Murder on a school night by Kate Weston

Kerry is perfectly content staying home, would prefer it in fact, but her BFF, Annie, would love for them to be more social and be more popular. The opportunity arises when the school's most popular person, Heather, enlists Kerry and Annie to help her work out who is cyber-bullying her. To do this, Kerry and Annie are going to their first sixth-form party. Everyone is at the party, including Scott, Kerry's crush, and just as things are heating up, and Kerry might just be about to get her first kiss, they discover the body of Heather's second in command, suffocated with a menstrual cup. Sadly, the police investigating seem ... a little incompetent (and a touch sexist). Within days, another body is found, this time with a sanitary pad across the eyes. Now Kerry and Annie are on the case officially to catch a killer.

The pure feminist energy is fierce in this very humourous, very unexpected murder novel. Weston has combined a bold feminist and an introvert with anxiety for the main characters for this clever story, essentially best friends who are opposites. Readers will relate to one or the other, and there are many contemporary references (social media, music, movies), while keeping it removed from being too dated. The pacing is even, with the story easy to immerse in, the mystery looks solvable, but readers will be wrong. Really well written, fans of Karen M. McManus will enjoy this book along with fans of the Murder Most Unladylike series by Robin Stevens, albeit once they are older (must be older though!), as it has references that will make readers recall the TV series 'Sex Education' that shows on Netflix (including references to female body parts in greeting to village locals!).

Themes: Mystery, Suspense, Contemporary, High School, Crime, Revenge, Relationships, Humour.

Melanie Pages