Review: The Girl is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines

4 frosted shortbread cookies.

Cover Love:  Yes.  The font and the girl do a good job conveying the setting and time that this book takes place.

Why I Wanted to Read This:

There is a second book coming out in this series which is what prompted me to get this one read.  I also wanted to see if it was okay for my library.  Kids do love mysteries! Here's the synopsis from GoodReads:

It's the Fall of 1942 and Iris's world is rapidly changing. Her Pop is back from the war with a missing leg, limiting his ability to do the physically grueling part of his detective work. Iris is dying to help, especially when she discovers that one of Pop's cases involves a boy at her school. Now, instead of sitting at home watching Deanna Durbin movies, Iris is sneaking out of the house, double crossing her friends, and dancing at the Savoy till all hours of the night. There's certainly never a dull moment in the private eye business. 

I Kept Reading Because: I wanted to find out what happened to Tom (the missing person). And I was hoping that Iris and her Pop could come to some kind of understanding.

Romance?: Not really.

What I Liked (& Didn't):

I love, love, love this time period.  Listening to old time radio shows is one of my very favorite things (you can download tons of them on itunes), and some of the best come from the 40's.  I also loved the show Veronica Mars, which this book got a lot of comparisons to when it first came out.  The only real comparison I see is Iris and her dad live alone (Iris' mom killed herself) and he is a private detective.  Iris doesn't have Veronica's smarts about the business, but she is learning!

The story is set in New York and it is as much a character as the people.  I loved how Iris made her way around the town from the Upper East Side to Harlem.  And the author did a great job with the time period.  I just loved that!

Both Iris and her Pop are dealing with a lot of changes in their lives and not connecting very well at all.  I really want to know if there is more to the story of Iris' mom's death.  The ending didn't lead me to believe there was, but I am hoping!

The mystery that Iris helps her father solve during the story was great.  Lots of twists and a pretty gentle resolution.

This was a good set up to a series:  Iris made peace with the changes in her life, she made some new friends and her and her father finally connected at the end.

To Sum Up:  Did I mention I love this time period and that the author did a great job with the setting?  For this reason alone I will be buying these for my library and reading the second one ASAP!

Book checked out from the public library.