Review by Frank Plowright

Amy is smart and loves mysteries, but has anxiety issues and isn’t very comfortable with people she doesn’t know well, for which she’s having therapy. That being the case, it seems strange her primary school would make her do a presentation in front of the entire class.

In telling Amy’s story Karina Evans makes the anxiety central to an opening chapter as much concerned with offering advice to readers experiencing similar issues than with advancing the story. As Millie of the Manor continues, so does the anxiety as we’re constantly privy to Amy’s thoughts focussing on what might go wrong in any situation. The advice also continues, with the most useful in Amy’s case being to imagine she’s someone else. This process begins with an invitation to a classmate’s birthday party, which is a murder mystery where everyone plays a character, with Amy being talented scientist Millie Morgan.

The first three chapters introduce Amy, and from the fourth onward we’re transported into the murder mystery along with Amy and four classmates, each of whom adopts an allocated identity and one of whom is a murderer. Amy knows it’s not her, and the game is to deduce who the guilty party is.

The longer Amy absorbs herself in the role of Millie, the more she enjoys herself, and the less she considers what others might think of her. At the same time readers will find they’re less concerned about Amy and have developed a greater interest in solving the mystery along with the cast.

Andrea Bell’s art is deliberately simple in featuring cheerful children, and at the start concentrates on Amy in a variety of stressful situations. Once the game starts in the story, Bell switches the art, so an ordinary house now resembles a mansion along with the trappings of wealth. It’s a creative change adding to the atmosphere.

Evans concocts a good mystery to absorb young readers, and everyone’s going to be taken by surprise when it reaches a crisis point for Amy. Because as much as anything Millie of the Manor is intended as encouragement for readers with anxieties, Amy’s own set of problems are overcome, although it’s not an easy process and isn’t guaranteed to work for everyone. Any advice and comfort for young children with anxieties is commendable, and this supplies a lot of fun.