Book suggestions for picky 14yo

[WrongKindOfWaterOnTheTrack]

My 14yo DD has always been a picky reader! Recently she’s enjoyed the Roman Detectives series - read all of them followed by Caroline Lawrence’s other series set in Roman Britain. She then read the Tamora Pierce Alanna quartet. I tried her next on a Dianne Wynne Jones (going down the fantasy route), think it’s called Hemlock and Fire, but she says it’s boring.

Sally Lockhart trilogy was scary - someone is killed in the first few pages to be fair!

I gave her Murder on the Orient Express to try (thinking along crime lines) but the print is too small…

she’s also enjoyed Lauren St Child horse books but always rejected K M Peyton horse books…

The Falco series is pretty good.

written for adults, a crime series set in Ancient Rome

https://lindseydavis.co.uk/publications/

Ah they came up when I googled last night! Not too gory?

No.

there are deaths in them (not least because some of them investigate murders) but not gory.

Thanks, I’ve ordered the first one to try on her.

Could try the Veronica Speedwell cosy historical crime series. Set in Victorian times. Another vote for Falco but some of them might be a little dark for someone who has just graduated from Caroline Lawrence

Would she consider the Murder Most Unladylike series too young for her?

She read those a while ago. In fact I think she was Daisy for her last world book day at primary!

I recently enjoyed A Snowfall of Silver by Laura Wood. She seems to have done quite a few more YA ones set in the 20s and 30s including some detective ones.
Emily Barr YA fiction might be worth a try as well, e.g. The One Memory of Flora Banks.

Is she into Roman history? If she is, maybe watch I Claudius with her. The TV adaptation of the Robert Graves novel is superb. If she gets into the TV series, she’ll want to read the novel.

I remember reading Rosemary Sutcliffe "The Eagle of the Ninth" a wee bit younger than DD . If she likes those there are few by RS.

More left field - the Cadfael series is adult but set in a monastery and as I recall not gory.