Prizes presented for Scoil Bhride murder mystery stories

Competition winner Raven Evans, with her father Reuben, author Alison Weatherby, and Dawn Behan of Woodbine Books.

When the author of the Common Criminals Club series of books for children, Alison Weatherby, visits schools, the pupils get a real kick out of seeing her and hearing her tips on how to write a good murder mystery, writes Brian Byrne. But it's a two-way street, and Alison says she gets fabulous fun from it too.

When she did a workshop with the 5th and 6th classes in Scoil Bhride last month, arranged by the school's Mr Macken, a competition was organised in association with Woodbine Books for the pupils to write their own murder mysteries. Alison was in Woodbine this afternoon to present the winners with their prizes, and spoke highly about the creativity of the children. 

"They have so many great ideas, especially at that age. Their imaginations are all over the place, and it's so much fun to hear what kind of crazy ideas they have. The second place winner was talking about her mystery and how the guy in it had an allergic reaction to mustard, and I said, 'Just keep those crazy ideas in there'. They're so excited at that age too."

The winning story was Me and Miley Mystery by Raven Evans, with the runners-up SSK Agency by Méabh Behan and Murder at Dusk by Olivia Baryla. The full list of winners and highly commended stories can be found here. 

Some of the entries in the competition, from 5th and 6th class Scoil Bhride pupils.

Alison hails originally from Seattle and came to Ireland in 2017. She usually writes for young adults, but when she found that there was very little in the mystery genre for younger children and teens, she wrote Death Before Detention as the first in what is now the Common Criminals Club series. "It's set in the west of Ireland, about a bunch of Irish kids solving murders." The next book, School Trip Survival, will be out in February.

Living in Dun Laoghaire, with two daughters in second-level school, Alison says that listening to them and their friends talking gives her a sense of the word choices for the characters in her books, including the slang that they use today. “Obviously, I want the books to reflect their age group, so it's good for me. I love talking to the kids — it's handy to pick up the lingo from them."

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