Robin Stevens's Blog, page 59

When I was first writing Murder Most Unladylike I happened to watch ITV’s Cat Among the Pigeons. It’s Christie’s boarding school murder, and in this adaptation there’s a character called Hsui Tai. She’s played by , and seeing her added to the story gave me shivers. I’d been imagining Hazel as the main character of my own boarding school mystery, and now I was seeing a character at a TV boarding school who could be Hazel. I already knew that I wasn’t doing anything anachronistic in making my protagonist Chinese, but Cat Among the Pigeons made me see how much sense my decision made. That’s the power of TV – it makes possibilities real.

Katie Leung in ITV’s Cat Among the Pigeons

That was back in 2013. Now it’s 2015, and today I have the absolute pleasure of announcing that my books, and my characters, are one step closer to one day appearing as a TV show themselves.

The TV and film rights to the Murder Most Unladylike Mysteries have been optioned by Pilot Media and Salt Beef TV, who will be co-producing the project. The deal was done by my fantastic TV agent, Emily Hayward Whitlock, who’s working for me and Gemma Cooper (my agent for the books themselves).

My celebratory #bunbreak!

What this means, in case you haven’t heard this term before – I hadn’t – is that Pilot and Salt Beef have bought the rights to try to turn the series into a show – they will now work to find financial backing, distributors, writers and actors, which is extremely difficult to do, and explains why most things that are optioned never actually become TV shows or films. So we’re not there yet – this is just the beginning. Now we have to wait, and let Pilot and Salt Beef work their magic – I might be the author of the books, but this is something that I have absolutely no control over, which is slightly nervewracking.

But I do know that Pilot and Salt Beef are the perfect people to buy the rights – the entire deal came about because Dan from Pilot’s 9 year old daughter read Murder Most Unladylike and told him how much she liked it. It doesn’t get much better than that, and Dan and Jeremy keep on proving that they have some serious passion for the series. If anyone can make this happen, they can.

While we wait to hear more, I’ve been having a great time fancasting. I’m particularly fond of the idea of Benedict Cumberbatch as Uncle Felix, and Ben Whishaw as The One. Who would you cast? Any and all ideas below, or on Twitter – but no spoilers, please!

As I said, we’re not there yet. But we’re off to a great start.

A lovely review of Murder is Bad Manners in Shelf Awareness!

“Hong Kong transplant Hazel Wong serves as Watson to Daisy Wells’ Sherlock Holmes in this debut middle-grade mystery series set in 1934 at Deepdean School for Girls. After Hazel finds the body of Miss Bell, the science teacher, it suddenly disappears, setting the Wells and Wong Detective Society on the case. Hazel narrates the story through her casebook, revealing that she is the more analytical of the pair. There are plenty of red herrings and wrong turns, but in the end Wells and Wong solve the case and leave readers eager to read more of their appealing tales.”

Daisy and Hazel may both be female, but (I’m just reminding adults of what children know already) the series is absolutely just as much written for boys as it is for girls. So I’m particularly pleased to have this brilliant review of First Class Murder from Darren at Bookzone4Boys. He says:

‘Historical mystery stories suddenly seem to be in vogue as far as middle grade children’s books are concerned . . . However, in my opinion, there is one person who is well ahead of the pack in the race to be crowned queen/king of kidlit mystery writing, and that is Robin Stevens.

Robin’s Murder Most Unladylike, the first book in her Wells & Wong Mystery series, was one of my favourite books of 2014. The second book, Arsenic For Tea, made a very early bid for a 2015 top spot, and that has now been usurped by the third, and best in the series so far, First Class Murder. Robin Stevens doesn’t just write outstanding mystery stories, her writing is among the very best for middle grade readers in the UK this year.

For this third book, Stevens has taken on her greatest challenge to date by setting her mystery on the Orient Express in 1935, only a year after the original release date of the great Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. However, the author has met this challenge with seemingly consummate ease, and has produced a mystery story that will keep young readers guessing until the dramatic denouement.’

Read the whole review here – it’s amazing, possibly my favourite so far. Thank you Darren!

Guardian children’s books site member BookieCookie has written a lovely review of First Class Murder. My favourite extract:

‘I am extremely glad that I rushed out to buy this book on the day of its publication because it kept me hooked the whole way through, and although I thought I knew who the murderer was, there was a massive twist in the story that I was not expecting. I love the way that Robin Stevens has written this book, because it has short chapters which keep the action fast paced, and you never know more information than the girls, so you work out the clues at the same time that they do. . . To sum up the case for First Class Murder: I loved it and would recommend it to anyone who loves the challenge of unravelling a good mystery.’

The whole lovely thing can be found here!

School Library Connection has reviewed Murder is Bad Manners! They say:

‘Set in England in 1934, this book takes readers on a delightful romp through the halls of a girls’ boarding school. Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong, age 13, have established the Wells & Wong Detective Agency and are looking for a case to solve when Hazel comes upon the body of their science teacher . . . Stevens deftly uses familiar stereotypes to create individuals who are engaging and likeable. Beneath the mystery and adventure, the author explores themes of friendship, independence, and personal identity that concern pre-adolescent girls. This book, the first in a series, is a “jolly good read” . . . Recommended’ –  Marney Welmers, Educational Reviewer, Marana USD, Tucson, Arizona

It’s almost the end of summer – time for a new school year, and a new programme of events. I’ll be out and about all over the country this autumn, talking about my books and meeting as many of you as possible. Below is a current list of my festival and bookshop appearances – more will be added as they are confirmed! Please do keep checking back.

6th September – 1pm, York Waterstones. I’ll be at York Waterstones to sign copies of my books. There will also be some exciting detective activities to work on – solve a puzzling wordsearch and design your own detective societies! This is a free, public event.

3rd October – 10am, Guildhall, Bath Festival. I’ll be talking with fellow Mystery Girl Elen Caldecott, author of the Marsh Road Mysteries, about how we write our mystery novels – and inviting you to help us create a brand new story. Tickets are £6 – book using instructions on the website.

11th October – 2:45pm, Little Big Top, Cheltenham Festival. Along with my mystery pal Katherine Woodfine, author of The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow, I’ll be talking iced buns and detective intrigue at Cheltenham Festival. It is a ticketed event – please book using instructions on the website.

24th October – 12pm, 1pm and 3pm, Roald Dahl Museum. I’ll be kicking off the museum’s Vermicious Villains Week  with an event filled with murder mysteries and dastardly villains. I’ll be reading from my new book, talking about my inspiration for the series and helping you create your very own detective agency. Tickets are £3 plus museum entry fee – book using the instructions on the website.

8th November – 12:30pm, Little Star Writing Festival, Weybridge. I’ll be joining fellow authors Abi Elphinstone and Guy Bass to talk about the way I write, and to help inspire you to create your own books. Tickets are £8 per workshop – please book via this link.

First Class Murder is finally out in the world! Its gorgeous orange cover has steamed into shops across the UK and Ireland, and on Saturday 1st August I held a launch event for it at Waterstones in Cambridge.

In preparation I baked some excitingly bright orange train-shaped biscuits and a coffee and walnut cake (in honour of Hazel – I’ve decided that the 30th July, official publication date for First Class Murder, can double as her birthday), and bought some bright orange cups and napkins, as well as the beautiful new bookmarks that my publishers have created.

Beautiful orange train biscuits, all ready to go!

I’d heard that quite a few people would be there, but I wasn’t quite prepared to arrive at a quarter to three and find . . . this.

First Class Murder readers all ready to go!

The turn-out was incredible – lots of people came from London or even further away, and one fan, Florence, came from Amsterdam with her family. I was signing for a very long time (we actually sold out of copies of the book – apologies if you were one of the people who didn’t manage to get a book signed, but book plates will be on their way to you soon!), and it was amazing to talk to everyone. So many of you are genuine fans of the series, now – I’m so honoured that this is a book that you’ve been waiting for, and that you’re excited about.

Working on activity sheets at the First Class Murder launch

Thank you to everyone who came – here I am with fan and blogger, Sophie, who did a lovely write-up of the afternoon on her website.

With reader Sophie

And here I am with my very own Wells & Wong pillars!

With my First Class Murder pillar!

The Cambridge Waterstones booksellers were incredible – thanks especially to Sylvie and Jess, for staffing what was a very busy event. They’ve been such supporters of the series from the beginning, and I love working with them.

So here’s to a happy day, and a wonderful launch for First Class Murder. Thank you so much for coming, if you did, and if you didn’t get the chance to, don’t worry – I’ll be announcing my autumn events line-up soon. Keep checking this site!

What’s Italian for bunbreak?

Dellightfully, I will learn soon, because I’ve just heard that Mondadori Ragazzi will be publishing my first book, Murder Most Unladylike, in Italy! The book will be out in 2016 or 2017, so a little while to wait, but it’s most definitely on its way.

This is amazing news, and means that we are up to five territories now for the series: America, France, Germany, Taiwan and Italy. Daisy and Hazel are taking over the world!

Amanda Craig at the New Statesman has included First Class Murder in her summer round-up! She says:

‘Robin Stevens’s addictive Wells and Wong detective series introduces Hazel’s Chinese Old Etonian father in First Class Murder, a rumbustious reworking of Agatha Christie’s Orient Express caper.’

It’s a strange thought that, fourteen months ago, I was getting ready for the publication of Murder Most Unladylike. I wasn’t sure what the world was going to make of my book, and of Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong – and I don’t know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this.

Here I am, just over a year later, and I have somehow become the author of three books, with another on the way, and my series is sitting on tables (sometimes on tables of its own), and Murder Most Unladylike won a Waterstones Prize and is going to be published in France and Germany and Taiwan (and is already published in America, as Murder is Bad Manners). And, more important than any of that, Daisy and Hazel have jumped from my brain into yours, and it seems like you want to keep them there. I’ve said this several times, but I can’t help but keep on being amazed (and a bit alarmed) by what’s happened to my life. I think this is probably a dream – but a very nice one, which I hope will last a while longer.

Today is the official publication date of First Class Murder – it is now absolutely and irrevocably a book, and you can find it in any good book store. In their world, Daisy and Hazel are half a year older than they were in Murder Most Unladylike, (probably) a little bit wiser, and also (in Hazel’s case) a little bit braver. They’re on their summer holidays, and Hazel’s father has decided to take them on a railway adventure across Europe on the Orient Express. But, of course, wherever Hazel and Daisy go, death seems to follow, and in this book they have to face not only a dead body, but an impossible murder and an international spy.

With First Class Murder at last!

I went to see the book in store on Tuesday, in Oxford Waterstones, and it really does look fantastic. The orange cover is completely unmissable, and totally insane in the best way. The three books look so great together, too – so much thanks to my design team at PRH and my illustrator Nina Tara, as always.

The display at Oxford Waterstones!

My series on a table together!

I had an amazing time writing First Class Murder – I think it’s my favourite book of the series so far – and I can’t wait to hear what you think. I’m only a little nervous. So send me an email, or a tweet – bonus points if you include a photo of you with the book, or the book and a nice bunbreak. I had an extremely upgraded one in celebration – and there will be more celebrations in order today! Happy birthday, First Class Murder. Here’s to many more!

Eclairs and fizz for First Class Murder!