Murder on a School Night

Take Annie and Kerry, 16-year-old amateur sleuths, add three fellow pupils murdered with period products and a story which begins with Annie’s prayer to the vulva and that’s a guarantee that the sleepy village of Barbourough will have its rural slumber well and truly disturbed.

Annie and Kerry have never been popular – they’re endearing to the reader but their failure to embrace the world of make-up, fashion and serious involvement in social media has always isolated them from their more shallow peers. However, despite herself, Annie still craves recognition from Les Populaires, a brilliant Weston creation of three self-obsessed individuals circling round their chosen star. When Selena, one of their number, is found murdered with a menstrual cup in her mouth, it is both grist to Annie’s detecting mill and a chance for her to interact more positively with the three remaining members of the clique. Meanwhile Kerry – whose first foray into kissing a boyfriend was interrupted by her discovery of the body – battles with her anxieties and insecurities to assist Annie in solving the crime and hopes that she won’t lose either her boyfriend or her lifelong pal along the way.

Weston weaves an intricate and clever plot as the bodies accumulate, with shifting alliances, miscarriages of justice and the smoke and mirrors of people and events never being quite what they seem. This heady mix requires sustained concentration on the part of the reader – this is not a book to be skimmed or dipped into. Its rewards are many, however. Characters are very convincingly created – particularly Annie and Kerry – and the empty theatricality of Les Populaires is a quietly savage and hugely entertaining success.  Trust and honesty are in short supply and it falls to Annie and Kerry to engage in the risky business of piercing through the facades to find the truth.

An additional strength of the book is its challenge to those who disregard the part that women play in modern society, failing to acknowledge talent and capability and making mention of things like menstruation taboo, because it makes them uncomfortable. Weston gives her female characters the humour, courage and determination to challenge these societal ills and in doing so has produced a book which should be prominent on library shelves, illuminating discussion of these hugely important issues.