A murder mystery hidden in a box of old notes brings two young siblings together across cities, with a little help from WhatsApp, curiosity and a remarkable museum.
With 470 plus pages, this is the longest short-form book I have read!
While reading Death at the Museum, the first thing that struck me was how much technology has changed the way we communicate, think and live. The book’s unique format reflects contemporary habits and attitudes. It keeps you hooked, not glued the old-fashioned way.
The story revolves around a sibling duo, Ava and Luke, who live in different cities. Their parents are divorced. Eleven-year-old Ava is with her mother, looking after her grandparents. Her ten-year-old brother, Luke, is with their father, learning to swim and gorging on pizza. Both have pets to care for, and the duo love solving crimes and mysteries.
The siblings want to solve more crimes, but their parents have other responsibilities. So their father gives them a box containing a file and a collection of notes. And, very interestingly, the crime scene is the Natural History Museum in London.
The notes, dating back to September 1983, begin with a school trip to the Natural History Museum for second-year pupils. What is supposed to be an educational tour turns into a saga of mishaps and murders.
Unlike adult crime thrillers, where the tempo is often high, Hallett maintains an equilibrium, with a few laughs thrown in along the way.
Her attention to detail and research is immaculate. She includes maps, workbooks, letters and journal-style entries, giving each child a distinct identity. The writing captures the way a child’s mind jumps from one thought to another, with most of it driven by pranks and curiosity.
Even the objects have personalities. The three buses transporting the children are named Dolly, Polly and Molly.
Each child is endearing, and some are quite daring too. Take Bradley, for instance, who has been punished for being a miscreant but still manages to stow away on the bus to meet his favourite dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus rex. Then there’s Adrian, whose brought along his bag of clothes to run away from home.
The illustrator Marta Kissi deserves applause too. The book is designed to replicate the physical objects children use. Each child’s notes also have a distinct font, representing their different handwriting and writing styles.
The child I liked most was Florence Fowler, who dreams of becoming a gossip columnist. Her journalistic style would give any seasoned TV anchor a run for their money!
The siblings communicate through WhatsApp, attentively going over the notes. Their exchanges are full of short sentences and emojis. After a few pages, I began to understand the emojis too. For your information, I only knew a handful of smiley emojis before this, but now I know many more and how best to use them. I wanted to add some to this review as well! It struck me how much effort goes into creating expressions and assigning meanings to these little symbols.
Hallett’s book made me long to go back to school and rediscover the Natural History Museum in Delhi, which lies practically empty. I don’t think we were ever given workbooks after museum trips, or even examined the exhibits with the precision that Hallett describes.
Very smartly, she introduces us to the natural world without making it feel like a boring textbook. She brings alive the explorers, wanderers, ancient worlds, fossils and rocks. We learn a little geology and history, discover fascinating explorations and meet some rather eccentric explorers along the way.
And then there are the caretakers, curators, teachers and smugglers. The seemingly staid museum turns out to be a treasure house of ancient artefacts, diamonds and precious stones.
A curator makes a discovery, drawing the trustee into the mystery. There are two murders and plenty of mayhem, including an incident involving a boy whose leg gets caught in a whale’s blowhole.
Meanwhile, the siblings are busy reading the old notes over WhatsApp and trying to piece together what happened. The murders have remained unsolved for decades. Eventually, Ava guides Luke to visit the Natural History Museum, and together, despite being in separate cities, they unravel the mystery. They are only ten and eleven years old!
What I like best about the book is how the author encourages an interest in the natural world, journalism and observation. She introduces good habits and the joy of acquiring knowledge without sounding preachy. She will also make adults wish they could have another round of school, with such imaginative ways of learning.
Everything is on record, and yet the puzzle remains unsolved for decades until two curious minds solve it. That’s the beauty of the book.
For those who wish there were more, this is the second book in the series, and a third is on the way. And I believe they are all standalone with same characters playing out their detective roles.
Definitely a must-read and a treasure for your bookshelf!
About Janice Hallett
Heralded as ‘Agatha Christie for the 21st Century’, Janice Hallett’s adult murder mystery novels have sold over half a million copies. Her debut book, The Appeal, was named Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year and awarded the CWA Debut Dagger. Her four adult follow-up novels have also all been Sunday Times Bestsellers.
Her debut children’s novel, A Box Full of Murders, was the bestselling children’s mystery of 2025 and shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Reader Awards.
Janice is a former magazine editor, award-winning journalist and government communications writer. As a playwright and screenwriter, she penned the feminist Shakespearean stage comedy NetherBard and co-wrote the feature film Retreat.
About Marta Kissi
Marta Kissi studied BA Illustration & Animation at Kingston University and MA Visual Communication at the Royal College of Art. Originally from Warsaw, Poland she is now lives in Bath, England where she shares her attic artist studio with her husband James and their pet plant Trevor.
Book Details
- Publisher: Puffin (Penguin Random House India)
- Print length: 476 pages
- Book 2 of 2: A Box Full of Murders
- Reading age: 9 – 13 years
- Price: INR 499
Ambica Gulati wears many hats: independent journalist, editor, multimedia storyteller, author and fiction writer. Her work moves between global affairs, conscious travel, the environment, culture and the intuitive arts, while her fiction explores the territories where nature, memory, mystery and imagination converge.
Beyond the laptop, she nourishes her creative practice through meditation, birding, reading, journaling, oracle cards, and yoga.
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