What Rhymes with Murder?

When Frida takes her baby son Finn to the library for Rhyme Time, she considers it a place she might find hope, peace and community, but any sense of peace is short-lived after a scream rings out and a dead body is found. Already overwhelmed by everything else in her life (what is sleep again?), she’s ready to discount her attempt to make new friends, until it turns out she’s not the only one curious about whether the fall was an accident – or murder.

Frida’s long, lonely days are suddenly filled with new acquaintances, from an equally nosy new dad to a prickly local historian, a doctor, a pilates teacher, and one of the police officers on the case. Toting a baby around as she investigates during daylight hours in a bright neighbourhood shouldn’t be dangerous, but soon Frida will have much larger problems than stolen prams or badly timed naps.

Penny Tangey – already an award-winning middle-grade author – has knocked it out of the park (or maybe thrown it out of the pram?) with this hilarious mystery. Extremely relatable for any parents, but equally entertaining for people who just enjoy a juicy mystery with a smattering of inner-Melbourne history, this book will be excellent for readers of Richard Osman, Aoife Clifford, and Sulari Gentill’s contemporary books.