Hazel Wong

Spoilers for books in 'Storyline' section

This page’s content or comments contain spoilers from books in the Murder Most Unladylike series. Leave the page if you don’t want any spoilers!

> "*What a silly, Hazel-ish thing to think.*"
> ― Hazel in Mistletoe and Murder[source]
>
>

## Hazel wong

### Alias(es)

Hazel Wong  (English name)
Ying Ying  (nickname)
Watson  (By Daisy Wells)

## Traits

### Age

13 (Murder Most Unladylike, Arsenic for Tea, First Class Murder)
14 (Jolly Foul Play, Mistletoe and Murder, A Spoonful of Murder, Death in the Spotlight, Top Marks for Murder)
15 (Death Sets Sail)
19 (The Ministry of Unladylike Activity, The Body in the Blitz)

## Professional Status

### Affiliation(s)

Co-President and Secretary of Wells and Wong Detective Society
Deepdean School for Girls
The Ministry of Unladylike Activity

## Personal Status

### Marital status

In a relationship with Alexander Arcady as of Death Sets Sail

### Relative(s)

Vincent Wong (father)
June Wong (mother)
Jie Jie (step-mother)
Rose Wong (half-sister)
May Wong (half-sister)
Edward Wong (half-brother)

**Hazel Wong** (**Wong Fung Ying**, also known as **Ying Ying** and **Watson**) is the protagonist of the Murder Most Unladylike series. She is the main narrator for the books and Secretary and Co-President of the Detective Society.

## Childhood

Hazel is the oldest child of Vincent and June Wong and was born rich. She has a stepmother called Wong Min Su whom she calls Jie Jie (meaning big sister). She has two younger half-sisters called May and Rose Wong and a baby half-brother called Edward “Teddy” Wong. She once had a maid called Su Li whom she liked a lot. In Hong Kong, she lives in a big white compound situated on the Peak. Growing up, her father was a big fan of Western culture, particularly English culture, so she grew up hearing a lot of stories about England, which made her think highly of it. When she got older, she asked her father to go to a school in England, however her mother disapproved of the idea, as she was uninterested in England, and instead thought that Hazel should be raised in Hong Kong. Fortunately for Hazel, though, she still ended up going to England despite her mother's condemnation of the idea.

She came to Deepdean from Hong Kong in her second year and was called ‘foreign girl’. The girls in the dorm locked her in a trunk for hours but the girls were were impressed that she stuck it out. Hazel then started to change herself to fit in with them: she purposefully got answers wrong in class to make her classmates laugh, beat up her bag and books to make them look more worn, and scratched her shoes and cut off one of the laces. But Hazel quickly noticed that her classmate Daisy was actually very clever and knew the answers to all the questions the teachers asked at school but pretended not to, just like her. Later, they talked and Daisy said that Hazel's shoe lace had clearly been cut with a knife, and the scratches on her shoes were new. Hazel threatened that if Daisy told anyone about that, then she'd tell everyone that Daisy was only pretending not to know the answers, but Daisy said that no one would believe her. However that interaction made them respect each other's hidden cleverness and become best friends.

## Personality

Hazel is a quiet, clumsy, nervous girl, and she doesn’t like getting into any kind of trouble. Hazel is shown to be soft and patient with people, like comforting Violet Darby in The Case of the Blue Violet and Amanda Price in Mistletoe and Murder. According to Daisy, Hazel is the second smartest in their year, with Daisy being the first smartest. Realistically, however, Hazel and Daisy are equally as smart as each other, just in different ways. Hazel obeys her parents in order to not disappoint them, however sometimes she finds herself conflicted, as her mother and father often have contrasting views. She is deeply afraid of her mother.

As the series goes on, Hazel becomes more "Daisy-ish", meaning she builds up her confidence and becomes bolder. In Death Sets Sail, she builds up the courage to ask her father to let her detect, which he was previously against.

## Appearance

Hazel is described as short and chubby, with moony-round cheeks, dark brown hair, and brown eyes. She is Chinese.

## Storylines

### Murder Most Unladylike

At the beginning of this book, Hazel comes off as quite shy and unassertive. She lets Daisy take the lead in the investigation and doesn't say much when she defends a teacher who was rude to her. Later on in the book, though, she challenges Daisy. They get into a small fight when Hazel suspects a teacher that Daisy admires of being the murderer, and the fight continues when Daisy refuses to admit she made a mistake on who the murderer is. However, Daisy learns from their disagreement to accept that she sometimes makes mistakes too, and even explicitly asks Hazel what her opinion is and takes it into consideration. At the end of the book, Daisy comforts Hazel as she cries, and promotes her from secretary of the Detective Society, to secretary and vice-president.

### Arsenic For Tea

Hazel and Daisy stay at Daisy's home, Fallingford, over spring break and while they are there, they celebrate Daisy's birthday with their other friends Kitty Freebody and Beanie Martineau. At the beginning of the book, Hazel meets Daisy's family: her mother and father, her brother, Bertie Wells, and her aunt. She also meets Bertie's friend, Stephen Bampton, and Daisy's mother's "friend", Denis Curtis. Right off the bat, no one apart from Daisy's mother and aunt seem to like Mr Curtis much, including Hazel. She finds him to be very arrogant and rude, although she does say that she doesn't think he deserved to die. During the investigation, she finds many important clues, and convinces Daisy to let Kitty and Beanie help.

When everyone thinks that Daisy's father is the murderer, Hazel comforts Daisy. However, they coincidentally find one last clue that proves that he isn't the murderer, but, rather, Stephen is. While Hazel is glad that the correct person will be arrested, she also feels betrayed because she feels that Stephen tricked her into thinking he was a good person.

### First Class Murder

Hazel and Daisy spend the summer on a train around Europe with Hazel's father (Vincent Wong), and his assistant, Maxwell, in order to take their minds off of the two recent murders. After the murder takes place, the case is taken over by a passenger from another carriage called Dr Sandwich. One of the passengers on their carriage, Alexander Arcady, offers to be his assistant. Alexander later realises that Daisy and Hazel are investigating the case, too. He offers the tell them about the interviews Dr Sandwich is conducting if they tell him what they know so far, which Hazel thinks is a good idea. They are caught by Hazel's father a few times, and he makes it clear that he does not approve and tries to keep them out of trouble, but Daisy and Hazel still find ways to sneak out and investigate thanks to Daisy's cunning plans (and a few excuses here and there).

The two girls finally figure out who the killer is one evening in their compartment while talking over the facts of the case. Just as they figure it out, Mr Wong opens their door and scolds Hazel for continuing to try and investigate after he repeatedly told her not to, but Hazel stands up to him and explains everything that happened. While Mr Wong doesn't want to believe it, he cannot deny that the conclusion Hazel and Daisy have come to is logical and plausible, so gives them a chance. When they are proven to be right and the murderers confess, he promises to reward them for their work.

### Jolly Foul Play

In this book, Daisy and Hazel have returned to Deepdean and now have to investigate the murder of the head girl. They once again team up with Kitty and Beanie. At the beginning of the investigating, their other dormmate, Lavinia Temple, says that she has known about the Detective Society all along. After some convincing from Hazel, Daisy eventually lets Lavinia join, and the five girls work together and investigate the prefects to solve the case.

It is also revealed that Hazel has kept in touch with Alexander, and they have become pen pals, however Hazel has kept this a secret from Daisy because she knew that she did not like Alexander very much. This causes them to get into an argument, because Daisy figures out Hazel is still talking to Alexander behind her back, and she felt like Hazel was replacing her with a "new best friend". Eventually, they talk it out, and Hazel assures Daisy that she will always be her best friend. Daisy also admits that the ideas Alexander and his best friend and detective associate, George Mukherjee, gave about investigating the case were rather useful and helped them figure out who the murderer was.

### Mistletoe and Murder

In this book, Hazel and Daisy visit Daisy's brother in Cambridge after they were invited by Alexander, who is there with his best friend and detective associate, George Mukherjee, to visit George's older brother who also goes to university there. When Hazel sees George for the first time, she is surprised to see that he is Indian rather than British. The two quickly become close friends, bonding over their shared interest in detecting, and their similar experiences with racism. However, things are not going so well with Alexander. Hazel has a crush on Alexander, but Alexander has a crush on Daisy (who is quite uninterested in him). She is rude and dismissive of him to try and warn him off, especially since she knows Hazel likes him. Alexander doesn't really get the hint until Hazel and George tell him that she doesn't like him.

During the investigation, Hazel is clever and cunning, and it is clear her detecting skills have improved since their first case, as well as her confidence and boldness. Hazel is also the first one to figure out who the murderer is, although it was mostly on accident.

### Cream Buns and Crime

Hazel narrates the case of Lavinia's Missing Tie (hers and Daisy's first ever case, which they solve within a day), The Queens of Crime (in which she talks about four female murder mystery authors), and Codebreaking with Hazel Wong (in which she teaches the reader about several different types of codes and gives practice codes to break), and is present in The Case of the Blue Violet and The Case of the Deepdean Vampire, which are narrated by Daisy (and are also available as their own separate mini-mystery books).

### A Spoonful of Murder

In this book, Daisy and Hazel solve their first case outside of England. When they travel to Hong Kong to pay respects to Hazel's grandfather who recently passed, Hazel is faced with a dilemma: while mourning her grandfather, she is introduced to a new member of the Wong family: her baby brother, Edward "Teddy" Wong, who has taken her bedroom and maid upon being born. He is now the star of the family, being the first son, and Hazel feels resentment towards him for taking away her maid, Su Li, who was like a mother to her. She is also worried that her father will no longer see reason to give her an education now that he has a son, and pull her out of Deepdean. However, after Teddy is kidnapped and Su Li is murdered, Hazel realizes that she does care about him. She and Daisy solve the kidnapping and murder with the help of Hazel’s new maid, Ping, and one of the gardeners, Ah Lan, who join the society as assistant members after the case is solved.

### Death in the Spotlight

Hazel and Daisy are sent to the Rue Theatre by Felix and Lucy Mountfitchet to keep them out of trouble. While meeting the cast, Hazel observes that the main actress, Rose Tree, may look pretty and act nice, but she is actually a really horrible person. Whenever she is being "nice", she always has an ulterior motive or a sinister undertone for whatever she is saying. When Rose dies, though, Hazel does not think she deserves it. During the mystery she and Daisy work hard to uncover the killer, and Hazel behaves a lot more courageously and cleverly than ever before.

Upon learning that some of the cast members are queer, Hazel is understanding and loyally keeps their secrets.

### Top Marks for Murder

Daisy and Hazel return to Deepdean, only to find that a new girl in their form, Amina El Maghrabi, has stolen Daisy's spot as "Deepdean Queen". While Daisy is resentful of her, Hazel recognises that she is nice, and when Amina gives them some crucial information that helps them solve the case, she decides to give her a chance. At the beginning of the book, Hazel and Daisy's dormmates say that Hazel has become a lot more like Daisy: more bold and more daring. While Hazel tries to deny this at first, throughout the book is becomes obvious that she has.

## Relationships

### Daisy Wells

Daisy and Hazel have been best friends since they were twelve years old; they met when Hazel first started going to Deepdean, where they are dormmates. They formed the Detective Society in their third year at Deepdean, and have solved all their cases together since then. In Murder Most Unladylike, Hazel briefly mentions the Spiritualist Society existing before the Detective society, but noted that it ended quickly after Daisy lost interest. Daisy tends to consider herself smarter and stronger than Hazel, although she does try to encourage her to face her fears, and has a significant impact on Hazel's confidence, helping her her become braver. Additionally, as the series progresses, they become more like each other, with Hazel becoming more "Daisy-ish", and Daisy becoming more "Hazel-ish", and Daisy begins to see Hazel as more of an equal, and in Death sets Sail she accepts Hazel as a co-president of the Detective Society. They are said to know each other better than they know themselves. They have opposite personalities that complement each other; where one of them is weak, the other is strong. They balance each other out.

### Alexander Arcady

Hazel and Alexander first met on the Orient Express in First Class Murder. After the murder, Alexander realised Daisy and Hazel were investigating it and offered to work together with them. While Daisy was reluctant to accept the offer, Hazel thought it was a good idea. Later, in Jolly Foul Play, it is revealed that Hazel and Alexander have kept contact with each other, writing letters in invisible ink and in Pig Latin, a sort of code. In Jolly Foul Play, we also find out that Hazel has a crush on Alexander, although she is not too sure that he likes her back romantically. This storyline is continued in Mistletoe and Murder, where it is revealed that Alexander actually has a crush on Daisy. Daisy, however, is quite uninterested in him and tries to subtly reject him, but Alexander doesn't realise that she doesn't like him until both Hazel and George tell him so. Following that, Alexander loses feelings for Daisy, and instead starts focusing on Hazel. In Death Sets Sail, Alexander attempts to kiss **Hazel** when they went into his cabin to get Hazel a watch to use in the re-creation of the crime. He started expressing his feeling towards Hazel, but Hazel grew nervous due to the way Alexander was looking at her, and interrupted him to try to change the topic. Later, at Fallingford, Alexander tried to talk to Hazel about his feelings for her again, and she interrupted him again, but this time by kissing him.

### George Mukherjee

Hazel and George don't properly meet until Mistletoe and Murder. Up until then, Hazel had only heard about George through Alexander's letters to her. When they finally do meet, Hazel is surprised to find that George is Indian rather than English. Throughout the book, they bond over their shared experience of racism, and George encourages Hazel through her self-doubt. George tells Hazel that he has always liked her, ever since the first letter she sent to Alexander, and Hazel is impressed by George's cleverness. They become good friends, with George comforting Hazel when Daisy went missing during The Body in the Blitz.

### Dormmates

Hazel has three dormmates other than Daisy: Kitty Freebody, Beanie Martineau, and Lavinia Temple. She gets along with all of them, and the five girls are close friends. Hazel was the one who convinced Daisy to let them join the Detective Society, and got her to include them during investigations.

### Rose Wong

Rose is Hazel's half-sister, who is younger than her by seven years. They are similar in personality, both being quite shy and timid, although Hazel becomes more confident later on in the series. They both like reading, and Rose wants to go to an English boarding school, just as Hazel did when she was younger. Hazel considers Rose to be the prettiest out of all their siblings, and Rose considers Hazel to be the cleverest out of all their siblings. They both care for and trust each other greatly, and, in A Spoonful of Murder, Rose confided in Hazel about how she felt like adults never notice her, like they do Hazel, or May, or Teddy.

### May Wong

May is Hazel's half-sister, who is younger than her by nine years. May looks up to Hazel a lot and considers her a role model, which is most likely the biggest reason why May becomes a detective. Although May was eager to help Hazel during her investigations, Hazel was hesitant to let her due to her young age, but her friends convince her to let May help. After May starts her own detective society which begins solving their own murders, though, Hazel seems slightly more accepting of the fact that May is becoming a detective, but she still worries for her safety a lot.

### Edward Wong

Edward "Teddy" is Hazel's half-brother, who is younger than her by fourteen years. When Teddy was born, Hazel was not told, so that it would be a "surprise" when she came back to Hong Kong. Hazel met him during A Spoonful of Murder, when she returned to Hong Kong to mourn her grandfather's death, but rather than being happy, she was upset; her maid, who had been like a mother to Hazel, had been assigned to take care of Teddy instead, and could no longer spend any time with her. Her bedroom had been given to her brother, because it was closer to their parents' bedrooms. She grew worried that her father would take her out of Deepdean, because he might see no point in giving his daughter an education now that he had a son. She felt threatened by Teddy. However, despite all of this, she was very upset and worried when he was kidnapped, and she was the one who saved him, realising she really did care about him after all.

## Trivia

* Hazel and Alexander Arcady use lemon juice pens (Hazel's method) and Pig Latin (Alexander's method) to code and send letters to each other. After Daisy and Hazel row in Jolly Foul Play, Daisy comes round and calls the method "extremely resourceful".
* Hazel's father, Vincent Wong, was falsely rumoured to be trading opium in Jolly Foul Play. Vincent Wong also owns a bank.
* Hazel buys a fresh casebook for every murder mystery, as they take a long time to write out. As Daisy points out in The Case of the Blue Violet, she has to skim when reading Hazel's carefully written notes.
* Hazel gets very seasick easily.
* Her favourite bunbreak biscuit is Peek Frean bourbon creams, and her favourite food is lotus-paste mooncakes from Hong Kong.