Everyone who interacted closely and almost daily with Iris had a clos This book was decent, but I've gotta say, the cons definitely outweighed the pros. Everyone who interacted closely and almost daily with Iris had a close to unique personality, but everyone else was pretty much exactly the same. Also, the characters who were supposed to be particularly different showed traits and a repetitive speech pattern displayed in other characters.
The investigative techniques of Iris were very predictable and displayed a serious lack of initiative or imagination - even after acknowledging Iris as an amateur detective. Fake crying to get someone to talk to you. Nothing that really stood out. At first you get the impression that Iris only wants to help her father out as a detective for money. Yet, she develops a stalkerish interest in Tom that never goes anywhere. Then when he disappears, she seems obsessed with him and his story. It was a little odd because she had no reason to be.
Her newfound interest was a bit too feverish and sudden to be completely innocent; and even though she claims to be helping her father, she continuously ignores and worries him. Does that sound like a concerned daughter? I was expecting the conclusion to be a great scandal as a way to tie all of the seemingly unimportant and monotonous ends together, but I was sorely dissapointed. Tom died because he joined the army to impress a girl.
It was anticlimactic and unimpressive. Iris is a far cry from Nancy Drew. Aug 06, AnnaBnana rated it liked it Shelves: Iris is desperate to help her father with his private dectective business. Since his injury in the war, she sees her services as indespensible to him, but since he's been gone half her life, all he can see her as is a little girl. There were elements of this book I liked very much.
I love mid-century mysteries and I liked Iris. She was a plucky girl going for what she wants, making mistakes along the way, but learning as she goes. Iris' mother had to be dead in order for she and her father to be put in the situation they are in, but the resulting plotline of her suicide felt extraneous to the rest of the story and while having it remain unresolved is realistic, it made the whole subplot feel unnecessary to me. Without saying too much, I'll also so thatt the resolution of the mystery itself was also a bit unsatisfying to me, but all that said, it was a fast-moving plot with enough intrigue and good characterization to keep me going.
Oct 18, Nicole rated it liked it. Well, what can I say? It was a decent historical mystery. The solution to the mystery, however, was a bit of a letdown. Scratch that; it was a complete letdown.
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Even the covers look alike! This book has the right idea. The characters are cleverly written and the dialogue, though stilted at times, is realistic to the time period. The prob Well, what can I say? The problem is the antagonist. Also, the actual mystery? While it may be realistic, it was completely boring. After investing your time in this book, you turn to the last chapter and find out view spoiler [Tom joined the ARMY and died?
Whether Grace told him to or not, it's not very exciting. Aug 21, Erin rated it it was amazing Shelves: I always liked Nancy Drew but also found her a little white bread if you get my drift. Iris Anderson is how Nancy Drew would be in reality, if Nancy's dad lost all his money and his leg. It's and Iris is just starting public school after going to private school for most of her life. Her father is back from the war after losing his leg at Pearl Harbor and her mother has committed suicide some months before. Iris's dad is a private eye but his business has suffered since he lost his leg.
Iris I always liked Nancy Drew but also found her a little white bread if you get my drift. Iris is now forced to move to the Lower East Side and start at public school and she's really nervous about it, needless to say. She meets a melange of interesting and fun characters and wants to help "Pop" with his business but he is dead set against it. What's a girl to do but do some investigating on her own. It had everything I like in a book: Plus all the great 40s slang was awesome! I'm definitely going to incorporate "Boy Howdy" into my everyday life.
I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was fabulous. The second in the series, The Girl is Trouble just came out and I can't wait to read it! Aug 16, katnissbraid. This book should've been called The Girl Who Lies. Iris is from the Upper East Side of New York and attended a pricey private all-girl school until her mother committed suicide for unknown reasons and This book should've been called The Girl Who Lies.
Iris is from the Upper East Side of New York and attended a pricey private all-girl school until her mother committed suicide for unknown reasons and her father returned from Pearl Harbor missing a leg. They're forced for whatever reason to move to the Lower East Side and Iris has to attend public school. She doesn't fit in at public school because presumably, everyone can smell the stench of snobbishness wafting off her.
Iris is an obnoxious brat. She's in the pantheon of my Most Hated Protagonists Ever. She's self-centered, a liar, snobby, a lying liar who lies, makes stupid decisions that most 5-year-olds wouldn't make, judgmental and careless with other people's feelings. The rest of the characters are cardboard cut-outs with one or two characteristics. Then there's the plot, or rather the plot resolution. One of Iris's public school classmates Tom, a "bad boy" who was nice to her on her first day of school goes missing and his parents hire Iris's private investigator father to find him.
Iris thinks her father is useless because he lost a leg at Pearl Harbor and she thinks his inability in her opinion to do his job will lead them to the poor house and decides she's going to investigate on the side. Basically this gang is considered bad news because the girls wear lots of make-up and tight sweaters, they go dancing in Harlem and the boys are "dark-skinned Italians and Puerto Ricans". This book made me really uncomfortable in a lot of ways. Iris constantly mentions how fat Pearl is, how much Pearl eats, how grossly she eats, how she has to leave buttons undone on her skirt because she's fat FAT FAT.
I think the author needs to work on her deep-seeded disgust of fat people.
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And then she mentions how there are "colored people" in the public school she attends and more than once refers to the "dark-skinned Italians" and can't seem to mention the boys in the Rainbows without repeating that they're Puerto Rican or Italian. I realize the book is set in but I'm still side-eyeing this book. Iris discovers that her ex-BFF from her rich days, Grace, likes to troll for servicemen or lower class boys. Just to toy with them and manipulate them. She's also a pickpocket. Grace tells Iris that Jo is the reason Tom disappeared.
But when the truth shakes out, we find that Tom joined the army to impress Grace and was killed in a training exercise. And Grace knew it all along but still tried to pin his disappearance and frame it as a murder on Jo? And even after Iris's father discovers how Tom was killed, he keeps it from Iris, knowing that she's concerned about Tom…wouldn't he tell her what happened just to shut her up at least???
The writing is odd, too.
The Girl is Murder
You'll be reading along and then the author will decide to show off and throw in some slang every 4th page or so and it's so jarring. I'm a glutton for punishment because I decided to continue with the series because the synopsis for the second book promises we'll find out what happened to Iris's mom. Why do I do these things to myself??? Mar 08, Alex not a dude Baugh rated it really liked it Shelves: And though it is war time, the war seems to play the part of another character.
It is the first day at her new school for 15 year old Iris Anderson and she is understandably nervous. Just before her Pop came home from the war, having lost a leg at Pearl Harbor, her mother had inexplicably committed suicide. Now, out of money, Iris and her dad have moved into a cheaper place downtown, where he has resumed the detective business. But Iris and Suze actually manage to bond - Suze has a boyfriend in the army and Iris lies about her dad being home. She also meet Tom Barney, good looking guy who helps her find her class.
Iris decides to help out, manages to get photos of the cheating wife, but her father gets angry instead of appreciating her efforts. Kathryn Miller Haines has created a realistic historical fiction novel and a good mystery, though in this first book od a series the mystery falls a little flat. But that is ok, because the real purpose of this novel is to introduce and familiarize the reader with Iris, her family, her friends, and her environment and Haines has done an excellent job at recreating New York. And Iris is an interesting character.
Haines does a good job of making this change seem plausible. But she learns from her mistakes. Originally, I didn't care much for Iris, but she grew on me and I ended up finding her a very likable character. I even liked the Rainbows, even though they were supposed to be the school badies - teens who cut classes, went dancing at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, and even smoke a lot and drink not so much.
The girls dress suggestively. Haines includes a disturbing but realistic episode about the Zoot Suits, which were considered very unpatriotic because the large amount of material used to make them should have gone to the war effort. And there are other realistic touches throughout the book, adding to its appeal. When I was in high school in NYC, there were groups just like the Rainbows, even that many years later.
The Girl is Murder Series by Kathryn Miller Haines
The story is fast paced, full of s slang and so New Yorkish, I kept wanting an egg cream while I read it. Haines brings up and deals with issues around race, class and touches on religion, all very much a part of the time. This book is recommended for readers age 12 and up. This book was purchased for my personal library.
Oct 04, Hallie rated it liked it Shelves: Actually, I found this to be an odd mix of solid, intriguing, and really dodgy. The best part, to me, was the setting, as I can't think of any other books I've read set in New York City during World War 2 it's That's also a bit of a problem, however, as I didn't feel that the characterization was up to the setting, so there was nothing to carry my attention over rough spots.
Specifically, Iris wasn't a particularly engaging character. Theoretically it was easy to understand how very emotionally fragile she would be after the triple whammy of her mother's suicide, her father's returning from the war having lost his let at Pearl Harbor, and his then moving them from their Upper East Side home to the Lower East Side and from a private girls' school in the former to a public school in the latter.
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All the same, that fragility led her to some terrible choices, primarily lying about everything to virtually everyone, and not even bailing herself out by coming clean until the end of the book. She lies about being Jewish, about her father's being home from the War, to her father about where she's going and with whom, and so on and on and on. She also uses people pretty badly, although she does also realise this about herself by the end, and starts to make some amends.
The mystery element was fine, although it had two major credibility problems, both spoilers. First off view spoiler [when Tom died in a training exercise, I found it pretty hard to believe that the Army would have made no attempt to track down his parents and tell them. Although he lied about his age to enlist, he certainly wasn't the only one to do so, and if they'd found his home address was also wrong, they'd have gone to the school nearest the recruit office or something.
Iris's father didn't seem to be a very successful PI, and yet he found out what had happened to Tom, so why couldn't the Army have done something even easier? As an oldie in , I guessed almost immediately what it was and what followed from that. And the scenes in the Savoy, in Harlem, were vivid and interesting. I'd consider reading the second, but only if someone else I know reads it first, and says that Iris is more sympathetic in it.
Jul 07, Rachael rated it it was amazing. Her mother is gone, and her father has just returned from the war with a missing leg. But when Pop takes a case involving a student at her new school, Iris realizes that she needs to take matters into her own hands. Haines has creates a wonderful heroine in Iris. Readers will be drawn to her spunk and fierce loyalty to her father even when Iris appears to be just a lonely girl in a scary new place. Iris is really the perfect protagonist for this story, with a great blend of girlishness and daring that allows readers to access both the investigation and the day-to-day struggles over friends and boys.
I initially thought that his novel would merely focus on the historical mystery, but I was thrilled by the way Haines makes the mystery so much more personal for Iris. Despite this, The Girl Is Murder is an utterly charming read with historical and detective flair. May 25, Christie rated it it was ok Shelves: Her father has returned home from the war with a missing leg. Her mother, faced with the prospect of a wounded husband and dealing with the discrimination hurled at her for being a German, has committed suicide. As a result of her mother's death and her father's inability to work as he once did, Iris has gone from private school, upper East Si First Sentence: As a result of her mother's death and her father's inability to work as he once did, Iris has gone from private school, upper East Side girl to public school, Lower East Side girl.
With her father struggling to make ends meet as a private investigator, Iris decides to take matters into her own hands and start investigating with him. I did like some things about the book. I think that racial and social stratification were exemplified very well in the book. It was probably very true to life in the s. Though this book isn't really a war story by any means, the war does pervade every aspect of life at this time.
The author does a good job in showing that. The story is a good one for the most part and brings to light the lessons of knowing who your friends really are and that people are not always what they seem. The mystery was a good one. It keeps you guessing but there are also enough hints about the outcome.
I found the s slang to be incredibly interesting and added fun to the book. The main reason I gave this book two stars is the characters. The only one I sympathized with at all was Pearl. Iris irritated me beyond reason. The big reason for this is that she seemed to be a compulsive liar.
She lied to everyone with very little reason. She had plenty of chances to come clean with little or no penalty, but she never took them. She treated all the people in her life as just a means to an end. Though she did learn her lesson a bit after looking at Grace's actions, it was just too little too late for me. In final analysis, the mystery was good, the history was excellent, but the characters fall flat for me. It is a quick and fun read, and if you like cozy mysteries it's probably right up your alley. Iris is just not the most likeable character in the world, which made it only ok for me.
Dec 29, Anna Curiosity comes before Kay rated it liked it. Iris Anderson is still in shock from her Mother's sudden suicide less than six months ago. Now she's living with her Pop in run-down neighborhood, going to public school. She's been taken away from the Upper East Side, her private school and all the friends she's ever had. Not to mention that Pop is barely scraping by as a private detective because he only has one leg after the disaster at Pearl Harbor, and he refuses to ask for help. Iris is miserable in public school and starts creeping around Iris Anderson is still in shock from her Mother's sudden suicide less than six months ago.
Iris is miserable in public school and starts creeping around trying to solve Pop's cases for him, even after he told her to stay out of it. She begins to make friends in school with the 'Rainbows' a group of outcasts after she tells a white lie about her Pop. Then Tom, one of the group, goes missing all of the sudden. Iris' Pop takes on the case, but is getting further and further off the trail. So she steps in, getting in closer to Tom's friends and staying out late into the night at Harlem clubs, rolling them for information. The information leads back to Grace, her former friend at private school who had been secretly involved with Tom.
What really happened to Tom? Was he murdered, did he run away or did someone make him 'disappear'? By the time the book ends, you find out all of the answers to these questions. I liked the start of this book and it had a very promising premise. I do however, have a few complaints.
Iris was not a very strong heroine. She came off as weak and clingy in some parts of the book. Others she seemed like a stubborn brat. That was okay though because she was very much a teenager. That I could handle withough complaint. It was the lackluster ending to the booklong mystery that truly irritated me to no end. It might have been realistic, but it was not at all exciting and it made me feel like I'd wasted my time.
If you're in need of a girl detective fix, go watch Veronica Mars instead - you'll be much more satisfied. This book is now available in stores and online. Nov 13, Karen rated it really liked it. I have a weakness, and that weakness is teenage girl detectives. Ever since my dad brought home my first Nancy Drew book when I was a little girl I have been hooked on the girl detective. I was a faithful watcher of Veronica Mars, even when she broke up with Logan and went to college and hooked up with that dude who was cute but about as interesting as a sink full of cold dishwater.
I love anything Oh, kids. I love anything set in the s. If I could pick a period of time to go back in time to visit, I think it would be this time. Social issues aside, it just seems like a simpler time in a lot of ways. Quite possibly the last era in which a badass gang could call themselves The Rainbows and still be considered badass instead of getting beaten, pantsed, and laughed out of town. All of the 40s references, slang, etc. Miller Haines must have spent a ton of time researching the period to get everything historically accurate.
I got a lot of the references but had fun looking up some of the others. The story itself is slow-paced but engrossing with a lot of twists and turns. The characters are really interesting, particularly because the gang members are actually far and away some of the most likeable characters in the book certainly more likeable than the richie riches.
Mar 24, Precious rated it really liked it. Originally posted at Fragments of Life. After losing her mother and her life and getting the father who was a stranger to her, she had to go to a public school and be the new girl. Iris was a very curious girl. Intuitive, determined and stubborn, she took after her mother. I liked her and I found it easy to relate to her. She was not perfect. She lied too many times, disobeyed her father and kept things from everyone.
But she was able to unearth the truth, a Originally posted at Fragments of Life. But she was able to unearth the truth, at least some of it, discover herself and build a decent relationship with her father. I got to witness how Iris changed from the posh girl to the down-to-earth girl. The difference between her life before and her life after the move was something that really caught my interest.
But that is ok, because the real purpose of this novel is to introduce and familiarize the reader with Iris, her family, her friends, and her environment and Haines has done an excellent job at recreating New York. And Iris is an interesting character. Haines does a good job of making this change seem plausible. But she learns from her mistakes. Originally, I didn't care much for Iris, but she grew on me and I ended up finding her a very likable character.
Zoot Suit Dancer I even liked the Rainbows, even though they were supposed to be the school badies - teens who cut classes, went dancing at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, and even smoke a lot and drink not so much. The girls dress suggestively. Haines includes a disturbing but realistic episode about the Zoot Suits, which were considered very unpatriotic because the large amount of material used to make them should have gone to the war effort. And there are other realistic touches throughout the book, adding to its appeal. When I was in high school in NYC, there were groups just like the Rainbows, even that many years later.
The story is fast paced, full of s slang and so New Yorkish, I kept wanting an egg cream while I read it. Haines brings up and deals with issues around race, class and touches on religion, all very much a part of the time. This book is recommended for readers age 12 and up. This book was purchased for my personal library. This trailer is great: Posted by Alex Baugh at 6: MissKimberlyStardust March 12, at 9: Alex March 13, at 7: