Top Marks for Murder

by Robin Stevens Book 8 in the A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery series.

First published 2019

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4.4(8,964)

Daisy and Hazel return to Deepdean for the school’s fiftieth-anniversary celebrations and discover that their long absence has altered its social order. New loyalties have formed, old allies are hostile and Daisy is no longer automatically the most influential girl in the room. When the detectives witness a violent incident in the nearby woods, they become convinced that it is connected to the anniversary weekend and to grudges extending back through the school’s history.

Parents, former pupils and staff arrive carrying competing memories of Deepdean, making the celebration an investigation into the institution as much as an individual crime. The girls must confront how reputation is manufactured and how harmful traditions can be defended as loyalty. Their attempt to save the school therefore requires deciding which parts of their home deserve preservation and which must change if Deepdean is to have a future.