The start of a thrilling new Second World War mystery series from the number-one-bestselling and multi-award-winning author of Murder Most Unladylike. 'Superb' Observer 'Meticulous and sharp' Guardian 'Engaging . . . You will make the journey with a spring in your step' The Times 'Robin Stevens is Agatha Christie for children' Katherine Rundell on the Murder Most Unladylike series 1940. Britain is at war, and a secret arm of the British government called the Ministry of Unladylike Activity is training up spies. Enter May Wong: courageous, stubborn, and desperate to help end the war so that she can go home to Hong Kong (and leave her annoying school, Deepdean, behind forever). May knows that she would make the perfect spy. After all, grown-ups always underestimate children like her. When May and her friend Eric are turned away by the Ministry, they take matters into their own hands. Masquerading as evacuees, they travel to Elysium Hall, home to the wealthy Verey family - including snobby, dramatic Nuala. They suspect that one of the Vereys is passing information to Germany. If they can prove it, the Ministry will have to take them on. But there are more secrets at Elysium Hall than May or Eric could ever have imagined. And then someone is murdered... 'Spirited and fun . . . A must for young murder mystery fans' Bookseller

The second thrilling and unputdownable mystery starring a new generation of the Detective Society, from the million-copy-bestselling author of Murder Most Robin Stevens.March 1941. Britain is at war, and a secret agency called the Ministry of Unladylike Activity is training up children as spies - because grown-ups always underestimate them. Enter May, Eric and Nuala: courageous, smart, and the Ministry's newest recruits.May's big sister Hazel has arranged for them to stay on a quiet street close to the Ministry, home to an unlikely collection of people thrown together by the war. And it is in the basement of the bombed-out house at the end of that street that they discover something mysterious. Something that was not there when the Blitz wreckage was first combed through. Something that has been placed there recently. A body...Could this be the missing Ministry spy that Daisy Wells is on a dangerous mission in France to find? Or could it be someone else - someone a resident of the street wanted silenced . . . ?