9780241691762

Page 1


Media reviews

‘Top-grade misbehaviour . . . Lis Jardine’s first novel is a compelling addition to the new canon’ Guardian

‘Friendship, trust, courage and determination are at the heart of this extremely funny murder- mystery tale. Featuring a hugely entertaining cast of characters, the intriguing plot is full of twists and turns, and will keep readers guessing to the very end’

BookTrust

‘Funny as it is clever, moving seamlessly from slapstick comedy to high drama’ Books for Keeps

‘This new school-set crime series is well worth investigating’

LoveReading4Kids

Customer reviews

‘The Detention Detectives are back and ready to hold guilty parties accountable! Another smashing success’

‘Another gripping mystery with the trio back in action. I thoroughly enjoyed the first Detention Detectives and was equally impressed with the second. Great storyline, highly recommended’

‘Lydia talks us through the second case as our favourite characters return to solve their next mystery. A good few twists and turns kept me guessing whodunnit’

‘10/10, would read again! A murder-mystery you can’t help but whizz through at record pace. Bring on the final instalment!’

Kindle customer

‘I absolutely loved Lydia as the main POV, she is such a great character: wordy, clever, she has no problems sticking up for herself. Lydia faces some challenging family dynamics, which makes for a really satisfying arc. Snappy dialogue and a real sense of whodunit will keep you turning the pages’

Amazon customer

‘Another brilliant murder mystery by Lis. Such wonderful writing, no wonder book one is already up for some pretty major awards. Huzzah for Lydia and the boys!’

VikingMa, Waterstones customer

Lis Jardine grew up in various vicarages across London and the Black Country. She has been a lifelong reading addict and is rarely spotted in the wild without a book, usually a Golden Age murder mystery or a comic fantasy.

She currently lives in Cheshire with her husband and nearly grown daughters, where she combines the two best jobs in the world: secondary school librarian and children’s novelist.

Lis studied English Literature at the University of Warwick and completed the MA in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University. In 2024, Lis was longlisted for the Branford Boase Award and shortlisted for both the James Reckitt Hull Children’s Book Award and the CrimeFest Best Crime Novel for Children Award.

In her spare time, Lis likes to watch TV, learn Norwegian (1,600-day Duo streak!) and invent unlikely vegan sandwich recipes.

Follow Lis Jardine on Twitter and Instagram: @LisJardine

PUFFIN BOOKS

UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia India | New Zealand | South Africa

Puffin Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com www.penguin.co.uk www.puffin.co.uk www.ladybird.co.uk

First published in 2025

Text copyright © Lis Jardine, 2025

Illustrations copyright © Glenn Thomas, 2025

The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted

Penguin Random House values and supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes freedom of expression and supports a vibrant culture. Thank you for purchasing an authorized edition of this book and for respecting intellectual property laws by not reproducing, scanning or distributing any part of it by any means without permission. You are supporting authors and enabling Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for everyone. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems. In accordance with Article 4(3) of the DSM Directive 2019/790, Penguin Random House expressly reserves this work from the text and data mining exception.

Set in 12/18pt Sabon LT Std Typeset by Jouve (UK ), Milton Keynes Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A.

The authorized representative in the EEA is Penguin Random House Ireland, Morrison Chambers, 32 Nassau Street, Dublin D 02 YH 68

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN : 978-0-241-69176-2

All correspondence to: Puffin Books

Penguin Random House Children’s One Embassy Gardens, 8 Viaduct Gardens, London SW 11 7BW

Penguin Random Hous e is committed to a sustainable future for our business, our readers and our planet. is book is made from Forest Stewardship Council® certified paper.

For Graham, with love

CASE 3: WHO’S WHO

Kids:

Daniel Horsefell Me, year 8 at Hanbridge High School, interested in sci-fi and magic

Lydia Strong

Jonno Archer

Fin Taylor

Best friend, school newspaper editor and Detention Detective

Best friend, guitarist, Detention Detective

Detention regular and goth-metal drummer

Ayisha Hafiz

Cool kid who ends up in detention quite a lot

Tyler Jenkins Bane of my life

Elliot Nash Member of Jonno’s band, Saving the Moon

Benoit Durand The other member of Jonno’s band

Emily Woodson Lydia’s smallish stepsister

Max Archer Jonno’s toddler brother

Jamie Preston Ex-stall keeper at Hanbridge market

Teachers of Hanbridge High:

Mr Scouter Headteacher

Ms Zheng PE teacher

Mrs Sudely English teacher

Mr Runacre Science teacher

Mr Sinclair Geography teacher

Mr Brent IT teacher

Madame Slacque

French teacher

Mr Peters RE teacher

Other adults:

Becky Horsefell

Lois Baynton

Mrs Fustemann

Zaara Hussam

My mum, lives with chronic fatigue syndrome

Mum’s best friend and helper, yoga teacher

School secretary, Mr Scouter’s right-hand woman

Office assistant at Hanbridge High

DS Norman Police detective from Hanbridge Police Station

Mo Hussam

Auntie Jas

Zaara’s cousin

Zaara’s auntie, Mo’s mum

Anneka Archer Jonno’s mum, part-time estate agent

Iain Archer Jonno’s dad, works at the undertakers

Stan Waldron Hanbridge businessman and weightlifter

Gran and Gramps Lydia’s grandparents

Strong (who she lives with)

Bingo Lydia’s faithful dog

Steve and Susan Lydia’s mum Woodson and stepdad

Erik and Lars School builders, also known as the Giants, Vikings, Goons, Norse Gods, hulks and lumps of gristle

Greg Waldron Stan’s nephew

Leonard Fustemann Mrs Fustemann’s ex-husband

Dear readers,

I asked Lydia and Jonno for advice on how to start this. I’ve never written a whole case before,1 but it’s my turn.

Lydia said, ‘Start at the beginning and keep going to the end. And don’t make it all about Star Trek.’

Jonno sat and thought for a minute, and then gave his opinion. ‘Add in some stuff about the band and the talent show. But don’t put in too much Star Trek.’

So all I know for sure is that I shouldn’t just write about Jean-Luc Picard or Mr Spock.

One thing I can say, before I start, is that I’m not going to be able to avoid spoilers for Case 1 or Case 2. Lydia bent over backwards not to give anything away when it was her turn,2 but I just can’t. Sorry.

1 English homework is bad enough.

2 Lydia wrote up our second case –  Murder by Mistake ; I recommend you read that before this one.

As for when this case started, though? I’m not sure. Was it when someone we knew died, or did it start years ago, before the Detention Detectives were even born?

Daniel x

Tuesday 9 February, 8.20 a.m.

Hanbridge High School music department

I’ll start with what happened in the couple of months after we solved the last murder.

The victim was a man named Jim Palmer. And though we were sure of the culprit – an assassin, hired by our headteacher, Mr Scouter, to get rid of a rival who knew too much about his nefarious activities –  we weren’t able to prove Scouter had done it.

We kept an up-to-date list of Mr Scouter’s crimes, including:

• conspiracy to murder

• smuggling

• defrauding the school canteen financial accounts

• fixing sports matches.

But the proof was still far out of our reach, and he remained unpunished.

Lydia, Jonno and I had done our best to poke our noses into his business again and again, despite the limitations of being mega-supervised secondaryschool pupils. We divided the task between us: Jonno checked social media and local web forums (because he had more friends than me and Lydia put together), Lydia monitored the printed press (because she is all about our school newspaper), and I took all that was left –  listening out for any gossip about Scouter at school, and looking out for potential informants.

Handily, I had kept up a friendly relationship with Zaara, a former Hanbridge High student who now worked in the school office (and was a massive chatterbox). She was assistant to Mrs Fustemann, who in turn was secretary to Mr Scouter (and his right-hand woman in all things criminal), so Zaara was a good source of insider info. She often came into the canteen for lunch while I was hoovering down as much food as possible, and if the others

weren’t there she’d sit with me and tell me all the latest news from the school office.

The other Detention Detectives were fairly often not there, I was beginning to notice.

When I did see Jonno, all he would talk about was a local competition – Hanbridge Has Talent. I’d been to HHT before, and it was mainly a bunch of elevenyear-old girls singing power ballads quite badly (and in all the years they’d been running it, no star had yet been born, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him that). He seemed to think that this opportunity would break his band, Saving the Moon, into the big time. Over the last few months music had become more and more his priority, and I guess he was keen to take his first steps on the road to stardom.

Lydia and her stepsister, Emily, were going to wow HHT with a martial arts demonstration, which would make an excellent change from all the eleven-year-olds warbling. They still made me go to taekwondo with them once a week (I needed the practice just in case my nemesis –  school pest Tyler –  made a comeback).3 But Lydia was also spending a lot more time these days with Emily,

3 Which would be typical of him –  he knows where he’s not wanted and he makes an effort to be there.

Susan (her mum) and Steve (her stepdad). After several years of not being in Lydia’s life, they had a lot of catching up to do.

So the other two Detention Detectives were busy doing things other than detecting, and although we hung out at school from time to time, I had fallen back on Mum for the majority of my after-school social life. Mum was still ill,4 but since I had got a bit bigger and stronger (thanks, puberty) I was more able to help her downstairs, when she felt up to it, to watch stuff like the newer Star Trek series with me.

When Lydia, Jonno and I did hang out we found we were getting told off a lot more at school (the only way Mr Scouter could get at us without bringing further attention to himself). We were convinced he’d put the word out among the staff that we were not to be trusted. That we were so sneaky we shouldn’t get the benefit of any doubt. That we were the first to be suspected of wrongdoing, and the last to be believed.

Being banished to opposite ends of the classroom was the least of it. I kept getting home late because

4 Mum has chronic fatigue syndrome, which cramps her style rather a lot.

the detentions were piling up. Telling the school pastoral officer that I was the only one at home to look after Mum didn’t seem to work, so I was always having to ask Lois to step in if Mum was having a bad day. Jonno was always on edge, thinking he’d be grounded and stopped from being in the talent show, and Lydia had seriously cut down on talking back to the teachers to try and avoid further trouble.

So we were all feeling pretty fed up when Lydia came into school one morning with a copy of the Bristol Post. She read it every day, to search for clues about Mr Scouter-related activities but also generally for her planned career as a journalist (she liked to send in letters to the editor commenting on big local stories). She was also using the town library’s online newspaper archives to investigate a cold case –  her Uncle Tim’s mysterious death, back in the noughties.

‘Hey, guys,’ she said, breezing into the music practice room we had commandeered that morning. She opened her bag and pulled out the Post. ‘Look,’ she said, plonking the paper down on the piano stool and pointing to a photo on the front page. Missing teen had links to northeast! blared the headline. ‘It’s

Jamie. Do you remember him? He was the boy on that market stall, selling Mr Scouter’s dodgy imports.’

Case 2 had revealed many dubious strings to Mr Scouter’s illegal bow –  including the selling of pirated computer games and electronic equipment at Hanbridge market. Poor Jamie had been completely ignorant of who his supplier was, so was super unhelpful when we questioned him about it.

Jamie’s picture now filled the front page of the Bristol Post.

‘Jamie’s gone missing?’ Jonno said. ‘That’s scary. But – what’s it got to do with Mr Scouter?’

Lydia sighed, as she often does when Jonno or I don’t catch on as quickly as she’d like. ‘Well, I think, given his previous link to Mr Scouter, we should definitely ignore the writer’s speculation that Jamie’s run off with an online girlfriend from Hull.’

Lydia read on. ‘His mum’s worried because he didn’t come home after college on Friday, his phone’s turned off and police say there’s no CCTV footage of him after five p.m. He had been unemployed for a while, and was last seen on Hanbridge High Street walking towards our school. You know, where his ex-employer works?’

‘Like –  maybe he’d come across a clue about Mr

Scouter, and was on his tracks, planning to use that info somehow? How would that have happened?’ I could see why Lydia might be interested, but it felt like she was grasping at straws.

‘And what can we do about his disappearance? I’m up to my eyeballs with the show – I can’t go haring off at a moment’s notice to investigate something new and let the band down,’ Jonno grumbled; the competition was at the community centre in less than a week.

Lydia snorted. ‘We should definitely look into it! It’s not like you’ve come up with any better leads to bring Scouter down, Jonno. And what if something terrible has happened to Jamie? Mr Palmer got shot on the street because he knew too much about Mr Scouter! We should, I don’t know, see what Jamie’s mum knows –’

‘We can’t interrogate his mum, Lydia. She’ll be in a state, worrying about him,’ I said quickly. ‘Maybe his friends, though . . . Oh – he was in Zaara’s year, wasn’t he? We could ask her if she knows him, or anyone he hangs out with at sixth form?’

‘Genius idea, Daniel,’ Lydia said, casting a triumphant look at Jonno, who rolled his eyes. ‘Maybe I’ll get an exclusive for the school paper.’

‘Ah, yes,’ Jonno said. ‘Because –  what was it that happened last week? I’ve forgotten, you never mention it . . .’

‘Because I’ve been made the youngest ever editor of the Hanbridge High Herald,’ said Lydia smugly. ‘And you know it.’

‘Right. We can catch her at lunchtime. Zaara will be in the canteen I expect – see you there, Jonno?’ I said.

Jonno went a little bit pink. ‘Sorry, Daniel. I’m meeting the band. We’re going over “Hotel California” today. We’ve booked a practice room. I’ve brought sandwiches.’

‘OK , no worries,’ I said. ‘I’m sure Lydia and I can manage.’

‘Of course we can,’ Lydia said.

‘Maybe you could come over after school?’ I asked him, taking off my glasses to clean them. ‘We haven’t watched an episode of Star Trek together for ages. Mum’s been asking after you.’

Jonno’s pinkness level increased. ‘Sorry, I can’t, not this week. My mum’s making me go to Aldi with her tonight. And me and the band are practising our Elton John medley after school tomorrow.’

‘No worries,’ I repeated, shrugging as casually as I could manage.

The bell went, sudden and loud. We all grabbed our bags and headed down the stairs to tutor time; I walked ahead of Jonno as fast as I could.

Tuesday 9 February, 1.15 p.m.

Hanbridge High School canteen

By lunchtime I’d convinced myself that things would go back to normal once the talent show was over; everyone just seemed to be caught up in the excitement. Lydia’d even asked if I wanted to be in her taekwondo demo with Emily, but didn’t try to persuade me when I said no. Maybe I imagined it, but she sounded a bit relieved. She joined me as I queued up for the dish of the day, the obligatory chips and protein: on Tuesdays it was a choice of crispy-ish chicken or disintegrating fish fingers.

‘So,’ she said, sliding in beside me and ignoring the tuts from the girls behind us. ‘What’s the plan?’

‘Oh, well, Zaara often sits with me when you’re not here actually, so . . .’

‘You want me to stay out of the picture for now? Okie dokie.’ And Lydia slipped out of the queue again. That’s a good thing about Lydia, she sees the whole strategy even before you do.

I collected my tray, plate full of fish fingers and chips (accompanied by thoroughly overcooked peas) and sat down at the quiet table. I expect all secondary schools have one, where the people who are happy in their own company sit, wanting a bit of peace. Today, there was just our PE teacher, Ms Zheng, eating a jacket potato at top speed while reading a sports magazine. I sat on her right and she flicked a glance at me.

‘All OK ?’ She is never one to waste words.

‘Yes, thanks,’ I said, picking up my fork and sticking it into my first chip.

‘Good.’ Ms Zheng ate her last bite of potato and stood up. ‘Netball club. Hope it stays dry.’ She stalked off, trainers squeaking on the canteen floor. I relaxed. She always makes me feel a little bit nervy.

As I ate, I kept an eye out. Lydia had collected her own tray of food and was sitting with a couple of girls from her hockey team. I could tell she was fully alert, too; she hardly looked at her plate and kept sweeping glances around the room. It was a few minutes before Zaara arrived, and I sat up straighter when she finally joined the shortening queue at the hatch.

Zaara looked around the room as she waited, and I waved tentatively, catching her eye. She smiled and I let out a little breath. Success.

‘Hi, Daniel,’ she said as she sat down opposite me. ‘You on your tod then?’

‘Yeah . . .’ I answered, wondering whether Lydia would come straight over or leave me to get the ball rolling. ‘How are you? Having fun in the office?’

Zaara snorted. ‘Yeah, it’s a laugh a minute up there with the Dragon5 and all her minions. Can’t wait for Friday! I go up to the Kingham College common room to meet everyone and let my hair down.’ She swept the end of her headscarf over her shoulder and added, ‘Figuratively, obviously.’

‘So you’re still friends with all your year, then?’

5 Everyone calls Mrs Fustemann, school secretary, the Dragon, because she breathes fire and has claws that’ll gut you at twenty paces.

I said. ‘Do you wish you’d gone to sixth form with them?’ I was stalling a bit, trying to get into a natural conversation about her pals. It wouldn’t do to scare her off by plunging into questions about Jamie straight away.

‘Sometimes. I’m not exactly going to meet a ton of people my age in the school office, am I? But I’m glad to be learning and earning, even if it is pretty dull. I’m saving up for a car so I can stop catching the smelly old bus to work.’

‘You still could do college. Some people do both though, don’t they? Work part-time and study alongside.’

‘Yeah, some do. Keeps you busy though.’

‘I know a guy – or, I met him once . . . anyway, he worked on the market part-time alongside college, but he lost that job and he . . . he was in the paper today . . .’ I was floundering a little, trying to be breezy.

Zaara put down her cutlery. ‘Jamie, you mean? I’m best friends with his ex-girlfriend, Holly, and my cousin Mo’s in his crowd. They’re all really upset about him going missing, and honestly, I’m a bit scared – no one’s seen or heard from him since Friday.’

Just then Lydia seemed to appear out of thin air, sitting down and extending her arm across the table in one smooth movement, giving me a teeny tiny heart attack.

‘Hi, Zaara. Lydia Strong, Hanbridge High School paper editor. I hope you don’t mind me butting in, but I overheard the name “Jamie” and I was wondering if I might ask you a few questions about his disappearance; as an ex-student of Hanbridge High, I believe an exclusive comment from you would be of great interest to our readers.’

Zaara finished chewing her mouthful. ‘Well I don’t actually know much. I just know everyone’s dead worried. Jamie’s normally very boring –  at home, with mates, or at college. He even likes doing the crosswords from his mum’s Take Your Pick magazine, for Pete’s sake.’ Zaara speared an overcooked fried potato with her fork. ‘Holly thinks something awful’s happened to him, and his mum’s beside herself, poor thing. His dad’s been searching all the alleyways and stuff and asking all the pubs whether they’ve seen him. Mo reckons the police are still trying to figure out where he ended up after the high street.’

‘That’s where he was last seen, isn’t it? I wonder

Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.