Book Recommendations: Girls Who Don’t Stay Put

You know how we all have a type? Well, I have many types but one of mine happens to be women in (historic-ish) academic settings and murder. It is not really about murder, though all three of these books have murder in them. It is about girls who are put somewhere and told to stay there and refuse. Girls who look at the worst possible situation and decide that investigating it is a better option than waiting for someone else to handle it. Three different centuries, three different institutions, three girls who refused to look away. Add all of them to your list!

The Dreadfuls

by A. Rae Dunlap
Published by: Kensington
on March 31, 2026
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A Victorian-era Nancy Drew meets The Woman in the Window as true crime and historical fiction collide in this atmospheric thriller featuring real-life figures and a rebellious, uniquely inventive young reform school inmate determined to solve the serial killer case dominating the headlines in London, and soon, in the world: the Jack the Ripper murders.
London, 1888. Committed to the Whitechapel Hall Reform School for “incurable delinquency” 15-year-old Adelaide “Dell” Morton is a precocious, defiant misfit. She’s also a voracious reader of true crime and detective fiction, including the sordid, sensationally popular Penny dreadful stories. In an unlikely stroke of luck, she’s found a kindred spirit in her poised, perfectionist roommate, Pippa. Their obsession is only further fueled by the Jack the Ripper murders blazing a trail of terror throughout London’s seediest streets . . . right outside Whitechapel Hall’s front door.
Desperate for adventure, they embark on their own investigation—and discover an ally in Noah, son of the local butcher. But Noah’s motives are not mere fascination: His father is the prime suspect. Noah is desperate to clear his name, and Dell and Pippa are only too eager to help.
Their budding spywork soon yields shocking results: they witness straightlaced Whitechapel teacher Miss Kaye escaping the school the night of the latest crime. Could Jack the Ripper be a she? Delving into Miss Kaye’s background, Dell is both horrified and thrilled to find that within Miss Kaye’s past lies a chapter dark enough to rival any Penny dreadful . . .
Dell’s fixation with Miss Kaye reaches dangerous heights while a series of suspicious events leave Miss Kaye in sole command of Whitechapel Hall. Trapped in their teacher’s ever-tightening web of control, the three devious detectives devise a risky plan to track her. But what ensues may only propel them ever deeper into secrets, lies, ruthless acts, and betrayals that go back decades—and a confrontation that will irrevocably change the fates of all involved . . . if they survive.

Girls Who Don’t Stay Put

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro is the book I hand to every Sherlock Holmes fan I know. Charlotte Holmes is a descendant of Sherlock, Jamie Watson is a descendant of his Watson, and they end up at the same boarding school where they are framed for a murder. There is no one else I would want writing in the Sherlockian world. This is basically fanfiction in the best possible way, meaning it understands the source material deeply enough to do something new with it. Charlotte is brilliant and difficult and completely herself and the dynamic between her and Jamie is exactly what you want.

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson is the one I cannot talk about without immediately needing to discuss the ending, which I will not do here except to say: that ending. Stevie Bell gets herself into Ellingham Academy, a school built by an eccentric millionaire in the 1930s where a famous unsolved murder happened, specifically because she wants to solve the cold case. She is a true crime obsessed girl who engineers her entire life around getting close to the mystery. The book does something really interesting by splitting between Stevie’s present and the historical crime, and the way it builds is so patient and so good and then the ending just does what it does and you are left completely wrecked.

And finally…The Dreadfuls by A. Rae Dunlap, which recently came out, and fits right in this conversation. London, 1888. Dell Morton has been committed to the Whitechapel Hall Reform School for incurable delinquency, which is a very Victorian way of saying she does not behave the way they want her to. Jack the Ripper is killing women in the streets right outside the school’s front door. Dell does not decide to stay safe. She decides to investigate. The system put her somewhere and she turns that somewhere into a base of operations. That is the same energy as Charlotte Holmes and Stevie Bell and it is exactly the kind of story I want more of.