A Game Most Foul

2025 Children’s Book Council Librarian Favorites Winner (9th – 12th Grade)
2025 Children’s Book Council Teacher Favorites Winner (9th – 12th Grade)

From award-winning YA author Alison Gervais comes a contemporary mystery about a teen writer determined to discover what happened to a missing classmate, who finds herself caught up with a pair of very familiar detectives named Watson and Holmes. All her awakening powers of observation will be put to the test as she finds that the thing she thought was holding her back just might be her greatest strength.

Attending the prestigious Ashford College’s writing seminar is a dream come true for Jules Montgomery, but the summer isn’t unfolding as she hoped. Navigating London with her recent hearing loss is difficult, and hiding it from her classmates is a challenge. Even worse, she can’t seem to shake a case of writer’s block. When a fellow student goes missing, neither the police nor their teacher, Professor Watson, seem that concerned. Jules and her new friends Percy and Suruthi are determined to get to the bottom of the case and they’re not alone: the strange man who frequents Jules’ aunt’s antique shop is eager to help—and his name is none other than Sherlock Holmes.

Now there are two mysteries to solve. What happened to their missing classmate? And how can it be that Watson and Holmes—two fictional characters from the Victorian era—are alive and well in the 21st century? The only way to find answers might lie in a quote from one of Watson’s old stories: “You see, but you do not observe.” Jules may not be able to hear all that well, but without her hearing aids, she can certainly see more than the average person. And nothing about this is case is average.

A Game Most Foul:

• Features a Hard of Hearing protagonist written by a writer Hard of Hearing author drawing from personal experiences.
• Is by Alison Gervais, author of The Silence Between Us, winner of the Schneider Family Award, Best Teen Honor Book 2020.
• Will appeal to both casual and serious fans of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries.
• Is a romance with a sweet love story.