Charlotte Illes Is Not A Detective by Katie Siegel

Charlotte Illes Is Not A Detective by Katie Siegel

I started this book thinking it was by Katey Sagal for some reason?! It's not, but I still enjoyed it.

I was hooked with the initial premise of a child detective grown up. I loved Encyclopedia Brown and other detectives and spies when I was younger, so I thought this would give the same satisfaction.

While I did finish the book - and feel compelled to finish it based on the story - I don't think the case was enough to carry this long of a novel. Though I also thought the book was too long - lots of filler conversations between the friends and brother that felt either pointless or like an info dump. So maybe a shorter book to solve this case, or a different/more cases for a book this length? The second book is already in the works so it'll be interesting to see how that one is. Honestly, if the case as it was first presented (with the notes) carried throughout the book, I think it would have been a lot better. I understand why that clue was handled as it was, but think the author could have easily done something else to still make that same point.

I don't watch the author's TikToks so I'm not sure how this character comes off on screen, but I thought she was pretty believable on the page. Overall, I liked the book enough to see what happens next, thanks to a nice (yet low stakes) cliffhanger.