Jolly Foul Play: A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery (27 page)

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Alexander

‘Daisy,’ I said, trying to stop my heart galloping inside my chest and my cheeks blushing. ‘Alexander wants us to come to Cambridge this hols.’

Daisy frowned. ‘He’s very forward,’ she said. ‘Of course, he wants to see me.’

I bit the inside of my cheek so hard that my eyes stung.

‘Not that he doesn’t like you, Hazel,’ Daisy went on. ‘Of course he does! Well, let me think – oh! – I’ve got a great-aunt at St Lucy’s who we could stay with. We don’t talk about her much, she’s awfully dull.’

‘What about your parents?’ I asked, and Daisy got the awful look on her face she always has when I mention them.

‘I don’t see how they’d be in a position to mind,’ she said. ‘No, the problem is you.’

‘My father wouldn’t mind either!’ I said. ‘Cambridge is all about learning. He’d be pleased, if we were chaperoned.’

‘We could bring Hetty again,’ said Daisy. ‘Ooh, Hazel! This might be a rather good plan, now that I think of it!’

I sent off a telegram to my father, and the response came back:

YES STOP IF CHAPERONED STOP BE CAREFUL STOP NO MURDERS

Daisy and I squealed when we saw it. We were going to Cambridge. We would see Alexander, and meet George, and have the most marvellous fun. It would be the perfect antidote to this term.

And with all of us there together, who knew what might happen?

This was a difficult book to get right. Enormous thanks, therefore, to the women who made it what it is: my editor Natalie Doherty and my agent Gemma Cooper. Your kindness and good sense have changed not only my words for the better, but somehow, along the way, myself as well.

Thanks to the others who gave much-needed advice and support during the process, including (but not limited to) Charlie Morris, Non Pratt, Rebecca Waiting, Katie Webber, Katy Watson and the whole loving Team Cooper group.

Thank you to Penguin Random House, my new publishing collective, for supporting my books so incredibly. I couldn’t hope for a better author experience! I am so grateful to everyone who has played a part in
Jolly Foul Play
, especially Harriet Venn (publicist extraordinaire), Tom Rawlinson, Annie Moore, Sue Cook, Francesca Dow, Laura Bird, Nina Tara and Annie Eaton.

Thank you also to my wonderful colleagues at Egmont, who have been so supportive and understanding – Sarah, Stella, Hannah, Lins, Lucy, Ali and Lydia, I’ve loved being part of your team, and I wish it could have been for longer.

There has been one person who has lived
Jolly Foul Play
without ever reading a word of it: thank you to David Maybury for listening to me, believing in me and giving this book its title. And breakfast. Thank you for breakfast.

Daisy and Hazel have had four adventures now, quite a lot more than I was expecting when I first sat down to write
Murder Most Unladylike
four years ago. For that I owe everything to you, my readers. I can’t say enough how much I appreciate what you have done, and continue to do, for my series. By talking about my books, and sharing them with your friends, you have made
Jolly Foul Play
possible. I’m quite sure that I have the most intelligent, passionate and interesting fans in the world – talking to you, meeting you, reading your emails and writing you letters has been the most unexpectedly marvellous part of this strange new life of mine. As far as I’m concerned, you’re all worthy of being Detective Society members. Thank you.

And finally, thank you to the two people at the beginning of this book: my parents, Kathie Booth Stevens and Robert Stevens. I really was born lucky. I love you.

Robin Stevens

Thanksgiving 2015

Robin Stevens was born in California and grew up in an Oxford college, across the road from the house where Alice in Wonderland lived. She has been making up stories all her life.

When she was twelve, her father handed her a copy of
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
and she realised that she wanted to be either Hercule Poirot or Agatha Christie when she grew up. When it occurred to her that she was never going to be able to grow her own spectacular walrus moustache, she decided that Agatha Christie was the more achievable option.

She spent her teenage years at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, reading a lot of murder mysteries and hoping that she’d get the chance to do some detecting herself (she didn’t). She went to university, where she studied crime fiction, and then worked in children’s publishing. She is now a full-time writer.

Robin now lives in London with her pet bearded dragon, Watson.

Murder Most Unladylike

Arsenic For Tea

First Class Murder

Jolly Foul Play

The Case of the Blue Violet
(a tuck-box-sized mystery starring Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong)

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First published by Puffin Books 2016
This ebook published 2016

Text copyright © Robin Stevens, 2016
Cover, map and illustrations copyright © Nina Tara, 2016

The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978–0–141–36970–9

All correspondence to:
Puffin Books
Penguin Random House Children’s
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