Review of The Undetectables by Courtney Smyth

I was so hyped for The Undetectables for no particular reason. It just seemed like a neat premise, and who doesn’t like the tagline, “Be gay. Solve crimes. Take naps”? Courtney Smyth promises a queernorm paranormal mystery involving witches, werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and fairies. For the most part, she delivers, although the mystery part of the novel is perhaps the least satisfying.

Mallory and her two best friends, Cornelia and Diana, ran the eponymous onetime amateur detective agency in their hometown of Wrackton. After failing to solve their first and only case, the Undetectables started to drift apart as they each pursued their own goals in life. Mallory feels the most stuck: fibromyalgia has inhibited her social life and her career goals. She has spent the last several years halfheartedly staying on that first case while befriending the ghost of its victim, Thomas, condemned to exist forever wearing cat ears foisted upon him as a practical Halloween costume joke. Then someone starts brutally murdering residents of Wrackton, and the Undetectables reunite.

I love the setup and first part of this book. Smyth does a great job establishing the four protagonists and their defining traits. Similarly, she doesn’t waste time getting us into the main mystery and challenges our gumshoes will face. The Undetectables is set in a magicnorm world where magical and mundane beings have a cordial, if occasionally complicated, coexistence. I appreciate how Smyth avoids the temptation to infodump. Yes, I desperately want to know more about the different supernatural species, their histories and forms of government, and how they coexist with mundane humans—no, we don’t get much of that, and it’s for the best.

I wasn’t expecting but really appreciate the focus on disability and chronic illness in Mallory. I myself don’t have a chronic illness and don’t know what it’s like to deal with something like fibromyalgia. I can only imagine how little those who do feel represented in novels like this. From my limited perspective, Smyth seems to do a great job of sharing the complex way Mallory’s disability influences her life. I especially loved the exploration of Mallory’s anxiety about how it affects her friendships (something I can relate to): it’s so understandable, the small conflicts that result among her, Diana, and Cornelia, as a result of Mallory’s worries that her friends are leaving her behind. This is a great example of how no one is really “in the wrong” here, yet inadvertent ableism or poor communication results in friends letting each other down. The way that these three women deal with conflict in general, whether it’s over Mallory’s disability, Thomas, or Cornelia’s boyfriend, is laudable.

Where The Undetectables starts to lose me is in its climax and conclusion, as well as its tone. Tonally, this book is a mess. I can see what Smyth is trying to go for: a mix of quips and high stakes, which is possible and often enjoyable. Unfortunately, this feels more like a mash-up or pastiche than a successful combo of the two tones. The protagonists vacillate wildly between humorous or jovial and sombre.

I just also never really vibed with how the Undetectables go about their sleuthing. I guess they are supposed to be inexperienced, but they just don’t come across as very good detectives. I seldom like to brag that I figured out whodunnit long before the reveal (I don’t really think that’s a good litmus test for the quality of a mystery), but, uh, it was kind of telegraphed?

The Undetectables has a lot going for it, from original characters and premises to strong disability and queer representation. It’s just a somewhat messy, uneven novel, making it far less memorable and significant than I had hoped it would feel after reading. A good summer mystery though.