TWELVE-YEAR-OLD MYRTLE HARDCASTLE has a passion for justice and a Highly Unconventional
obsession with criminal science. Armed with her father’s law books and her mum’s microscope,
Myrtle studies toxicology, keeps abreast of the latest developments in crime scene analysis, and
Observes her neighbors in the quiet village of Swinburne, England.
When her next-door neighbor, a wealthy spinster and eccentric breeder of rare flowers, dies
under Mysterious Circumstances, Myrtle is sure Miss Wodehouse has been murdered. With her
unflappable governess, Miss Ada Judson, by her side, Myrtle takes it upon herself to prove the crime
and find Miss Wodehouse’s killer.
With sparkling wit and a tight, twisty plot, Premeditated Myrtle, the first in a series from
an award-winning author, introduces a brilliant young investigator. Myrtle is more than
ready to take on hard cases and maddening Victorian rules for Young Ladies of Quality in
order to earn her place among the most daring and acclaimed amateur detectives of her time … or
any other.