Secrets at No.7 by Jemma Hatt [review]

Secrets at No.7 is the second book in Jemma Hatt’s Mysterious Mansions series for Middle Grade readers. This fun adventure set in Edwardian England is perfect for young historical fiction lovers (and those young at heart!)

Title: Secrets at No.7
Author: Jemma Hatt
Series: Mysterious Mansions
First Published: August 14, 2023
Publisher: Elmside Publishing
Genres: Middle Grade
Acquired: from the author

*** Thank you to the author, Jemma Hatt, for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. ***

Detective duo Alice and Theo reunite with their East End friends to solve a new mystery in Edwardian London. Their curiosity is awakened when sounds come from the spooky house next door. A plea for help catapults the gang into a thrilling chase.

Join them as they dash across historic sites from the British Museum to hidden catacombs in a fast-paced action adventure.

A fun cast of characters

The Mysterious Mansions series serves up another fun adventure through the streets of Edwardian London as Alice and Theo, along with their friends, help out a new friend. There are roof-tops shenanigans, car chases, underground tunnels, and even spies!

While Alice and Theo are still the main characters, we get to see a lot more of the supporting cast get their own moments of glory in this book. Alongside all the family and staff at No.6, I was excited to see a few of Alice and Theo’s friends from the East End return. An even bigger bonus was seeing Theo’s sister, Kitty firmly involved and serving as the “indulgent adult” that helps the kids along in their sleuthing. I hope we get to see more of Kitty as she develops into a full adult in her own right and how she balances her father’s wishes with her own desires to be more independent and a supporter of the suffragette movement.

A real page-turning adventure

This is less a mystery and more of an action-filled adventure – from the first page to the last, there was so much going on. It’s a fun, easy-to-read story that I think will have lots of appeal for Middle Grade readers.

I loved that the kids were ‘kids’ – not just kid-characters running around doing adult things. Their reactions, their dialogue, and their interactions, felt kid-like and I had a great time getting drawn into the past.

While all the young children involved are friends in the truest sense, there is still a very obvious sense of divide between the classes (nobility, servants, street urchin) and how they were treated by the adults, and by society in general. And while the children themselves see past their “classes” the help each other, at the end of the day, you get a sense of the different kinds of difficulties they each go through.

Overall, this is definitely a MG series I would recommend, especially for any young readers that might be interested in historical fiction or a enjoy a fast-paced mystery adventure.

Quote from Secrets at No.7