The Girl Is Murder

Written by Kathryn Miller Haines

Narrated by Rachel Botchan

Kathryn Miller Haines' debut Iris Anderson mystery received considerable buzz for its stellar 15-year-old heroine and engrossing 1940s period details. With her father back from the war, Iris is eager to help him with his private eye business-especially since his mobility is limited thanks to a missing leg. Now with a case involving a boy she knows from school to investigate, Iris leaps into action and soon finds herself in the middle of a harrowing adventure. "Take a powder, Nancy Drew. 1940s girl sleuth Iris Anderson is on the case. A stylish, slang-filled teen noir that is as entertaining as it is absorbing." - Kirkus Reviews

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9781461847397

Kathryn Miller Haines

Kathryn Miller Haines is an actor, mystery writer, award-winning playwright, and artistic director of a Pittsburgh-based theater company.

Reviews for The Girl Is Murder

[je2nif4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Book: The Girl is MurderAuthor: Kathryn Miller HainesCharacters: Iris and her father Setting: 1940’s New York, WWIITheme: Detective thriller, coming of age Genre: Historical Fiction Audience: ages 15 and up Curriculum: English and World History classes Summary: Haines creates a vary curious character to seems to have seen a lot, which may be a play on her name, Iris as well. She had endured many tragedies as a child of the 1940’s which seem to make her grow up fast. As a result, she takes it upon her self to help her father, a WWII vet with one leg, to solve crimes. One in particular there one of her own classmates is involved. Personal Response: I really enjoyed reading this character. Although she acts like a normal teenage girl thinking about boys and other typical teen things, she is plagued by the reality of her circumstances. There’s a lot of vivid imagery that allows the reader embrace the character and you hope that she doesn’t get too close to solving the case to where she might get in trouble herself.

[nicoally · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

15 year-old Iris Anderson has faced many difficult changes this past year. Her mother committed suicide and her absentee father has finally come home after losing his leg at Pearl Harbor to start up his own detective agency. On top of all that, financial difficulties have forced Iris to move from her Upper East Side house and private school to a more humble home and attend public school; however, at Iris’ new school one of the boys has suddenly disappeared and Iris is determined to find out what has happened. This book will remind readers of older Nancy Drew books with its innocent themes and storyline, yet, the author adds multiple layers and complications to the plot. Rich vocabulary and flair help create the diversity of the characters. A reader can tell the character’s background and role in the plot based on their accents, though not all of the characters display depth in their personality. While the case is closed at the end of the book, the reader may find that the author sets the book up to become a series or perhaps at least a sequel. Though a young adult book, the lack of mature matter allows for a wide range of readers from ages 12 and up. Recommended.

[christianr_899499 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Iris's world has turned upside down. She now attends a public school on the lower east side, but before her father was injured at Pearl Harbor and her mother killed herself she went to a private girls school on the upper east side. Her relationship with her father was never close because of his military absences, so living with him now is awkward. Worse, he is trying to make it as a private investigator, but is limited by his injury. Iris wants to help, but must work without his knowledge because he doesn't want her involved. Before she knows it, she has befriended the friends of a missing boy, lied numerous times to her father and new friends, and gone dancing and drinking in Harlem at the Savoy. This is a well written period piece that gives readers a glimpse at how deeply Americans, including high schoolers, were affected by World War II.

[jen6e6moore · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to like this book more than I did, I’m sorry to say. I feel like the last few historical YA books have been sadly lacking in the historical department, and The Girl is Murder is no exception. While the slang and the clothes and the setting are all very 1940s, the story itself could be told of any teenager anywhere – Iris’s attempts to help support her father, their small family’s slide from middle-class to poor, her rebellious determination to do what she wants and her resentment of a father who was never around. I understand that universality is probably what Haines was going for, but I found it a little disappointing. Society was different in the 1940s, a sixteen year old was older then than she would be now, and I don’t think the book reflected that very well.

There was plenty to enjoy, though. Iris is a great character; she’s too stubborn to take no for an answer and just enough of a teenager to have no idea why doing some of the things she’s doing might be a bad idea, so there’s nothing she won’t do. Her new public school friends are also great fun, a gang of boys who wear the zoot suit and girls who smoke and drink and go dancing in Harlem. I liked the way that they were never depicted as bad people, even though they were absolutely considered the worst kind of kids these days at the time (and heck, probably would be in most modern stories, too). I wished we got more of Iris’s dad, too. Injured at Pearl Harbor and ashamed enough of his Jewishness to hide it, he’s a fascinating mess we don’t get to see much of.

My favorite part of The Girl is Murder was definitely the ending. After the very generic rebellious-teenager story, I was a little afraid it would have a happy ending that tied up all the loose ends neatly, but no, it managed a very noirish ending. Noir is more than just a 1940s setting, it’s a whole aesthetic of despair and futility. That’s hard to pull off in a YA novel, and for the most part, The Girl is Murder didn’t manage it – but the ending was note-perfect.

In a Sentence: More a teenage melodrama than a noir mystery, The Girl is Murder is a fun 1940s story that hints at something better than it ever quite achieves.

[callmecayce · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was all right over all, but it fell into one of the traps that drives me nuts, which was the main character making bad decisions and choosing to stick with those, even though everyone knows it's going to end well -- and when it doesn't, you can't even say I told you so because it just sucks. Luckily by the end of the book, Haines had sorted things out for Iris, but at times it felt almost too perfect. That being said, I'd rather take the ending she wrote than the alternatives. Aside from those issues, the mystery was interesting and it was easy to care about the characters -- and Haines did a nice job with misdirection.

[picardyrose · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Clever YA about a teen in 1942 whose family dropped into the Lower East Side after her father lost a leg at Pearl Harbor and her mother committed suicide. Dad is a private eye, and Iris decides to help by investigating a classmate's disappearance.

[urbanfan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Overall I enjoyed this book. It was a nice break from the overwhelming romance generally found in young adult. The pacing flows, the characters are relatable and I did invest in the story's outcome. While I wasn't thrilled with ending (personal choice not anything to do with the writing) and I question the frequency of the 1940's slang used, I would recommend this book to YA mystery/historical fans.