Alice-Miranda and the Christmas Mystery by Jacqueline Harvey

Title: Alice-Miranda and the Christmas Mystery

Author: Jacqueline Harvey

Genre:  Mystery

Publisher: Puffin

Published: 10^th October 2023

 Format:  Paperback

Pages: 432

Price:  $16.99

Synopsis: THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING SERIES!
Join Alice-Miranda in a delightful Christmas adventure.
Christmas is almost here, and Alice-Miranda and her closest friends are celebrating early at Highton Hall. But it’s not all gingerbread, parties and present shopping.
There are mysteries to be solved!
Why are Christmas decorations disappearing and local stores empty of festive treats?
What long-kept family secret does Alice-Miranda discover? More importantly, what will she do about it?

~*~

Alice-Miranda Highton-Smith Kennington-Jones is about to head off on her Christmas holidays from her boarding school, Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale Academy for Proper Young Ladies. As the school term comes to an end, the students are taking part in a talent show before the break, the girls must contend with Caprice Radford, who appears to look down on the other girls. Alice-Miranda is looking forward to a week of pre-Christmas celebrations with her friends at Highton Hall, but circumstances mean they must take Caprice with them – and Millie is a little bit put out because of how Caprice has treated them all in the past. But when they get back to Highton Hall, Alice-Miranda finds more to worry about. Christmas decorations are going missing from stores and large houses, and there are other things happening with a young girl called Ellie, who lives in the poorer area of the village. And Alice-Miranda and her friends will find out what is really going on – and discover a long-lost family secret that affects someone she knows.

The latest Alice-Miranda is the twenty-first book in the Alice-Miranda series. Alice-Miranda is now almost twelve and has been at boarding school since she was seven and has had many adventures over the years across the world, at home, and at school. Back home, Alice-Miranda’s plans for fun are going to include solving a mystery that will change things forever! I have read several Alice-Miranda books, a little bit sporadically and not in order, and have enjoyed each one. The Christmas one is a book that I loved because I love Christmas stories. And this one is set in a quaint English village with lights and parties and songs – the kind of Christmas we see in movies and that we can only imagine in Australia in the heat of December that we often have Christmas in, so books like this feel cosy and inviting – what Christmas should be.

Of course, an Alice-Miranda book would not be complete without a mystery, and like the others I have read, there is always something that Alice-Miranda gets involved in, but I don’t think she has ever had to solve a Big Family Secret until now. The book goes back and forth between a few different perspectives, building up the mystery as things become intricate and involved, and in dropping the hints like this, and chucking a few red herrings and barriers into the mix, Jacqueline Harvey has created an engaging story within the series. It does refer to earlier books, which you don’t have to have read, but I am looking forward to tracking them down and reading them all eventually – hopefully soon!

Everything in this book was put together well, and there may be a few nods to a couple of Jacqueline’s other series, which I really loved to see, and they were incorporated very cleverly. I also loved the English countryside setting – it fits this series so well, and I love seeing how everything plays out. Christmas, as Alice-Miranda and her friends see it, should be enjoyed by all, and should be about family, friends, and fun, and she wants to share it with those she sees who are in tough positions, and help whoever she can. Everything that we love about Alice-Miranda is in this book – and I love that we have this Christmas adventure – it is a new Christmas book that I can add to my Christmas and Alice-Miranda collections.

As the novel moves on, things become more intricate and involved, as each character who comes in has their own secrets and motivations, and no character is wasted, even the ones operating in the background and bubble along without us really knowing what they are up to. This allows everyone to see what they need to see at the right time and ensures that the reader is kept intrigued. I felt that this was a classic middle grade mystery, with the children solving the mystery, and the adults are present in this book, but they are preoccupied with work, which as per the trope, ‘gets them out of the way’ so the children can have their adventures. In this instance, they are able to go home to mum and dad when things are resolved and get help when they need it. I do hope that Alice-Miranda fans enjoy this book and what is to come from next. I wonder what Alice-Miranda will get up to in future books!