REVIEW: A Spoonful of Murder
Mar. 16th, 2025 02:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllA Spoonful of Murder: Robin Stevens, Puffin (Penguin Random House) 2021
A Murder Most Unladylike mystery
The title is a bit of a misnomer, as it suggests poisoning is involved, but – spoiler! – it isn’t and doesn’t really reflect what happens, which I thought was a brilliant twist. We start off being assured that there will be a crime, but learn that we’re joining Hazel at a sad time. Her father calls her at school to inform her that her beloved grandfather has died, and although she cannot come back to Hong Kong in time for his funeral, she should return to mourn. She dares to ask for Daisy to accompany her in her grief, and this is allowed.
And so Daisy voyages to Hazel’s home in Hong Kong, where she is the exotic foreigner, and, as she crossly comments, it’s a bit like Wonderland, for she doesn’t understand Cantonese or the customs, even if human nature remains the same. She can also see that Hazel’s family is filthy rich (rich enough that every family member has a chauffeur-driven car!) But apart from the loss of a dear grandfather, there are also strains in Hazel’s family, clear from when they’re met off the boat.
Hazel’s father, Vincent Wong, has two wives, Hazel’s mother June, and Jie-Jie, who must be his favourite as she’s the mother of all the children who come after Hazel, her sisters Rose, May, and, she now learns, baby Edward, or Teddy. As he’s a boy, he is now the focus of all Hazel’s father’s attention, and Hazel doesn’t like it at all, or the fact that Su Li, the maid who was more like a third mother to her, is now his attendant, not hers. Hazel’s relationship with her mother has always been difficult, and Hazel knows she resented the fact that Hazel was sent away to England, because unlike his deceased father, Vincent Wong has a fondness for some Western ways and is less wedded to traditional Chinese ways. (Though, you know, happy enough to have two wives.) Hazel has always been a daddy’s girl.
Daisy is puzzled by the fact that June is Vincent’s wife in public, where everyone pretends Jie Jie doesn’t exist. It’s never made clear if this is a class thing, or just a polite fiction to not upset the Westerners, especially the English.
Hazel is in a maelstrom of emotions, genuine grief, wanting to show off Hong Kong to her best friend, put off by this interloper baby, and seeing her home after two years away of growing old enough to be allowed to attend a grown-up party. Although apart from getting Daisy to eat Hong Kong delicacies, it is the kind of party where the girls discover many people are not happy with Hazel’s father. Moreover, in those two years away, she has of course faced deaths by murder as a member of the Detective Society, while also feeling the horror of crime and what evil people do. So, she’s grown up more than your average 14 year old.
And crime hits home, when a kidnapping and murder take place, and Hazel is framed for both. Her father is distraught, Hazel feels guilty for letting emotions stop her from carrying out her duties and somehow preventing what happened. Daisy, of course, is the perfect person to understand Hazel’s emotions, and to insist that the best thing her chum can do now is think like a detective and solve the crime, thus clearing her name, and making things as right as they can be for the innocent.
As it’s very much on home ground (as ‘Arsenic for Tea’, set in Fallingford, Daisy’s home was), this is almost more of a Wong and Wells mystery, which Daisy and her ego do not like at all. But Hazel knows all the staff, and can speak to them, as she can to grandfather’s old crony, who hires a Chinese detective to help, as there is just the smallest possibility that a Triad gang is involved. Hazel must consider and reconsider her father in a new light, as well as Su Li, not to mention her mother, who warns her off her investigations. But the girls make a new ally in Ah Lan, a disabled servant of their age, and with Daisy’s ingenuity and ruthlessness, and Hazel’s orderly mind and insider’s view, they whittle down their suspects and come to the truth, however difficult and unpleasant.
Flipping over the roles a bit and bringing 1930s Hong Kong to life really was a masterstroke at this point in the series. Hazel’s growth as a character continues, as she comes to see her parents’ influence on her in a new way, that she has choices and power and is seen, by the people who have known her since birth and by stalwart Daisy, who is learning more about Hazel and the world. The idea of people being more layered than you’d think is dramatized by the fact that Hazel is also Wong Fung Ying, or ‘Ying Ying’ in the family. All her family have Chinese and English names and nicknames too.
Less familiar than 1930s England to most readers, the setting is brought vividly to life – and a setting that would soon change again, as the author writes in a note at the end. Hazel’s role as an interlocutor and protagonist is very cleverly managed. Mainly, she’s a sympathetic, likeable narrator. I was glad to return to the series proper after the collection of short stories and all sorts that is ‘Cream Buns and Crime’, but this exceeded expectations, while also honouring the Golden Age mysteries by way of schoolgirl detectives modus operandi of the series. (It’s also a decent introduction to the overlooked middle sister Rose and the would-be pirate May.)
A Murder Most Unladylike mystery
The title is a bit of a misnomer, as it suggests poisoning is involved, but – spoiler! – it isn’t and doesn’t really reflect what happens, which I thought was a brilliant twist. We start off being assured that there will be a crime, but learn that we’re joining Hazel at a sad time. Her father calls her at school to inform her that her beloved grandfather has died, and although she cannot come back to Hong Kong in time for his funeral, she should return to mourn. She dares to ask for Daisy to accompany her in her grief, and this is allowed.
And so Daisy voyages to Hazel’s home in Hong Kong, where she is the exotic foreigner, and, as she crossly comments, it’s a bit like Wonderland, for she doesn’t understand Cantonese or the customs, even if human nature remains the same. She can also see that Hazel’s family is filthy rich (rich enough that every family member has a chauffeur-driven car!) But apart from the loss of a dear grandfather, there are also strains in Hazel’s family, clear from when they’re met off the boat.
Hazel’s father, Vincent Wong, has two wives, Hazel’s mother June, and Jie-Jie, who must be his favourite as she’s the mother of all the children who come after Hazel, her sisters Rose, May, and, she now learns, baby Edward, or Teddy. As he’s a boy, he is now the focus of all Hazel’s father’s attention, and Hazel doesn’t like it at all, or the fact that Su Li, the maid who was more like a third mother to her, is now his attendant, not hers. Hazel’s relationship with her mother has always been difficult, and Hazel knows she resented the fact that Hazel was sent away to England, because unlike his deceased father, Vincent Wong has a fondness for some Western ways and is less wedded to traditional Chinese ways. (Though, you know, happy enough to have two wives.) Hazel has always been a daddy’s girl.
Daisy is puzzled by the fact that June is Vincent’s wife in public, where everyone pretends Jie Jie doesn’t exist. It’s never made clear if this is a class thing, or just a polite fiction to not upset the Westerners, especially the English.
Hazel is in a maelstrom of emotions, genuine grief, wanting to show off Hong Kong to her best friend, put off by this interloper baby, and seeing her home after two years away of growing old enough to be allowed to attend a grown-up party. Although apart from getting Daisy to eat Hong Kong delicacies, it is the kind of party where the girls discover many people are not happy with Hazel’s father. Moreover, in those two years away, she has of course faced deaths by murder as a member of the Detective Society, while also feeling the horror of crime and what evil people do. So, she’s grown up more than your average 14 year old.
And crime hits home, when a kidnapping and murder take place, and Hazel is framed for both. Her father is distraught, Hazel feels guilty for letting emotions stop her from carrying out her duties and somehow preventing what happened. Daisy, of course, is the perfect person to understand Hazel’s emotions, and to insist that the best thing her chum can do now is think like a detective and solve the crime, thus clearing her name, and making things as right as they can be for the innocent.
As it’s very much on home ground (as ‘Arsenic for Tea’, set in Fallingford, Daisy’s home was), this is almost more of a Wong and Wells mystery, which Daisy and her ego do not like at all. But Hazel knows all the staff, and can speak to them, as she can to grandfather’s old crony, who hires a Chinese detective to help, as there is just the smallest possibility that a Triad gang is involved. Hazel must consider and reconsider her father in a new light, as well as Su Li, not to mention her mother, who warns her off her investigations. But the girls make a new ally in Ah Lan, a disabled servant of their age, and with Daisy’s ingenuity and ruthlessness, and Hazel’s orderly mind and insider’s view, they whittle down their suspects and come to the truth, however difficult and unpleasant.
Flipping over the roles a bit and bringing 1930s Hong Kong to life really was a masterstroke at this point in the series. Hazel’s growth as a character continues, as she comes to see her parents’ influence on her in a new way, that she has choices and power and is seen, by the people who have known her since birth and by stalwart Daisy, who is learning more about Hazel and the world. The idea of people being more layered than you’d think is dramatized by the fact that Hazel is also Wong Fung Ying, or ‘Ying Ying’ in the family. All her family have Chinese and English names and nicknames too.
Less familiar than 1930s England to most readers, the setting is brought vividly to life – and a setting that would soon change again, as the author writes in a note at the end. Hazel’s role as an interlocutor and protagonist is very cleverly managed. Mainly, she’s a sympathetic, likeable narrator. I was glad to return to the series proper after the collection of short stories and all sorts that is ‘Cream Buns and Crime’, but this exceeded expectations, while also honouring the Golden Age mysteries by way of schoolgirl detectives modus operandi of the series. (It’s also a decent introduction to the overlooked middle sister Rose and the would-be pirate May.)
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