Friday Barnes: Nothing to Lose by R.A. Spratt

Title: Friday Barnes: Nothing to Lose

Author: R.A. Spratt

Genre: Mystery

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Published: 22^nd September 2026

Format: Paperback

Pages: 272

Price: $16.99

Synopsis: Friday Barnes is back in Manhattan in this latest instalment of the bestselling detective series.

Despite being a great detective, Friday can’t work out if Ian has broken up with her. It’s not easy being both brilliant and socially clueless. Unable to deal with the heartache, Friday tries to lose herself in the intellectual world of street chess. But she can’t escape romance when the Prince of Denmark asks her on a date and Interpol orders her to accept.

Soon Friday finds herself at the Broadway premiere of Hamlet, trying to protect the Danish Crown Jewels from being stolen and her own heart from being broken. Can Friday solve the case or will she be left with nothing to lose?

~*~

Friday Barnes is in New York this time, and there’s nefarious goings on with something precious from Denmark. And, she’s dealing with breaking up with Ian…if he really has after he saw her with Prince Arthur of Denmark. Now, she has to go on a date with him and follow Interpol orders to stop something important to Denmark being stolen, make sure Melanie doesn’t have to go back to Hillcrest, and help Binky and Ingrid keep their secret. It’s a lot for a distraught fifteen-year-old hiding out in one of the parks in New York playing chess every day.

Things really kick off when Interpol convince her to pretend to date the Prince of Denmark, who is appearing in a Broadway production of Hamlet. He has to go along with all the malarkey and stereotypes of being Danish, of Vikings and Hamlet. But it’s all on Friday to stop the Danish Crown Jewels being stolen!

It’s Friday Barnes at her finest, and what feels like a wonderful conclusion to the series. New York is a chance for Friday and her friends to step away from everything, to be themselves and hopefully stop the work they’ve been doing for years. After all, there’s only so many crimes Friday can be thrown in the middle of, right?

Well, perhaps not, and there have been some very clever crimes throughout the series. In this one, trying to stop another country’s items being stolen is a huge crime, and is an intriguing plot that moves along well. Like any Friday Barnes novel, it has a good pace, has a focused crime and lots of side plots or quests involving Binky and Ingrid, and Ian. Friday’s reluctance to dress up is very well done, very amusing and so her, and I think kids and readers who are like this will get joy out of her attitude towards dressing up and being primped and preened by Ingrid. After all, she needs her friends to help solve the crimes in some way.

It is these friendships with Melanie, Binky and Ingrid that make things lovely as well. They’re given great importance, as they form Friday’s chosen family. It all works together though as each part is integral to how she solves the crime. And in the fourteenth book, it’s all working out well with requisite red herrings that are there to try and distract Friday from the truth. Not really gonna happen though, cause Friday always solves the case!

I have loved the Friday Barnes series, and this very much reads like the series is wrapping up. If so, this is a great way to end as I felt as though each character had their arcs wrapped up at the end, and there was a sense that Friday might continue solving crimes in our imaginations, which is a lot of fun. I’ve read a few R.A. Spratt books this year, and I have loved them all.

Friday is a fun detective character, and one of my favourite things has been the recap that each book has at the start. It captures what has come before in the previous book, so you can dive right in! This was another brilliant Friday Barnes and R.A. Spratt book, and I can’t wait to see what comes next from R.A. Spratt!