The Girl Is Murder

With the United States entrenched in WWII and her mother dead, Iris Anderson is trying to make sense of her new life at a public school. Her father’s attempts at running a detective agency spur her to become his unwelcome—and sometimes unknown—sidekick in several cases, including an investigation that focuses on one of her classmates. Haines’s YA novel—a kid detective meets film noir mashup—proves a lively and enjoyable listen, thanks to narrator Rachel Botchan, who infuses Iris with personality and creates a character that is exuberant, curious yet melancholy, and insecure. Botchan also embraces the spirit of Haines’s prose, although at times her tone sounds too modern for the era. A Roaring Brook Press hardcover. (July)