Murder Is Bad Manners

Set in 1934, Murder Is Bad Manners offers lots of mini-epiphanies about period culture (for example, Hazel talks about the freezing, Spartan dorm and explains, "In England, the way of showing that you are very rich is to pretend that you are very poor and cannot afford things like heating or new shoes") and prejudice (a teacher's explanation of why she had to lie to get the job she's very good at). There also are numerous shout-outs and sly references to the mystery queens of the era, e.g. Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers, as well as priceless literary/art references: " ... Miss Tennyson, our English teacher -- that is her name, really, although she is no relation to the famous one. If you've seen that painting of the Lady of Shalott drooping in her boat, you have seen Miss Tennyson. Her hair is always down round her face, and she is as drippy as an underdone cake."

Self-deprecating, thoughtful narrator and detective Hazel may be completely dazzled by her aristocratic, fearless, self-absorbed, and often manipulative BFF but also sees right through her -- and takes her as she is, though not without some tears along the way. Amid the not-so-secret drinking and serial romance on the faculty, a few adults we'll probably be seeing in future series installments show unexpected strengths.

More than one couple, including a pair of girls, is described as "canoodling," which Daisy defines as "a grown-up sort of kissing behind closed doors." One of the murder victims was part of a convoluted faculty romance: She and another woman on the faculty were an item until a good-looking male teacher arrived, but her romance with him ended when he took up with another female teacher. An out-of-wedlock child sets many events in motion, and Hazel's school adventure begins, she says, when her father's concubine fails to produce a son.