This is another one of those books where I’m not sure how I heard of it, but have absolutely no regrets putting it on my TBR list!

In The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane, Emmy, the daughter of a prestigious parenting guru, is sent to Wellsworth, a boarding school in England so that her mother can film a TV series about giving parents advice. She’s initially very down about this idea, especially since her mother has banned her from playing football, but when she discovers that Wellsworth has a connection to her missing father, the mystery is all she can think about.

Honestly, this book was so much fun! It’s quite clearly middle grade, given that almost everyone in this book is about twelve, but it doesn’t talk down to the reader. The stakes are high – Emmy has a mysterious chest of medallions that she’s found – and I never doubted that the mysterious secret society in the book was dangerous. However, Emmy is also twelve and no Alex Rider, so the challenges she faces make sense for her.

Emmy’s friends, Lola and Jack, are lovely supporting characters! I really liked the bond that the three of them have and how they befriended and supported Emmy so quickly. The development of their friendship was one of the high points of the book.

There are a few serious issues in this book – like parental relationships and bullying, but the book doesn’t address this as much. I felt that Emmy’s strained relationship with her roommate Victoria could have been used to explore both issues more, but it also makes sense that the book wants to focus on the mystery. Since there’s a second book, I hope that this subplot will continue to develop and we’ll get an interesting and complex friend/enemy relationship from this! I also hope that we’ll get to see more of Emmy’s relationship with her mother; there’s clearly a lot of resentment as Emmy feels neglected and forbidden from playing her favourite sport, but Emmy is also strangely obedient to her mother, mostly following her instructions even though her mother is overseas.

Overall, I thought that this was a fun adventure! I see that there’s a sequel and I’m definitely going to read that – I want to see how the adventure continues!