This series introduces Eleanor West's Home For Wayward Children, a boarding school for children who, like Alice, fell into another world; and returned to find they were completely out of step with life back on home. Some of these children went to magical fairylands full of rainbows and rhymes. Others went to strict authoritarian worlds ruled by logic and law. Nancy went to the land of the dead, and spent a peaceful year learning the values of stillness, silence, and the whispers of ghosts. She hates Earth on her return and the pressures of her family to "just be normal." But she finds companionship and understanding at Eleanor West's school. Until, that is, a bloody murder shocks the little school community and fear and suspicion turn in Nancy's direction. This is a slim fairy tale of a book, not a murder mystery. I loved this unique take on portal fantasy and the magical boarding school genres. The story includes trans and asexual characters, which I appreciated, even though I found some of the dialogue around those identities a little chunky. I sped through the short audiobook in just a few days and plan to keep reading this series.