Death Before Detention

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A01=Alison Weatherby
Author_Alison Weatherby
books for 10 year olds
books for young derry girls fans
books for younger teens
Category=FFJ
Category=YFC
Category=YFCF
Category=YFQ
Category=YFS
cosy crime
eq_bestseller
eq_childrens
eq_crime
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_teenage-young-adult
forthcoming
irish books
kid's crime books
murder mystery
mystery for kids

Product details

  • ISBN 9781035084319
  • Dimensions: 130 x 197mm
  • Publication Date: 25 Jun 2026
  • Publisher: Pan Macmillan
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
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Welcome to the Common Criminals' Club, a new cosy murder mystery series for middle-grade and teen readers, full of doodles, danger and devious criminals - if you love Robin Stevens, Katie Kirby, Derry Girls, or The Mysterious Benedict Society. It's Thursday Murder Club for 9-12 year olds - so step right up: here's your next reading obsession!

This is the story of how we . . .
- Discovered a dead body
- Launched an investigation
- Battled mean girls, feral bats, and nearly destroyed our three-year friendship all in the noble pursuit of solving a complex murder


Mae Flynn is used to the chaos of her rural Irish Catholic boarding school, but she isn’t expecting to discover a dead body in the school kitchen. To make matters worse, the hapless victim, Conor Haddock, was the previous owner of the school building and had recently been talking about selling up, alongside getting on the bad side of seemingly every adult Mae knows. In other words: the suspects are endless.

Along with her best friends, the self-named Common Criminals' Club, Mae is determined to solve the murder. But the more she uncovers, the more she begins to suspect that everyone around her is hiding something. Soon it’s not only her lessons and friendships at stake, but her very life . . .

Alison Weatherby is a middle-grade, teen and YA mystery writer who lives outside of Dublin, Ireland. A winner of Chicken House Books’ Open Coop competition, Alison's debut novel was The Secrets Act, a historical YA mystery set at Bletchley Park during WW2. The Secrets Act won the Redhill Academy Trust Book Award and was shortlisted for the Young Quills Award. The Common Criminals’ Club is her first book for middle grade readers. When she’s not reading or writing about murders, she visits schools to teach kids how to write them. She enjoys reading, running and hitting things at the boxing gym. Alison lives with her husband, two daughters and a very goofy lurcher named Greta.

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