![]() ![]() ![]() Those first hundred or so pages are hard going, since at no point does Bunce’s world establish itself as in any way different to exactly what you’d expect. ✔ Possessed of a remarkably early-21st Century attitude ✔ Frequently ignored by those who think they know better ✔ Nevertheless accompanied by an enabling adult presence ✔ Largely ignored by a disapproving parent It is 1893 - in the book, I mean, don’t panic - there are sixty-six elements in the periodic table, and Myrtle is frankly difficult to separate out from the countless other Young Person Detectives since she hits just about every trope going: Thankfully the unproved murder on which the entire book to that point has hung is finally suspected a few pages later and the book comes to life at last, but there’s an uncomfortably meta air to the criticism at the time. Bunce’s Premeditated Myrtle (2020) we learn that 12 year-old Myrtle Hardcastle starts reading novels in the middle because “beginnings were often boring”. ![]()
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