The Nancys

Eleven year old Tippy Chan waited excitedly at the airport for her Uncle Pike to arrive from Australia.  Pike brings with him his new boy-friend, Devon, and they are returning to Pike's home town in New Zealand to look after Tippy while her mother goes on a cruise.

Growing up Pike loved reading Nancy Drew books and had passed his collection to Tippy who was also a fan. So when Tippy's school teacher is murdered Tippy, Pike and Devon decide to form a group, the Nancys, to investigate the crime, especially when the police appear to arrest the wrong suspect. Tippy is also concerned about a friend, Todd, who fell from a bridge several days before the death of the teacher.

R W R (Rob) McDonald is a New Zealander who now lives in Australia. In this book he has created a collection of eccentric, and sometimes flawed, characters who live in Tippy's community and support her.

As well as being a murder mystery the book is concerned about people, their perceptions of themselves and of others plus the different ways that people cope with grief. Tippy's father had died in a car crash nine months earlier and she is struggling to understand how and why it happened. Her mother is also struggling with coping with the death of her husband and has not told Tippy the full story. She is also cross that Pike left New Zealand when he was young to find a new life.

This is a very readable crime novel, often amusing with loads of over-the top humour.  

R W R McDonald https://rwrmcdonald.com/
AustCrime  https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/nancys-rwr-mcdonald
Nancy Drew books  https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/NAD/nancy-drew