Winners & Liars Written by Aleema Omotoni. Reviewed by Esther, Age 12

When Cornelia Darnley falls down the stairs and dies, and her husband – Professor Darnley – dies from sadness, Derin and her friends, who were the late professor’s students, are overcome with grief. When Derin, Nicky, Bryony, Wren and Kara (her friends) attend the will reading, they expect the ordinary – the house goes to the family, money is split among relatives, etc., – but little did they know they were in for a massive shock.

So, when it is announced that the heir of the house and grounds will be the winner of a series of games, chaos breaks out. This is no child’s game – millions of pounds are at stake. When a note is slipped under Derin’s door saying: there’s something they don’t want you to know, the plot thickens, and Derin starts to suspect that Cornelia Darnley’s death maybe wasn’t an accident…

My favourite parts of the book were the plot twists because they were so unexpected and exciting. I also liked the use of passageways in the house because they made the story more mysterious. One thing I would change is that at the start, lots of characters were introduced at once, which made the story quite hard to follow at first.

My favourite characters were Teddy and Bryony because they always helped and supported Derin when she was trying to uncover a mystery. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes mystery books, and to anyone who likes the movie Knives Out.