Murder Is Bad Manners Read online

  Housemistress—the woman who looks after our dorm and tells us to brush our hair and clean our faces. Our housemistress, Mrs. Strike, is always confiscating our goodies and then eating them herself, because she is a greedy pig.

  Infirmary—where you go when you are pretending to be ill, or when you fall over and cut yourself. It is looked after by a nurse. Our nurse, Minny, is a dear.

  Jilting—throwing someone over, instead of marrying them.

  Keeping quiet—not telling what you shouldn’t. If you do tell, you are a rat and everyone is allowed to hate you.

  Pash—a crush that you can have on another girl or a teacher. However, it is never taken seriously—whatever you say, everyone knows that you are not really in love.

  Pavilion—the small building where we change our clothes before and after sports, and where tactics sessions are held before matches.

  Pinafore—the dull gray dress that we wear as part of our uniform.

  Prayers—every day before lessons we have to go to the school hall and sit through prayers. We sing a hymn, listen to a speech, and it is important to look as though you are paying attention.

  Prefect—a very important kind of Big Girl, they have special responsibilities for helping the teachers look after us.

  Prep—extra work the teachers give us to do between lessons. It is best to pretend you have not finished this, even when you have. Otherwise you will be thought a brain.

  Religious studies—these are the religious lessons we go to with Mr. MacLean. I already know the Bible, though, so I don’t see what the point is.

  Shrimps—these are the smallest girls. I suppose I was a shrimp once, but it is hard to believe that I was ever as stupid as the shrimps are today.

  Small trunk—the little box under your bed. You can keep anything in your small trunk—most girls keep cakes and other food—but make sure never to keep illegal things in there because Strike will find them straight away. It is a very stupid hiding place.

  Tongue—I don’t know why Hazel has put this word in! It is exactly what it says. It is a cow’s tongue, and it is for eating. Honestly, Hazel. Fancy not knowing something like that!

  View-halloo!—this is a hunting word, and it means that you have found a fox and are chasing it. It can also be shouted when you are being a detective, to show that you have reached the good bit in the story and are about to catch the murderer.

  ROBIN STEVENS was born in California and grew up in Oxford, England, across the road from the house where Alice of Alice in Wonderland lived. Robin has been making up stories all her life. She spent her teenage years at boarding school, reading a lot of murder mysteries and hoping that she’d get the chance to do some detecting herself (she didn’t). She studied crime fiction in college, and now she works at a children’s publisher, which is pretty much the best day job she can imagine. Robin lives in Cambridge, England, with her boyfriend and her pet bearded dragon, Watson.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2014 by Robin Stevens

  Originally published in 2014 in Great Britain by Corgi Books.

  First US edition 2015

  Jacket illustrations copyright © 2015 by Elizabeth Baddeley

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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  Book design by Lucy Ruth Cummins

  The text for this book is set in Goudy Oldstyle Std.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Stevens, Robin, 1988-

  [Murder most unladylike]

  Murder is bad manners / Robin Stevens.—First edition.

  pages cm

  Originally published in the United Kingdom by Corgi in 2014 under title: Murder most unladylike.

  Summary: At an English boarding school in the 1930s, crime-solving friends Hazel Wong and Daisy Wells struggle to find an exciting mystery to investigate until Hazel discovers the dead body of Miss Bell, the science teacher.

  ISBN 978-1-4814-2212-3 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-2214-7 (ebook)

  [1. Mystery and detective stories. 2. Murder—Fiction. 3. Friendship—Fiction. 4. Boarding schools—Fiction. 5. Schools—Fiction. 6. Chinese—England—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.S84555Mu 2015

  [Fic]—dc23

  2014003939