After nine books and two short stories, Robin Stevens has reinvented her Murder Most Unladylike series, which follows junior detectives Hazel Wong and Daisy Wells as they crack cases without the help of the police.
The latest entry, The Body in the Blitz, while set in the same universe, now focuses on Hazel's younger sister and two friends as they look set to follow in Hazel and Daisy's footsteps by becoming junior detectives after discovering a body in a bombed-out house. Speaking exclusively to HELLO!, Robin revealed that fans of the series can still expect their "favourite" characters to continue making appearances.
"I wanted to stay in the world, I love the world, I love my characters, I want to keep writing murder mysteries," she explained. "I created a new generation, Hazel's younger sister with her new friends and sent them forward in time. Instead of the 1930s, this second series is set in World War Two, a time that was quite scary, but the way we think of it now in 2023 is as this weirdly cosy time which it wasn't at all.
"It was terrifying to be there, but we've mythologised it, and we think of it as an exciting fun time, so it felt like a great place to set a murder mystery. We think we know the story of World War Two, but there are a lot more nuanced stories than how we imagine it popularly."
One of the most seminal moments of the series saw Daisy come out as gay in the seventh book, Death in the Spotlight. Speaking about the importance of this moment in a series primarily aimed at younger readers, Robin shared: "It was something I knew about her from the second book onwards, but it was something I was thinking about for a long time.
"When it came to her coming out, I was like, 'Can I do this?' I was nervous about it, but I knew it was important because I grew up under Section 28 when teachers and people in positions of responsibility weren't allowed to talk about homosexuality to children. I never read about queer characters as a child and it was this huge gap that I didn't notice because it had always been there. I knew there were queer people, my parents had friends who are queer, but I thought you literally couldn't put those people in books.
"It was a huge loss for me and our whole generation, we are still such a damaged generation having not seen any mirrors, any queer people in the stories we were reading and that's something I really don't want for kids now. From the very start Murder Most Unladylike, I was putting in very minor queer characters, seeing what I could get away with, but more and more I was thinking, 'This is something I can do, this is something that I'm able to do and I think it should be put on the page, I want to be very clear and unequivocal that Daisy is queer'."
The response was electric from readers, as Robin added: "It's the most feedback I've ever gotten from readers, kids are still writing to me and saying, 'It was so important to me, this helped me come to terms with my sexuality, my life. It was the first openly queer main character I've ever read'. It's amazing because it means that this generation can see a character like them being normal and heroic and just living their life."
While Robin's characters earned praise, in the wider world this couldn't be further from the truth with book bans across the United States particuarly targeted at those featuring LGBTQ+ characters and themes. While the Murder Most Unladylike series hasn't yet been targeted, and Robin pledged to "fight back" if it was, the author also revealed why these bans are so harmful.
"It's so easy for people to get into a fear mindset and be like, 'We don't understand this, we don't trust this, we're afraid of this'," she explained. "We all want to protect children, children are so precious, they're so important and we want to give them the happiest childhood as possible. But truly understanding what that means is a scary thing for some people, and it's easy to step back and go, 'No, we don't want to think about that. We want to want to shut things down and step away'.
"It's important to educate adults on what the stakes are here, it's important to keep pointing out what it means to be queer, why queer role models need to be visible, and we need to be telling stories about queer people, because that is how we change minds. We need to have the courage of our convictions about why this matters and it matters to keep getting books into children's hands and keep sharing stories, showing the diversity of the real world through stories. The most important thing is not to give up and to understand that ultimately we have to keep pushing because it really does matter. Childhood affects the rest of your life and if kids don't access those stories they'll turn into sadder adults."
She continued: "We've had this idea in our heads that fiction has been so straight and white and able bodied and cis-gender for so long that authors feel anxious about writing too many characters that don't fit that mold, even though they might be surrounded by people who are like that in their real life. Most of the authors growing up or writing now grew up at times when we couldn't see those characters. More books are writing about queer characters and it's important to have books that are specifically about queer characters, about coming out and about living their life as a queer child or adult.
"But there's always also books where the representation is incidental. Daisy is mainly a detective solving murders, but she also is on the page queer. It's important to show kids that you can be so many things and queer."
Speaking about her inspirations when writing the series, Robin explained how Agatha Christie and the Golden Age of Detective Fiction heavily influenced her from a young age. "I was reading them so young, I kept thinking, 'Wouldn't it be great if there were children involved with this if the detectives were children'.
"It could be a book that mixed the fun and adventure stories I was reading for children and then the exciting and scary murder mysteries that I was reading for adults. I went to Chilton Lady's College and I thought it would be an amazing place to set a murder mystery."
Robin also revealed that she never expected the series to be such a roaring success, with her contract with her publishing house originally only being for three books. "There really weren't any children's murder mysteries at the time, it wasn't a genre that existed yet," she said. "I didn't have high expectations, I thought it would be quite a strange niche series. But the series taps into a common fascination with humanity and for children it's getting to delve into those dark secrets, and, and scary things. But it's a very comforting genre, we all know it's going to be fine and Daisy and Hazel are going to solve the case.
Saturday marks Bookshop Day, and speaking of their importance, Robin enthused: "Bookshops are one of the best ways to connect readers to stories. Booksellers are so knowledgeable, both of the the new books that are coming out and the backlist of what's out there. They really work with individual readers to introduce them to books and series and different types of story.
"I went to a bookshop last month, and there was a bookseller talking to a child and the parent and the bookseller is going through all the different recommendations and delivering a really personal service, connecting to that particular child, knowing what the child's read, knowing what the child could read. Booksellers really support readers and broaden their outlook on life. A good bookshop and a good bookseller can connect readers to stories in the most brilliant way, especially for children's books, and create a reader who will then love books for the rest of their life."
And if you fancy writing your own crime novel, Robin had some expert tips, sharing: "Get out there and read, go to your local bookstore and readm when you do this, you see what's out there in in the world and how other authors create plots and characters, how they tell stories, and you'll be able to see what you do and don't like.
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"If you're thinking critically, you're honing your outlook on life and your own storytelling and style. Then you need to be writing, especially in the genre of book that you that you want to write. The wonderful thing about writing is that you're practicing, and it should be enjoyable and exciting. Every time you do that, you will get better at telling stories and honing all these different aspects of writing characters and plot and setting."
For Bookshop Day, Robin will be hosting a book signing event for The Body in the Blitz at the Waterstones on Broad Street, Reading.