A Girl Called Justice: The Ghost in the Garden

This is the third title in crime writer Elly Griffiths’ A Girl Called Justice series about mystery-solving boarding school pupil Justice Jones.  Justice is now beginning her third year at Highbury House Boarding School for the Daughters of Gentlefolk. This new term sees Justice and her friends in Barnowls dorm having to deal with the arrival of confident, rule-breaking new girl Letitia.  When Letitia disappears after a midnight feast in the barn and a terrifying ghost-sighting in the garden, Justice must summon all her sleuthing powers to solve the kidnapping crime.

The author successfully combines the skills of an appealingly intrepid detective heroine with the traditional atmosphere and conventions of a 1950’s set boarding school story, complete with midnight feasts, tuck boxes, suspicious teachers, dorms, matrons and friends falling out.  The series is well judged and delivered to appeal to fans of Enid Blyton’s school stories as well as those of more recent mystery-solving series.