The Girl is Murder is being marketed as a book for people who enjoyed Veronica Mars. It does have a lot of similarities with the quirky tv series: a plucky teenage girl assists her private investigator father with cases and ends up in scrapes of her own. It does have one marked difference, of course – The Girl is Murder is set in 1942.

Fifteen year old Iris Anderson has had it rough. Her father returned from World War II missing a leg and her mother recently committed suicide. Her father’s injury, which requires him to use a prosthetic, makes it difficult for him to work as a private investigator, but he continues to try. Money is tight, so they’ve moved from the Upper East Side to the Lower East Side, a decided social step down.

Iris used to attend a fancy all-girls private school, but now that her father can’t afford it, she attends the local public school. Right away, she has trouble fitting in, although she does become friendly with a few students, including a girl named Pearl.

Iris would love to help her father with his cases, but he’s firmly against it. In true Veronica Mars style, that doesn’t stop Iris, particularly when she discovers that one of his cases involves a boy who goes to school with her – a boy who is now missing.

In order to determine what happened to the boy, Iris begins cozying up to his friends, a group of kids who go to Harlem on the weekends to dance. These kids are the ones who gave Iris’ new friend Pearl her nickname – Pearl Harbor – so there’s some serious conflict there. What’s more, Iris’ father does not approve of her venturing into Harlem, which puts further strain on their relationship.

I know I’m buying into the marketing machine a little by comparing the book to Veronica Mars, as the book’s blurb does, but it’s an apt comparison. It’s not as witty or entertaining as the tv series, Iris isn’t as clever as Veronica, and the relationship between Iris and her father isn’t as endearing, but it is a solid read with good atmosphere. Readers who enjoy historical fiction will be pleased by the details – pop culture references, a subplot involving zoot suits, information about the war being fought overseas, a fair amount of slang (although Iris’ overuse of the phrase “boy howdy” was grating).

Unfortunately, the mystery was a bit of a letdown. Iris uncovers plenty of secrets in her sleuthing – and makes enemies of friends and vice-versa while doing it – but ultimately, it is her father who hands her the solution to the case of the missing boy. And the solution is underwhelming. This is not to say that I didn’t enjoy Iris’ journey, but it would have made a stronger impact if Iris had discovered the solution herself and if the solution hadn’t been, for lack of a better word, boring. 

 

I feel like comparisons to What I Saw and How I Lied are inevitable here, particularly since the covers do resemble each other. Obviously, I think Blundell’s book is far stronger, but Haines has written a fun debut novel that should satisfy readers looking for a light mystery with some period detail.