A fast-paced murder mystery, Eleanor Jones Is Not a Murderer takes the YA murder-mystery genre and humanises it, placing friendship and self-discovery at its core.

Eleanor Jones has spent her whole life moving from town to town. As a result, she’s struggled to make friends and develop meaningful and lasting relationships. A day after arriving at her latest school, there’s a stabbing, and the one friend she made the previous day is the victim. So, Eleanor sets out to track down the suspect and solve the mystery.

Eleanor as a protagonist is incredibly relatable, dealing with common teenage problems such as moving schools, making new friends, and discovering who you are. She’s clearly not just trying to solve a crime, she’s navigating a complex and confusing teenage world. Through the process of trying to solve the mystery, Eleanor begins to bond with other students at school – kids who don’t have close friends, just like her. These characters support each other throughout the novel in a way which not only propels the plot forward, but also serves as a great role model for teenagers.

While this book does feature a mystery at the centre of its plot, what ultimately drives the story forward and gives it heart is the developing relationships between the characters. Eleanor Jones Is Not a Murderer is most appropriate for people aged 14+ due to infrequent but explicit references to drugs.