An Ohio teen becomes a sleuth when her favorite teacher is murdered.Sixteen-year-old Gigi Ricci's reputation as a troublemaker with a penchant for getting into fights precedes her, especially after she broke a queerphobic bully's nose. But despite her record of detentions and jujitsu training, her math teacher, Mr. Ford, believes she's more than her abrasive exterior suggests. So Gigi is horrified to discover his corpse-especial since it seems his death was no accident. This looks like a job for the Westbridge High Mystery Club, helmed by Gigi's best friend, Sean, and her crush, Mariela, who've honed their sleuthing skills by reading cozy mysteries. But it doesn't feel very cozy when the killer starts targeting the club members. Gigi's nemesis, Cedar, also joins the case, adding verbal barbs and romantic tension to the suspense, since Gigi views Cedar as a rival for Mari's affections. While readers might quickly peg whodunit, the mystery feels secondary to the exploration of Gigi's relationships and emotional issues. Though her anger is largely unexplained, her struggles with expressing her emotions are sympathetic. Her working-class, "seventy-five-percent-queer Italian family"-Gigi is bisexual, her brother is gay, and her mom is nonbinary-is heartwarmingly supportive. While the dialogue is sometimes stilted, Gigi's narration, which is peppered with quips about her sexuality and her irritable bowel syndrome, is appealingly wry. Most characters read white; there's diversity of ethnicity and sexuality among the cast.A snarky, queer, character-driven twist on cozy mysteries. (Mystery. 13-17)

Gr 9 Up— A queer high school murder mystery packed with raunchy laughs and tender moments. Italian American Gigi Ricci is not exactly excelling at school. Her hot temper and jiu-jitsu prowess land her in detention for starting fights and give her a formidable reputation. Her IBS has been acting up, and her love life is nonexistent (she's harbored a years-long unrequited crush on her brother's best friend). Things only get worse when Gigi and her friends, members of the Mystery and Thriller Literary Scholars club, stumble upon their math teacher dead in his classroom after school. It's ruled an accident, but the facts don't add up. The teens tackle the mystery themselves, even as they're followed by ominous threats and violent near-misses. The mystery unfolds at a satisfying clip, though some of the codes and clues are too convenient and are solved with no trouble from the sleuths. Poop and penis jokes abound; Gigi's sense of humor will be refreshing and relatable to many teens. The cast of characters is some racial diverse with lots of facets of LGBTQIA+ representation. Gigi is bisexual, her mom is queer and uses they/them pronouns, her brother is gay, and two close friends are lesbians, one of whom identifies as asexual and aromantic. VERDICT A funny, inclusive, and queer whodunit that teens will be dying to read. Recommended for school and public libraries.— Allison Staley