E-book
The case of the girl in grey
Record details
- ISBN: 9780385754460
- ISBN: 0385754469
- ISBN: 0385754442
- ISBN: 9780385754446
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Physical Description:
remote
1 online resource (216 pages) : illustrations. - Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, [2016]
- Copyright: ©2016
Content descriptions
| Target Audience Note: | Ages 8-12. |
| Source of Description Note: | Print version record. |
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| Genre: | Electronic books. |
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Other Formats and Editions
Electronic resources
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2016 January #1
Set in England in 1826, the second book from the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series opens with 11-year-old Ada and her friend Mary perturbed that their younger sisters not only know about their supposedly secret agency but insist upon joining it. The four sleuths travel to Dedlock Hall, an enormous ancestral home, where they attempt to discover why a young woman has been asked to sign over her fortune to her fiancé before the wedding. Stratford clearly enjoys re-creating the period setting and adding new characters to a cast that already included an abundance of nineteenth-century notables, including Shelley and Dickens in minor roles. Mystery fans who don't care about the novel's historical anomalies will relish the girls' romp around the stately home; discovery of an encrypted clue (in the crypt, of course); and unraveling of the mystery. As in the previous book, appended notes separate fact from fiction and historical figures from reimagined characters with the same names. Recommended for readers who swooned over The Case of the Missing Moonstone (2014). Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews. - Horn Book Guide Reviews : Horn Book Guide Reviews 2016 Fall
Mary Godwin and Ada Byron's detective agency, now an open secret, is available for hire. For their second case, they investigate why a young woman's fianci wants access to her fortune before their marriage. Despite contrived relationships, this entertaining mystery benefits from an imaginative premise and a nicely reimagined historical setting featuring a mix of real, literary, and fictional characters. Appendices address historical inaccuracies. Copyright 2016 Horn Book Guide Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2015 November #1
More spurious adventures with those crime-solving minxes Ada Byron (Lovelace) and Mary Godwin (Shelley). They are joined by their sidekicks from series opener The Case of the Missing Moonstone (2015), "Charlie" Dickens and Percy Bysshe "Peebs" Shelley, as well as two new characters, their younger sisters, impish Allegra and prim Jane, respectively. In this frolic, the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency is hired to investigate a young lady's intended groom. High jinks ensue. As in the previous volume, Stratford plays so fast and loose with historical fact that readers familiar with it will wonder why he bothers. In addition to closing up the 18-year gap between Ada and Mary, he resurrects Allegra from the dead (she died at the age of 5) and erases the fact that Jane was the illegitimate Allegra's mother. (All of this is revealed in the historical notes at the conclusion.) It's a shame that Stratford has built his novel on such a heap of lies, as it's not otherwise a bad book. The mystery itself is no more contrived than many middle-grade whodunits; the character development (independent as most of it is of actual history) is snappy; and at a sentence level, it can be downright lovely: a release of breath "lift[s Ada's] stray brown bangs in a wave hello to the dust motes in the air." A tragically flawed premise results in a lamentable waste of excellent writing. (Historical mystery. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus 2015 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - School Library Journal Reviews : SLJ Reviews 2015 December
Gr 4â6âIn this historical mystery series, the young ladies of the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency have been hired for their second case, which may or may not involve a mysterious twin sister, a fiancé with nefarious intentions, and a potential ghost. The series is a fictionalized reimagining of real-life 19th-century characters, such as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Ada Lovelace Byron. However, with the multitude of characters recast into different time frames and rearranged relationships, the historical inaccuracies are likely to confuse rather than engage readers. With a marriage engagement as the central focus of the mystery in this second installment, it's difficult to imagine this story resonating with its intended audience. Nancy Springer's "Enola Holmes" mysteries (Penguin) fit the genre better. VERDICT Not as strong as the previous volume; purchase only where the first book in the series is popular.âJessica Marie, Salem Public Library, OR
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