First Read Reviews are written for readers who want to know if a book is worth picking up and what it might be about. There may be the mildest spoilers, but no in-depth discussion of the events in the book.
Description:
The Undetectables, a detective agency run by three witches and a ghost in a cat costume (don’t ask), are hired to investigate another murder, several years after failing to solve their only other case. Given their track record and what’s happened over the last few years, they might not be up to the job.
Thoughts:
Note: If you like the sound of this book, don’t read the blurb. Just dive in.
This is an urban fantasy murder mystery set in Wrackton, a small Occult town (I say small as I’m not entirely sure how many residents it has), home to various magical and mythological folk, and, if Diana’s ex-girlfriends are any measure, it’s very queer normative. There are some non-magical humans (Apparents) in the town, but they, the Apparents, mostly live separately in ordinary places, though magical people do live there amongst them too.
Our focus is on Mallory, whose pain and fatigue from her fibromyalgia are explored through both the physical effects and the impact it has on her friendships with Cornelia and Diana. Her connections to them have faded by the time the story starts in the present. Throughout, it shows how those relationships have waned in Mallory’s mind since her diagnosis.
Plenty of awkward moments happen as the trio gets back together. It feels like a mix between Scooby Doo and Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Teen/Post-Teen detective forumas because they are excited to be working out clues, but put themselves in grave danger, while also dealing with the interpersonal dramas within their circle and from the people who enter it.
There is a solid mystery at the heart of The Undetectables, with clues scattered throughout. It was well plotted and handled, and I didn’t feel cheated as it became clear what had happened and what led them to their suspects.
Smyth tries to pack a lot into the first outing. A setup of local politics and the mythos that binds this and other Occult towns together, as they also explores the past and newly emerging relationships between our three main characters.
Smyth labours some of the points they are trying to make and fails to hit all the marks they have set themselves, which can make for clunky reading. Some of the scenes don’t play out quite as smoothly as they should. I feel I’ve misread some key information (like doors and placements of characters in scenes), and I thought some interactions didn’t feel as natural as they could have been.
But ultimately, I forgave the structural and technical issues I perceived because I wanted to see the mystery solved; I was invested in finding out what happened to our main trio and their friendly ghost: Smyth made me tear up more than once, as they also doesn’t pull their punches.
I’d be remiss in not praising Smyth for how well they handled the impact of Mallory’s change in health on her and her friends. They also pointed out how everyone faces things that people are reluctant to discuss by getting their characters to discuss them.
Summary:
There is no getting away from the fact that there are some structural and technical issues. But for me, those are forgiven because of the world Smyth is attempting to build, the problems their characters explore, and the killer their characters are attempting to catch.
If you can push past the abovementioned issues, I recommend reading it.
Thanks to proud-geek.co.uk, I have a copy of the sequel, The Undead Complex, sitting on my desk. I can’t wait to see what our trio gets up to next.
