Jolly Foul Play: A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery Paperback – International Edition, September 27, 2016

I really liked this book though maybe I was ovewhelmed by how manipulative people can be is this how it is in the real world? This book contained alot of secrets and I am very glad that Hazel finally stood up to headstrong Daisy! Although seeing how manipulative Elizabeth is Daisy dosen't seem that bad! I wouldn't recomend this book as a first chapter book until your sure you like murders!Thank You!

I liked the drama of this school-set novel, very exciting, another murder at Deepdean School for Girls. I loved this one, just as much as the others in this series. I would also recommend Arsenic for Tea from this series. This book would be a good read for 10 - 12 year olds.

Another good mystery, and a thought-provoking story about bullying and the evils of telling other people's most devastating secrets. There are some ugly moments, and ups and downs, and most of the girls enjoy cruel gossiping too much. True to life, I'm sure. Well, the story is good, and the ending is satisfying. Good book.

Not strictly for adults, but maybe a bit blood-thirsty for intermediate readers. Enjoyable, but should be reviewed by a parent or teacher before being given to children.

Hazel Wong and Daisy Wells, both aged fourteen in 1935, are back at Deepdean School for Girls, a prestigious boarding school for young English ladies. Though technically Hazel isn't English at all; she's been sent to England from Hong Kong by her Anglophile father to get a "proper education", and she's determined not to disappoint him.But the two friends are also amateur detectives, and having already solved three murder-mysteries, Daisy is certain that another is on the horizon.Things have changed at Deepdean: thanks to an unpleasant Head Girl called Elizabeth Hurst, all the prefects are bullying the younger girls, and everyone is squabbling and on-edge. Like an infection, Elizabeth's influence is poisoning the entire school.So it's of little surprise that after the fireworks display on Bonfire Night, Elizabeth is found dead – hit on the head with a rake. The teachers are quick to call it an accident, but Daisy and Hazel aren't so sure. Elizabeth was a known secret-gatherer, and clues accumulate to suggest that it was one of her inner circle of prefects who did the deed in order to prevent a shameful secret from coming to light. But which one was it?Daisy and Hazel – this time helped by the other girls in their dorm room – begin to eliminate the suspects, acutely aware that the atmosphere of the school has changed. With secrets of the older girls being discovered on little scraps of notepaper, the younger students are growing bold and insolent, and Daisy is concerned the culprit behind the notes is putting herself in danger from the killer...This was one of my favourite instalments in the "Wells and Wong" series, mostly because Robin Stevens is so good at providing insight into all her characters, from protagonists to suspects to victim. For instance, Elizabeth Hurst is a wholly unpleasant person, and yet Hazel is astute enough to realize she's also deeply unhappy, and is compassionate enough to feel pity during her memorial service.As ever, the partnership between Daisy and Hazel is electric: the former providing the crazy plans and ideas, and the latter imparting an introspective understanding of individuals. They make for a great team, though this semester Hazel is keeping a secret from Daisy: she's corresponding with the boy they met during their holiday on the Orient Express, and giving him details about their detective work. As ever, I appreciate that they're not perfect besties, but that an important part of Hazel's personal growth is learning to stand up to her rather domineering friend.In all, this is a great series with two fantastic protagonists and a range of entertaining mysteries that fit right into the Golden Age of Crime period. I'd love to see them adapted into a television show at some point; they'd be wonderful to see on the screen.

The more of these books I read, the more I love this series. I know they’re hitting US shelves a few years behind the UK releases, but I hope this series continues for a long time!Once again, Stevens impressed me with her blend of murder, mayhem, mystery and mawesome female characters. I love how Daisy and Hazel’s friendship has continued to grow and change over this series. As the girls get older, they don’t always see eye to eye and they have to learn how to maintain their friendship while being true to themselves and their changing interests.I’m partial to Hazel because we’re reading the series through her documentation of the mysteries the duo is solving. Yet, Hazel has a good understanding of Daisy. Even when the two are fighting, Hazel makes an effort to stop and see things from Daisy’s point of view. I think that’s an important message for younger (and older) readers – if you want to keep a strong friendship, you need to take the time to understand and work with your differences.I like that Stevens doesn’t shy away from the dirty details in her cases. Now, these books aren’t graphic by any means, but these are teenage girls solving murder cases and confronting killers. There’s always a sense of adventure and danger, but without it being brutal or gruesome. I also love how seriously the girls, especially Hazel, take the cases. For Hazel, solving mysteries isn’t a lark and often they weigh on her.This book has mega Mean Girls vibes – I’m not sure if it was intentional but I’m here for it! Elizabeth and her nasty crew are ruling the school, making life miserable for all the younger girls, while the adults remain oblivious. The negative attitudes of Elizabeth and “The Five” start to wear on the girls, making everyone negative and paranoid. There’s even a Scandal Book full of rumors and some nasty truths about the girls in the school. Much like in Mean Girls, we learn that The Five aren’t as happy under Elizabeth’s rule as they seem. They become the main suspects in her murder and I loved watching The Five develop through the eyes of Daisy and Hazel as they uncover their secrets.This book deals a lot with the toxicity of rumors and secrets. It also delves deeper into the friendship of Daisy and Hazel, as well as their friendship with their dorm mates, Beanie, Kitty and Lavinia. I enjoyed seeing the other girls become stronger characters and get involved in the cases. Beanie is super adorable and definitely my favorite of the three. She has some great moments in this book and she’s definitely the embodiment of a caring spirit.Stevens addresses the difference between male and female friends and the importance of understanding that your friendship with one person can be different than with another, yet neither needs to be lessened by the other. Hmm, there’s probably an easier way of saying that, but I can’t think of what it is right now. So here’s this quote from Hazel:“…I really saw how I could be both Daisy’s friend and Alexander’s. I could be honest with both, but I did not have to give them the same part of myself.”There’s also a bit of lesbian rep in this book, which was a pleasant surprise. It’s one of the many sub-plots and I was glad to see it included. I’m curious to see if we’ll get more rep in the future.I highly recommend this series if: You love middle-grade mysteries and want a new Sherlockian duo; You’re looking for a series where you can watch the characters grow; You enjoy books that explore topics like changing friendships, family drama, and loyalties, with a healthy dose of murder thrown in

Gosh this series is so much fun. Daisy and Hazel are getting older and they're facing new tests of their friendship as well as the threat of a murderer. In book 4 the big girls are causing problems - bit then the head girl is murdered. Who did it? And where are all the mysterious pieces of paper with secrets on coming from?I love this series - it is the perfect mix of Enid Blyton-esque boarding school stories and Agatha Christie style crime. And although it's set in the 1930s, the cast of characters is more diverse than the Blyton equivalents and poses questions about how people are treated and people's attitudes to those who are different. But all this is done in a fun and readable way - I don't want you to go away thinking that this is a preachy book, because it's not - it's massively good fun

'Jolly Foul Play' is Robin Stevens' fourth Murder Most Unladylike Mystery and for this story we are back at Deepdean School, the private boarding school attended by the story's heroines, Hazel Wong and Daisy Wells, which last featured in the first Murder Most Unladylike Mystery. This time, it is not a teacher who has been murdered, but an unpopular schoolgirl - in fact the victim is actually the new Head Girl, Elizabeth Hurst, who has managed to blackmail her way into being voted Head Girl by the other fifth formers at the school. We are in the Autumn term and at a firework party excitedly attended by all of the girls at the school, when Elizabeth's lifeless body is found near the bonfire; her head has been stoven in - ostensibly caused by her stepping on a large garden rake and, therefore, her death is put down to being a dreadful accident. But Hazel and Daisy know better; Elizabeth's injury cannot have been caused by something as ordinary as a garden rake and when both girls learn that Elizabeth has been collecting secrets about her fellow fifth formers - secrets that could ruin their lives if discovered - Hazel and Daisy decide their ex-Head Girl has been murdered by one of her schoolfellows. And so begins another adventure for the Secret Detective Society, a society which was set up in the first Murder Most Unladylike Mystery and which now includes some of the other fourth formers in Daisy's and Hazel's class. Also in this story we see Hazel sharing her theories about the murder to Alexander, another amateur sleuth who wants to become a Pinkerton Detective when he leaves school, and whom we first met in the third book 'First Class Murder'. Writing letters in invisible ink to Alexander and receiving replies from him, Hazel finds herself under suspicion from Daisy who is very angry when she discovers that her best friend has been sharing information about the murder to someone outside of their Detective Agency - a situation that results in the two best friends falling out and in a rather spectacular way. Can Daisy and Hazel put their differences behind them and pool resources in order to discover the perpetrator of the crime? And who was it amongst the fifth form girls who committed such jolly foul play?Set in the 1930s, this is yet another exciting and enjoyable murder mystery story for our engaging amateur sleuths and one in which the girls (who complement each other well with Daisy being the more daring and intuitive of the duo and Hazel being the more cautious and practical) have to learn to work with some new members of the Detective Society. As usual, this story has its fair share of red herrings, but there are clues for readers to discover and this particular story was made even more interesting by the fact that of one of the pupils under suspicion was a German girl whose Jewish parents were still in Germany where the Nazi Party was gaining power, and this aspect added another dimension to the story. I know I'm much older than the intended age range for this book but, like the others in the series, I very much enjoyed it, as did the young person I bought this for. We didn't find it quite so exciting as the first story set at Deepdean School, but still a really entertaining read and we're keen to start the next book in the series: 'Mistletoe and Murder' which we should have time to read and share before Christmas.4 Stars.

Spoiler alert!I rate this book 5 stars because all these books are absolutely amazing! I like it when they make you suspect someone who didn't commit the crime. On this one, though, they got it wrong. Beanie was super brave and put her life in danger and nearly got killed! It was a little third former Martha Grey who saved them. Then daisy lied about the case to inspector Priestley and said that they suspected the murderer but they didn't! Martha then told inspector Priestley that they suspected the person who got framed for it. Binny was 'kidnapped' by Una but she was justreally trying to keep her safe. You see, secrets about the girls were being spread and Binny was doing it. Una was keeping her safe from the murderer in an old dusty tunnel under the stairs that is always locked, Una was giving Binny food, drink and a blanket to sleep on.

Ooh, the series just got a little bit darker! The charm of Deapdean is here - the school setting gives the book a great, old-fashioned atmosphere and I loved the fact that it's also dealing with a very modern theme: bullying. Daisy and Hazel work hard to uncover all of the clues and the reader has to work hard to put everything together. The joy is that Stevens allows us to come to the correct conclusion a moment before the heroes reveal what has gone on, so there's the opportunity to feel jolly clever at having put it together!

Yet another corker by Robin Stevens. I love these books. They harp back to a time of jolly hockey sticks whilst keeping a sense of realism too - how girls can bully each other and manipulate or humiliate but can also support each other too. Themes that are pertinent today as ever. I love the fact that Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong work through the details of the evidence they find to skilfully discover the murderer. Although this book is aimed at the younger reader, I am 40 and they are a jolly good read. A refreshing change from sordid or sleazy whodunnits.