Murder in Midwinter by Fleur Hitchcock

Murder in Midwinter is a hugely entertaining crime novel, with a good dose of suspense, murder, friendship and loyalty added to the storyline and plot.  Maya’s life was quite normal until she took a photograph of a man with ginger curly hair and a lady - both holding guns. When she took the picture the man got a glimpse of her, before the bus drove away from the two, his face giving an emotion communicating the following message; I want to kill you... Then a body was found near where she took the picture at the bottom of the river Thames, the man whose body belonged to looked just like the man that was holding a gun in the picture that she took. That same night Maya's sister, Zahra disappears - leaving no trace from a school Christmas concert. Soon Maya starts to suspect that it could all fit together, the photo, her sister's disappearance - all of it. However the following day Zahra turns up, in front of the school safe and sound. Soon after the police get involved,  interrogating Zahra, seeking more information. When the police are finished they recommend Maya to go to a safe and remote place.

So Maya and her family decide to send Maya to her aunts remote and desolated home. When Maya arrives at the cottage she is welcomed by three dogs (whom she remembers of, from when she was a little girl) and her aunt. Maya soon starts to get anxious and worried about her family safety, and mostly her safety. As Mayas stay continues there is always a policeman on guard, however, she still feels anxious about the fact there is a man somewhere out there that is determined to kill her, Peter Romero. As Mayas worries grow in numbers she is constantly looking out of the window, checking that Peter Romero is not out there. But after a couple of break-ins and shootouts, crazy secrets and acts of friendship it all comes down to a fatal evening, a couple days before Christmas, when all is discovered and all secrets are revealed…

My favorite character in this marvelous crime novel is Maya, I chose her because she astute and sly, has a good sense of humor, but she easily gets things done. My opinion on this novel is that; it is well written, not with too much detail or intense vocabulary so it’s not a challenging read. However, the storyline and plot are quite fantastic.

I recommend this book to all fans or people who enjoy crime and mystery stories, and to people who have read some of Siobhan Dowds novels (I immensely enjoyed the two novels with Ted and his sister Kat as main characters, The London Eye Mystery and The Guggenheim Mystery). There is a new novel coming out by Fleur Hitchcock, Murder At Twilight. So keep tuned!

Reviewed by Lahiri Paolella (Aged 12)

Happy reading! 

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The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Genre- Science fiction, fantasy, action, dystopian

“He’s so busy looking inside people to find the good that he misses the knife they’re holding in their hand.”- Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds.

Written by Alexandra Bracken, an American New York Times bestselling author, “The Darkest Minds” is a unique book which will captivate you in a world brimming with fantasy, action and thrill. Alexandra Bracken has skillfully woven together words to create scenes of suspense and tension, where hurricanes of emotions are going to rip out of you.

The book takes place in a futuristic United States of America, where a disease known as IAAN - “Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration” - grows rampant in the bodies of ten-year-old children, killing them or leaving them with supernatural powers. Soon enough, ninety-eight percent of children are dead, while the remaining are sent off to rehabilitation camps, where they live under torture and terror, a place where every wrong action is punished. In the camps, the mutated are split  into categories and, among these, the most dangerous (the “oranges”, “reds” and “yellows”), are taken away and never seen again.

On her tenth birthday, Ruby - the main character - is taken away from her parents  by the government army, after she accidentally unleashes her powers of mind manipulation caused by the IAAN disease. However, due to some flaws in the government control system, Ruby escapes her fate of death as an “orange” and lives her life in a rehabilitation camp. When she turns sixteen,  an association of rebels called the “Children’s League” help Ruby escape from the camp. After their successful escape, she ends up with a group of runaway children, as they set off into the country in search for the “Slip Kid”, a child who is said to be able to help them find their parents. But is the “Slip Kid” really who they think he is…?

If you like action-packed dystopian novels where every page results in twists and turns, this is the book for you. I thoroughly enjoyed this page-turner and would recommend it to 12+’s in search for a book which will captivate them from the start to the finish. Furthermore, the story is well written and provides the reader with a strong moral on friendship: true friends stick together in times of need, true friends help each other, true friends allow each other to hope.

“Maybe nothing will ever change us,” he said. “But don’t you want to be around just in case it does?” Alexandra Bracken- Darkest Minds

Reviewed by Marta

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The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Thériault

Mesmerised by every loop and every curve; every word, of the letters stacked up high on his desk every night. Letters that didn't really belong to him, but words that felt so close to home he could hardly tell what reality was anymore. Stolen during his morning routine of sorting through the post, saved for his bedtime story, only to be steamed shut and delivered as though nothing had happened, during the next round of morning post.

Trapped in the thoughts of people he would never meet, Bilodo becomes entangled and dangerously fascinated with the conversation between one long distance couple, spoken through the beautiful art of haiku. He lives through their lyrics, feasts on their words. Curiosity churns to chaos, boredom bordering on obsession.

This unsettling yet charming story about love and loneliness, is quite unlike anything I have read before, and whose unusual characters and brilliantly addictive plot still continue to reside in the rooms of my mind.

Reviewed by Vindhya Kathuria

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown by Jeff Kinney

This book is the 13th book in the magnificent Wimpy Kid series about Greg Heffley and his family. It is about when it snows so much that there is no school and there is a war with snowball fights and big battles between the lower part of Surrey Street and the top of the hill where Greg lives.  

It is super strange that at the beginning of the book it is scorching hot and it is in winter. Later during the war there is a lot of snow. I couldn't believe that Gary the weather forecast guy still kept his job because every single time he got the forecast wrong. Crazily once he said it was going to be sunny weather and it actually snowed three inches.

What was quite cool is they described the goat man who lived in the woods. He was scary but we never saw him. 

I liked the bit when Greg and his two brothers got a blanket for Christmas. They all wanted it at once, so they had to make a blanket schedule to say when everyone could have the blanket. At first I thought it meant Manny, Greg's younger brother would get the blanket the whole time.

At the start of the book it was so hot they were told at school not to wear shoes inside and then they started playing with their socks. It was funny that every one was playing around with their socks so the socks got put in a box.

It is a really good book and I have already read it two times.

Reviewed by Isaac (Aged 8)

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