Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen - by Marthe Jocelyn (Paperback)

Thanks to LibraryThing for an advance reader copy. All comments and opinions are my own. Here is another delightful middle grade historical novel from this four-book collection – though I’m sad to learn this is the final mystery in the series featuring two 12-year-old sleuths - aspiring writer Aggie Morton and her mystery-loving colleague and best friend Hector Perot. The author explains that she wrote these books to honor Agatha Christie, “the real Queen of Crime, and to have fun with an homage that would include an imagined foundation for the observational acumen and morbid puzzling of the best-selling author-to-be.” In each of the mysteries Aggie and Hector discover a dead body that appears to have been murdered. They collect clues, often consulting with Aggie’s clever Grannie Jane, working around sometimes problematic law enforcement. The stories take place in various British locales, which will be familiar to Agatha Christie readers. I enjoyed the premise imagined by author Marthe Jocelyn of a girl whose childhood circumstances occasionally overlap with those of the adult Agatha Christie, the world’s most famous mystery author. In this book Aggie and Hector both stay for a fortnight at a “science camp” by the sea, where they learn about fossils with a husband-and-wife team who have just discovered a sea creature’s prehistoric skeleton. In addition to the scientific aspects in this novel, the two friends attend a circus, take a first ride in an automobile, and try to solve a murder after discovering a corpse by the sea. (As the title states). And while the story takes place in 1903, more than one female character is concerned with women’s rights and independence. Even without being aware of the allusions to Agatha Christie’s actual characters, as well as real life hobbies and interests, this is a solid mystery on its own. It can easily be read as a standalone. Cleverly written with clues and characters that had me guessing throughout, this was an entertaining homage to the Queen of Crime.