Flirting with Murder

Gr 8 Up–High school junior Virginia visits her eccentric Grandma Lainey and theater-loving friends at Castle Claude every year, looking forward to the times when they play Killing Me Softly, a fantastical murder mystery game. But when the building’s owner passes and Virginia attends the reading of the will, antagonist relatives suddenly appear looking to take over the Castle Claude property. Soon after, a very real dead body appears during a round of Killing Me Softly, leaving Virginia to team up with Felix, another resident’s handsomely infuriating grandson, to solve the murder and save their grandparents’ condo community. While Sellet is no stranger to writing YA, this first foray into a cozy mystery serves all the whodunit, quirky characters, and amusing banter the genre calls for. Virginia and Felix play off each other perfectly, adding that extra dash of romance. The campy vibes of Castle Claude and its inhabitants set an entertaining scene, though secondary characters are not well developed. Chapter titles (all beginning with “The Body...”) foreshadow events to come, and while aficionados of the genre may uncover the killer early, all will still have fun solving the mystery. Virginia reads white, and Felix is cued as Hispanic.