Review: A Pocketful Of Eyes by Lili Wilkinson

A Pocketful Of Eyes by Lili Wilkinson

Pages: 324
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: May 2011
IBSN: 9781742376196

Bee is in her element volunteering in the taxidermy department at the Museum-but her summer job turns out to be full of surprises including:

A dead body in the Red Rotunda.
A mysterious Museum benefactor.
A large stuffed tiger in the catacombs.
A handsome boy with a fascination for unusual animal mating habits.
And a pocket full of glass eyes.

Can Bee sift through the clues and discover if her colleague committed suicide or if there's a murderer in their midst?

A Pocketful Of Eyes is a quirky, fun, and unique murder mystery novel for reluctant mystery novel readers. I count myself in that group.

The first thing you'll notice in A Pocketful Of Eyes is the main character. She's clever, funny, and a little peculiar (which I suppose you need to be to work as a taxidermist for the summer), and her voice is strong and apparent in each word. With each piece of narration, even through third person, I felt as though I knew her a little better, and liked her a little more.

And while I'm talking about how much I liked Bee, I should also talk about Toby - one of my favourite love interests I've ever read. He was sweet, funny, and full of strange animal trivia.

I'm no stranger to Lili Wilkinson's prose, but I was blown away by it all over again. Spare and emotional, her writing style is simply amazing.

The mystery was well-crafted. Though there were many clues, the culprit was unclear to both the reader and the narrator initially. It took a realistically long amount of time to reach the solution, where there was an interesting twist I never saw coming.


I give A Pocketful Of Eyes a 5 out of 5. I really hope to see it reach non-Australian readers in the near future.