. It is definitely unfair for the young people to have all the fun, Cathy! And this one sounds like a good read. I always like it when an author respects young people's intelligence and creates an interesting read with good characters, and I'm glad that happens here.

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    1. It certainly does! Griffiths is so incredibly talented.

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  2. I had no idea that Elly Griffiths was writing a 'junior' mystery, but I am delighted! I'll watch for this one and maybe suggest my library get it if it's not already on their radar. Thanks, Cathy!

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    1. You're welcome! Which reminds me... I've got to get the third book in the series ordered!

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  3. "Scarecrow" is one of my favorite childhood memories too!

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  4. Boarding schools make for such great settings! And how fun that Elly Griffiths is writing a middle grade mystery series. :D

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  5. Elly Griffiths is on my list of writers whose acquaintance I need to make.

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  6. How great to learn about this! I have nieces in the perfect age group :)

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