Excitement, thriller, mystery. Follow Shenanigan Swift into a deluge of blood and murder as she tries to unravel the mystery of her aunt’s murder…
This book takes you on a journey through secret passageways, incomprehensible labyrinths and dusty cellars as you follow the Swifts into a twisted and unforgettable plot.
This is the most incredible book I have ever read. I loved how characters names were all real words. Candour, Felicity, Phenomena, Inheritance, Atrocious and Pique were just some of the fantastic characters I encountered. It’s a great way to learn new vocabulary. One of my favourite parts was how chapter titles were meticulously worked into illustrations. So instead of just boring chapter names, some looked like a bunch of keys jingling on a key chain, others a tantalising cup of steaming coffee. The front cover was very chaotic and quirky so I thought there couldn’t be a better representation of the catastrophic Swift family.
My favourite character was Shenanigan as she is clever and cunning. From climbing a precipitous rooftop to escaping a dangerous murderer, she is always concocting sneaky plans and I love it. Her humor makes her instantly likeable as a protagonist.
I loved everything from watching a life size scrabble game to the death with anticipation and witnessing the amateur detective skills of Gumshoe with a sigh.
If you cannot resist the charm of murder mysteries like Murder Most Unladylike or enjoyed the twisting passageways in Secrets of the Snakestone, then this book is for you.
Meet the Swift family and get to know their quirky ways. Will Shenanigan be destined to become like her name suggests or can she break out and be what she decides. Mystery, twists and turns to keep you hooked throughout. A great read.
This book is very good and keeping your attention throughout.
We follow the Swift family and learn how each of them is given a name from the dictionary that will describe them as they grow up. With the name Shenanigan you can guess the personality she is intended to have but she decides this isn’t how it is going to be and she will choose her own destiny.
When the annual family get together comes around we meet so many memorable and quirky characters that you can picture so well.
With murder attempts and mystery, twists and turns can Shenanigan solve the puzzle…
Be hooked on the book from the beginning. A great and fun read.
Full of fun spooky twists and a whole lot of mischief. I loved the eccentric characters and there weird names.
This is a spooky sensational story with some mischief mixed in too. I loved reading about Shenanigan and her crazy family. This story is quite scary and may appeal to children of the older age bracket such ad 11 to 13 year olds. I would recommend this book for fans of Robin Stevens and Lesley Parr.
If you're looking for a book with a mystery adventure and lots of twists and turns, then The Swifts is a perfect choice. I look forward to reading more of Beth Lincoln's books.
The Swifts is a 35-chapter long book by Beth Lincoln. It is about young Shenanigen Swift and her eccentric, extended family. In an extravagant turn of events, she has to juggle solving the mystery of the attempted murder of her overpowering aunt, during a family reunion at the manor, with trying to find the age-old family hoard.
I liked how a family member's gum shoe kept ruining the evidence.
What makes the book more interesting is that at birth every Swift gets their name from the family dictionary which is as old as the manor itself and to date every Swift has lived up to their given name. But as Shenanigan is growing, her brain is too so we try to find out if Shenanigan is the exception as she becomes more mature. She decides to run an experiment to find out the truth. She would rather not live up to her name which her aunt Inheritance isn't pleased about.
There are plenty of interesting characters in the book, but my favourites are Candour and Maelstrom. They are very amusing with their jokes and silly behaviour.
If you're looking for a book with a mystery adventure and lots of twists and turns, then The Swifts is a perfect choice. I look forward to reading more of Beth Lincoln's books.
If you like mystery, solving crimes and adventure, this book is perfect for you!
I really enjoyed The Swifts, I even dressed up as Shenanigan Swift on World Book Day, which was fun. The book starts with a murder on the stairs at the Swift’s house, but who could the murderer be?! Shenanigan sets off with the help of her sisters Phenomena, Felicity and a cat to find the answer to the mystery.
Members of the Swift family are named by randomly flicking through the dictionary and selecting a word, the definition of which becomes their expected personality. If I was a member of the Swift family, I think I would be called Chaos (it’s what my teacher sometimes calls me!!)
My favourite character in The Swifts is Phenomena because she loves science and she’s funny. Shenanigan, who is the main character, is good at investigating, adventurous and good at solving mysteries.
This book is fun, crammed full of mystery and adventure and I would recommend to other children aged 9 and above. The Swifts reminded me a little of another book I have read called Violet Veil Mysteries, where the main character, also a girl, is solving a murder.
The book is fast-paced, full of adventure, and there is a lot of mystery. You don't know who to trust, what will happen, or who is going to die in this adventure.
In the Swift family, your name represents who you are, and Shenanigan Swift couldn't have been more unlucky. However, when Aunt Schadenfreude has a nasty fall, Shenanigan must use mischief and cleverness to solve the murder. More murders follow, and as time runs out, she needs to start piecing together the clues.
Murder mysteries are my favourite type of book, and this book captured everything I could ever wish for. The book is fast-paced, full of adventure, and there is a lot of mystery. You don't know who to trust, what will happen, or who is going to die in this adventure. I really enjoyed reading this book because of the magical atmosphere. To summarise, I would recommend this book to you if you like magical murder adventures.
I really recommend this book because I kept wanting to read more about the funny characters and what they were getting up to!
This was a really funny book because the characters kept messing things up through the book when they were trying to solve the mystery. It was also a bit annoying because there were loads of cliffhangers which made me want to keep reading more and more! The little girl who likes science was funny with her experiments through the story. There were some confusing parts because I couldn't work out who the suspect was for the mystery and I kept changing my mind about who I thought it might be. It was also intriguing because I kept wanting to know more which made it a really good book because I couldn't put it down and kept wanting to read more. I would tell other people that they really have to read it because all the characters are very funny and nice and I enjoyed the way it was written and reading about their adventures.
Absolutely brilliant and full of character.
Absolutely brilliant and super fun!
If I were a Swift my Swift name would be Distracted.
The characters were all brilliant, unique and have lots of fun in the story. My favourite would have to be Shenanigan, she has an answer for everything and is very determined!
The story was definitely full of character, mayhem and adventure. The illustrations were very fun.
I would definitely recommend.
This is an extraordinary, enrapturing book with an amazing plot and a dramatic twist of murder and mystery!
I liked all of the character’s unique personalities and I love how Shenanigan is so bold and after debating whether her given name matches her personality she embraces herself in the end.
My favourite part of the book is when the sisters all work together and confront the murderer to the rest of the family!
Really funny, exciting and easy to read book. Definitely worth a read.
I really enjoyed this book it was funny, exciting, easy to read and most of all I just wanted to keep on reading, I didn't want to put the book down. I think shenanigan swift is awesome. I loved the murder story and that there is so many suspects. This is definitely a book I would recommend.
A fun book to read, it was exciting, intriguing, and full of crazy characters.
The Swifts is an unpredictable story full of murder, mystery and confusing names!
A family dictionary decides what people will be like based on their name, which makes working out the murderer difficult. It was a fun book to read, it was exciting, intriguing, and full of crazy characters. It takes you on an adventure through the Swift family reunion where people die in weird ways - or do they?
I would recommend this book because it was exciting, funny, and different to the book I normally read. I am looking forward to find out what happens to Shenanigan next.
A pleasure to read something so different!
I read The Swifts with my 9 year old son, and it was a pleasure to read something so different. It is a somewhat confusing, intriguing, suspenseful tale, with all the elements of a classic murder mystery, but for a younger reader.
There are some particularly tricky names to navigate (Schadenfreude, I'm looking at you), and lots of "big" words. It doesn't patronise the reader at all, rather, it almost expects a high level of reading skill and comprehension. There are several murders and they may be a little much for a younger, or sensitive reader, but overall, they are handled in a slightly comic fashion which lessens the death aspect at little.
We are looking forward to the next book, and to see where Shenanigans name and life lead her next.
Shenanigans abound in this comical murder mystery for younger readers
The Swifts is an absolutely hilarious take on the nature verses nurture debate. Members of the Swift family are given their names using a random word from the all-knowing Dictionary which is believed to foretell their nature. We see how the main character, Shenanigan Swift is determined NOT to live up to her name as she takes on the task of uncovering the family’s lost fortune at the annual family reunion. Her siblings and other relatives are all well developed and play their own humorous role in the treasure hunt and some unexpected murder investigations with side-splitting consequences. A great murder mystery for upper primary/lower secondary school children. I can’t wait to read the sequel!