Eleven-year-old Ajuba is placed at a boarding school in England by her father, after her mother's suicide attempt. Here she meets her new friend Polly Venus, just arrived from America, and together they are gripped by the trashy pulp magazine True Murder, in which detectives explain how to investigate crimes. This knowledge comes in useful when the girls find a baby's skeleton in the attic of Polly's family's house. This wonderful book is both a mystery novel and a coming-of-age story. Ajuba becomes more involved with the Venus family, the highly-strung mother and charismatic father, and sees their interaction with the combination of clarity and confusion that only an outsider has. Ajuba observes the relation between Polly and her mother with Ghanaian eyes, drawing on things her aunties have told her and True Murder magazine to make sense of the complicated situation. The final page of this gripping book stayed with me for a long time. The Waterstone's Book Circle

'True Murder' is narrated by Ghanaian Ajuba who tells the story of the Venus tragedy which takes place when she is living at an English boarding school. Badoe establishes tension and an eerie sense of foreboding from the start through the girls' obsession with True Murder magazine and Ajuba's vivid recollection of the True Murder game whereby one of her friends narrowly escapes death. Badoe teases the reader with snippets of information saving the ultimate revelation to the end where we realise that the Venus tragedy is not as significant as we had been led to believe. Just like Ajuba and her friends' obsession with the dead babies in the attic we have been focusing on the wrong story. The shocking unresolved ending which the reader is left to conclude, throws the entire story into a new sinister light and gives new meaning to Ajuba's guilt-ridden confessional tone. What had seemed like an apology for childish innocence becomes something much more serious: a manipulative defence of a horrific act. In her depiction of Ajuba's relationship with Polly, Badoe perfectly captures the emotional intensity of adolescent female friendships, the adoration and the jealousy, which reminded me of Atwood's 'Cat's Eye'. Her portrayal of female mental illness through the eyes of an adolescent young girl is particularly effective as through Ajuba's innocent observations and recollections of conversations she exposes how women continue to fail to support each other.I quickly succumbed to True Murder's almost claustrophobic intensity. The characters leap off the page as Badoe brings them to life with their own vocabulary, interests and eccentricities. I particularly enjoyed Ajuba's memories of Ghana and the way Badoe contrasted Ghanaian cultural values with British ones. Badoe's writing is tight and sharp and vivid: a particularly effective style for this story. I would definitely recommend 'True Murder'.

I thought this was quite a good book and would recommend it. You are invited to follow the path of Ajuba, whose deep longing for love draws her to the apparently perfect life of newcomer Polly Venus. The amazement and need of social acceptance in late childhood are perfectly described by the author. You can easily feel yourself in Ajuba's shoes. It makes you wonder whether you've missed disguised cries for help during your own childhood and in my view that's the point that makes the story line more disturbing. It is a story of friendship and lost dreams. Credible and welll written.

True murder is an excellent portrayal of childish innocence and the horror of adult relationships, entwined together in one intriguing tale. Ajuba lives with Major Derby and his wife, who run a boarding school in Devon. She was placed there by her father, when her mother became ill, but Ajuba does not know the full circumstances behind her removal from her family in Ghana. She is very homesick, even though the Derby's are very kind to her, but her life changes with the arrival of Polly.Polly and her family appear extremely sophisticated to Ajuba and her class mates, and she soon becomes the ring leader. But things nearly go tragically wrong when Polly commands them to play out a murder, from one of her American magazines, 'True Murder'.Nevertheless, Polly and Ajuba become firm friends, and Ajuba takes to spending much of her holiday time with Polly and her family. But there are tensions in the Venus household, and when Polly's father walks out, she becomes extremely hostile to her mother, Isobel. Ajuba has great sympathy for Isobel, as she feels that she has been treated very badly by her husband, and she thinks that this was the cause of her own mother's illness, as her auntie had told her that he cheated on his wife.Another twist in the book develops when the girls find the remains of two dead babies in the loft. This fuels their desire for adventure, and they set about trying to solve a 'real-life' murder, even though it happened many years ago. They discover one of the past occupants is still alive, and develop a friendship with Miss Fielding, in their quest to solve the crime.From the start of the story you know of Polly's fate, but the book still held the tension and pace brilliantly. <strong>Book Circle Panellist</strong>

Ajuba, a twelve year old from Ghana is sent by her father to a boarding school in Devon. Looked after by the school owners Mr and Mrs Bradshaw, Ajuba tells of her previous life in Ghana with her ill mother. Not long after she settles in to the school she meets Polly Venus who has recently returned to England from America with her seemingly glamorous family. Polly is fascinated by real crime and soon Ajuba and her friends start to play detectives, based around Polly's collection of 'True Murder' magazines. The games soon become a reality though when the bones of two babies are discovered in the attic of the Venus's house. The girls become intent on finding out about these babies with the help of one of its previous residents, an elderly lady who still lives at the entrance to the house. I thought this book was well written and had some tense moments in it. The emotions of a group of twelve year olds who are not yet aware of the damage they could cause by raking up the past was portrayed well and the book does have a tragic ending. I'd recommend it.Waterstone's Book Circle