Murder Most Unladylike Mini Mystery Books in Order

The Murder Most Unladylike mini mysteries are shorter adventures set in the same world as the Wells and Wong novels. Instead of full-length cases, they offer tuck-box sized stories that can be read in a single sitting, filling in gaps between the main books and shining a light on side characters and moments that Hazel's casebook only hints at.

Several of the mini mysteries are set back at Deepdean School for Girls, when there are no full murders to investigate but plenty of trouble brewing. Daisy and Hazel chase rumours of a vampire among the older girls, untangle crushes and secret admirers, and solve everyday puzzles that never quite rise to the level of the headline cases in the novels. The school gossip, unrequited love and spooky night-time prowls all feel slightly taller and stranger when written down as official Detective Society work.

In The Case of the Deepdean Vampire, Daisy takes over the narration to investigate a Romanian student whose pale skin, late hours and odd habits set the school whispering. The Case of the Blue Violet sees her tackling a romantic mystery for Violet Darby, working out who has been sending flowers and notes. These stories play with genre in miniature, mixing gothic shivers and gentle comedy while letting readers spend more time with their favourite girls.

Other minis send the Detective Society beyond Deepdean. The Case of the Missing Treasure is a London museum caper, where a birthday treasure hunt collides with a real thief targeting famous artefacts and brings the girls back into competition with the Junior Pinkertons. The Case of the Drowned Pearl, written for a World Book Day celebration, turns a seaside holiday into a whodunnit when a champion swimmer is found dead on the beach and three fellow hotel guests come under suspicion.

Many of these stories are gathered into collections such as Cream Buns and Crime and Once Upon a Crime, alongside new cases, detective tips, reading lists and puzzles. Some chapters are told by other members of the wider cast, including May Wong and the Junior Pinkertons, which lets readers see Daisy and Hazel from the outside and foreshadows the Ministry of Unladylike Activity series.

Taken on their own, the mini mysteries are fast, playful slices of detective fiction. Read alongside the main novels, they deepen the sense that Hazel's notebooks are crammed with more mysteries than will ever fit into the numbered books on the shelf.