Introducing Myrtle Hardcastle, your favorite new amateur detective: a wickedly smart 12-year-old with a keen interest in the new tools of criminology and a nose for murder in the Victorian English village where her father is the local prosecutor.

When her governess inherits an estate on a Scottish island, amateur detective Myrtle Hardcastle couldn't be more excited. Unfortunately, the ancestral castle is both run-down and haunted. Ghostly moans echo in the walls, and there are rumours of a cursed treasure lost on the island-an ancient silver brooch that may have cost the former lord his life. But who had the motive, means, and opportunity to kill him? And could this Scottish trip mean the end of Myrtle's plans to get her father and governess together? Then Myrtle's investigation stirs a villain out of hiding. The estate's boat is...

When a mysterious girl attempts to stake her claim to the Snowcroft family fortune, Myrtle Hardcastle's father, a lawyer, is asked to help prove-or disprove-the girl's identity. Is she truly Ethel Snowcroft, believed to be lost at sea with her parents, or is she a con artist chasing a windfall? Myrtle is enthralled by the case, but Mr. Hardcastle's investigation takes a detour when he's hospitalized for a tonsillectomy-and then witnesses a murder. Or does he? With Mr. Hardcastle incapacitated and possibly hallucinating, Myrtle must step into the breach, and find the murder victim and the...