MMGM: The Case of the Perilous Palace

After reading the first book of the wonderful Aggie Morton series, I had a hankering to read another historical mystery. The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series came to mind. I'd really enjoyed the first book but hadn't finished the whole series. Unfortunately, I was only able to get number 4, since 2 and 3 were at other libraries. But never fear, you can skip around in this series, and not lose your way.

If you like feisty, smart girls, the Regency era, and allusions to math, science, and literature, this series is for you.

Synopsis from Amazon:

The history-mystery-science series continues as the Wollstonecraft Detectives--Ada Byron Lovelace and Mary Shelley--take on a case by royal request.

Ada's imperious grandmother has absolutely shut the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency down--until they get a case from a princess, that is.

The princess Alexandrina Victoria, age 9 (who will grow up to be Queen Victoria), is the most closely watched girl in England. She is never alone. Every morsel she eats is catalogued. Every visitor overseen. Every move noted down. She has but one thing of her own--a sketchbook she uses as a secret diary, where she records her private thoughts in code. But now, somehow, that sketchbook has disappeared.

And so the princess enlists Ada and Mary to figure out what has happened to the sketchbook without arousing the suspicions of her minders. A most clandestine case indeed! One that will involve breaking into Kensington Palace and uncovering a host of surprising royal secrets...

This funny, Christmas-time romp of a caper will delight history and mystery fans alike.

What to love:

1.  Princess Victoria! I find Princess Victoria’s story absolutely fascinating. This great queen of England was watched and controlled so closely as child. I really enjoyed seeing another take on her life—in this book she’s age 9.

2.  A nice balance of logic and emotion: I like how the two characters, Ada and Mary, are opposites and how their different ways of looking at the world balance each other out. We need people who can use reason and emotions to solve problems, like these girls.

3.  A mystery without any violence or gore: Like the Moonstone book (first book in the series), there is no murder in this book and it’s relatively short. I think this makes this series ideal for kids who are just dipping their toes into mysteries or maybe younger kids who are advanced readers.

4.  Humor: From the parrot who mimics everyone to Sir John Conway who suffers from using malapropisms (saying the incorrect word) to the final solution to the mystery, this book doesn’t take itself too seriously.

5.  Nods to other historical figures/settings: Stratford includes a who’s who at the end of his book explaining who the persons were in real life, since he did change the timeline a bit. I really enjoyed reading that the Paragon, where Mary lives, was mentioned in Bleak House, a Dickens novel I read this spring. If you are a fan of the Regency or Victorian time period, you’ll find lots of your favorite persons between these pages!


If you like reading about Princess Victoria, please see my post about YAs featuring Victoria.

To read more MMGM reviews, please visit Greg Pattridge's Always in the Middle.

Have you read any good historical mysteries lately?