There is something irresistible about the premise of P.G. Bell’s The Beanstalk Murder. A whodunnit in the land of fairy tales. It’s been done before, Jasper Fforde’s Nursery Crimes series being a particular favorite, but P.G. Bell has adapted the idea for children and run with it.
What Is The Beanstalk Murder?
There is no Jack in this book, but we’re clearly in a nearby fairy tale universe. There are magic beans and giants, with the land they live in having easy access to gold. Below the land of giants is a world filled with normal-sized people. People who have magical powers. After a war a century ago, there is an uneasy peace between the two realms. This peace is literally crashed through, when a murdered giant falls onto the realm below, destroying much of the village of Old Stump.
Anwen and Cerys, two young rivals in the village, find themselves thrust together, ascending to the land of the giants, on a rapidly growing beanstalk. Once there, faced with hostility and suspicion, they must solve the murder of the dead giant, lest that death precipitate a war between the two realms.
Why Read The Beanstalk Murder?
There’s lots to admire in The Beanstalk Murder. It sits alongside Alice Eclair and Peril on the Atlantic in terms of delivering a twisty whodunnit for readers around 8 years old. The fairy tale elements of The Beanstalk Murder make it stand out from the crowd. The novel has comic leanings and its setting allows P.G. Bell to play with, and riff off, classic fairy tale tropes. He uses the disparity in size between the giants and the investigators to great effect and the tense hostility between the two realms adds an extra frisson to proceedings.
The two girl detectives start the novel as rivals. Cerys is a talented sorceress about to head off to a magical training school, while Anwen is a meadow-witch, likely stuck at home having to deal with bunions and flatulent cows. As the novel progresses, the two become close, and realize that neither has quite the life they think they do. There is a nice message about not judging a book by its cover, and assuming you know someone from the image they project.
The central mystery is fun too, with a host of suspects, all of whom have motives for being the killer. The resolution is satisfying and disguised enough to keep younger readers guessing.
There is promise of a second book, in a similar vein, though whether it features Cerys and Anwen is unclear. On the strength of The Beanstalk Murder, I’d definitely check out The Big Bad Wolf Murder, too. With a host of source material for other criminal riffs, this is a series that could run and run. P.G. Bell has found a rich vein, and I hope we will see him mine it.
While waiting for the sequel to be published, consider checking out The Train to Impossible Places, by the same author. I read that with my son a few years ago and we very much enjoyed it.
If you would like to pick up a copy of The Beanstalk Murder you can do so here, in the US (Published by Feiwel and Friends), and here, in the UK (published by Usborne). (Affiliate Links)
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I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.
