No one leaves the castle

When the priceless Emerald Axe of Angbar is stolen, the Angbar family hires infamous bounty hunter the Lilac to track down the purported thief, wizard Runar the Unknowable. What the Angbars don't realize, however, is that the Lilac is a white-cued 14-year-old girl whose bard companion Dulcinetta--described as having "tawny cheeks and an array of short braids"--has greatly overexaggerated her reputation. Nevertheless, the Lilac successfully brings Runar (who claims innocence) back to Castle Angbar, where the missing axe has mysteriously returned--and is stolen again. To capture the true thief, Runar places the castle in an inescapable magical bubble, but his sudden murder makes the enchantment seem permanent. Now the Lilac must track down an assassin in a castle full of secrets before the culprit kills them all--if the rapidly constricting bubble doesn't do it first. The Lilac and Dulcinetta make for a congenial crime-solving team, especially when pitted against the scandal-ridden residents of Castle Angbar. In this frenetic, tongue-in-cheek whodunit, Healy (the Perilous Journey of Danger and Mayhem series) blends magic and pandemonium with a locked-room murder mystery, invoking familiar Agatha Christie flair while throwing in copious amounts of dry humor. Ages 8--12. Agent: Cheryl Pientka, Jill Grinberg Literary. (Aug.)

Dungeons & Dragons meets Clue in this capital-Q Quirky stand-alone murder mystery set in the Hero's Guide series world. When Baron Vargus Angbar's ancestral treasure goes missing, butler Gribbinsnood Flornt must hire a bounty hunter to capture the famous wizard the baron believes to be guilty. Lured by a bard's song, Flornt hires the Lilac--before learning that she's 14 and in cahoots with the bard, Dulcinetta. The wizard hunt is an extended setup to get the Lilac and Netta to the baron's castle, where they are invited by the baroness to dinner and the real mystery can begin. The narrator intrudes to occasionally remind readers what they're really here for--a murder mystery; someone's going to end up dead. The Lilac, sealed in the castle by a magically shrinking bubble with a roster of wacky suspects, must figure out whodunit. There's the baron and his equally unpleasant noble dinner guest, the baroness who seems a bit too familiar with dead bodies, the baron's wizard-in-training son, the baron's prim and proper daughter, said daughter's coarse yet highly competent etiquette master, a surly goth gnome cook, the butler, and an ogre guard. Every last one of them--including the Lilac and Netta--harbors secrets and isn't what they seem. The Lilac must untangle the (sometimes excessive and tedious) red herrings (frequently delivered in long, expository backstory passages) to deduce the truth. Characters read white. Where the execution falters the premise carries the book. (Fantasy mystery. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.