I read this wonderful book in almost one sitting - I didn't want to stop reading!

Charlotte Illes is a 25-year-old former child detective. She decided years ago that she should move on from detecting, but never found anything else she was good at and made her happy.

Her brother Landon and his girlfriend Olivia lure her to their apartment in NYC to solve a mystery - someone is stalking Olivia by leaving her strange notes. Charlotte's friends Lucy and Gabe encourage her to help.

But the mystery deepens - one of Olivia's coworkers goes missing, and Olivia thinks it might have something to do with the union he was organizing. There had been some pushback from management, and Charlotte investigates.

The joy of this book is the strong friendships and familial relationships Charlotte has. She is insecure, socially inept, and blunt, but she also loves her people and they love her. Charlotte is an excellent detective, and it is fun to watch her rediscover that part of herself.

This book began as a TikTok series, which is really interesting to me! I'm not a TikTok user, but I might be willing to check it out to see the inception of this book!

Thanks to Kensington Publishing and Netgalley for the advance copy of this book!

I am obsessed with murder rom com type books and this one certainly fits that trope! I absolutely adored Charlotte and the situations she found herself in. I will definitely be getting my library to request this one!

The publicist recommended me this book but it doesn't sound good at all it sounds annoying and confusing. Will not read.

Charlotte was a New Jersey middle school protégé skilled at solving mysteries but now at age 25 she feels her best years are behind her. When a worker at her brother’s wife’s job in New York City is murdered, Charlotte reluctantly agrees to show up and maybe take a look. What happens is a pretty good mystery with Charlotte’s network of friends eager to pitch in and help either by paying $180 to enter a club, or to sneak into apartments hunting for clues. With a nod to all youth detective tales from Cam Jansen to Encyclopedia Brown, Charlotte is a likeable main character. But what stands out is Katie Siegel’s ear for authentic snarky and hilarious dialogue between 20-somethings who rely on their phones for everything from stalking suspects to figuring out where a café is located.

I loved the premise of this - Charlotte Illes is a former child detective who managed to garner some fame solving small crimes in her New Jersey town until she gave it all up late in her teenage years. Now she's a twenty-something, recently laid off, living with her mother, and avoiding her brother Landon and her two best friends Lucy and Gabe. Landon asks Charlotte to come and stay with him in his apartment closer to New York City to help solve the mystery of creepy notes being left on his apartment door addressed to his girlfriend Olivia. It turns out that the mystery was fabricated by Landon, Olivia, and Lucy as a way to get Charlotte to re-engage not only with them but also with things that used to make her happy. Charlotte's common refrain throughout the novel is "I'm not a detective," but she soon gets wrapped up in an actual, much higher-stakes mystery involving Olivia's work at an app called Scoop (which is kind of a Door Dash/GrubHub food delivery app). Delivery drivers for Scoop have recently been working to unionize, and when one goes missing soon after another is murdered, things are looking pretty intense. Charlotte works to solve the crime while also being forced to reestablish relationships with Landon, Lucy, and Gabe, all of whom she's been avoiding because she's depressed and unsure of who she really is. I liked the mystery part of it, but also really liked seeing the relationship rebuilding and Charlotte's attempts to find herself which felt pretty authentic to someone in their mid-20s trying to get unstuck.

Charlotte was famous as a child detective but gave it up years ago. Now it's all anyone wants to talk about, and she wants to put it in the past. Then her brother asks for help with someone harassing his girlfriend, and she gets roped into one more case. This was good, a grown-up Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, Harriet the Spy, Boxcar Children type of thing. Four stars.

Getting called out of retirement for one last case at the ripe old age of twenty-something is pretty weird, but that's what you get when you peak in your tweens. Former child detective Charlotte Illes finds herself reluctantly drawn into a new mystery, despite hanging up her detective hat in middle school. Has she still got it? I had a blast finding out. Katie Siegel has crafted a perplexing mystery with high stakes, expertly balancing narrative tension with hilariously clever writing. Don't miss this one!

Charlotte is done with her childhood career of solving mysteries left and right. Now at 25 she’s unemployed and lost in life. Until her brother asks her to solve who leaves mysterious notes on his door for his girlfriend. While Charlotte doesn’t want to take the case she agrees to look into it, as long as no one says she’s on the case.
But then, things quickly spiral out of control and Charlotte and her friends need to crack a much bigger mystery, and fast.

The book starts off quickly and is written in a fun writing style which instantly made me want to dive into the story and figure out the mystery along with Charlotte. The characters are diverse and most of them have clear personalities and backstories that give them more depth. Especially her best friend Lucy was a great character to read about. I enjoyed her and Charlotte's dynamic throughout the entire book, especially knowing that they have been friends for almost all of their lives and the complex feelings that were standing between the two of them. Add their third friend Gabe into the mixture and the detective squad was a well-balanced chaos.

The mystery gripped me from the beginning and pulled me with it throughout the story, even though there are parts in which I lost track of characters who were supposed suspects because while they all were distinct people, many were mixed up in my mind.
The mystery also carries the one issue I have with the book: it all seemed a little too easily resolved, and without saying too much about the plot, predictable, once the cast of characters was assembled.
Luckily, I enjoyed Charlotte enough to not mind a little lackluster mystery.

If you enjoy a fun and quick detective story with a great cast of characters and a lot of action and fun I would definitely recommend you to pick up this novel and enjoy the world by Siegel.

Imagine Harriet the Spy struggling through a quarter-life crisis and you've got the premise for Katie Siegel's cozy mystery Charlotte Illes is Not a Detective. Former child detective Charlotte Illes is unemployed, living at home, and using her deductive reasoning to spy on potential first dates. It's a relief when she comes out of "retirement" to help her brother's girlfriend get to the bottom of some workplace drama. But is Charlotte out of her depths? Is she putting her family and friends in danger? While the mystery isn't terribly complicated, the banter between Charlotte and her best friends is as amusing as anything Casey McQuiston has written. Fans of Lisa Lutz's Spelman series should give Charlotte Illes a chance.

This book was great! I couldn't put it down! The premise was fresh and new, which is hard for me to say as I read so much each year! Sometimes it feels as though I keep reading similar stories, but this was a so original!

Oh my gosh. I found this book due to following Katie, and being obsessed with the original Charlotte Illes videos. I’m glad to say that seeing it become a full book was wonderful, and it was truly better than I expected (and I had high expectations). Highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery, and especially those with fun side plots and lovable characters.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I am not a frequent mystery reader but the description hooked me and I had to learn more about Charlotte Illes, and I’m glad I did!
I really appreciated the diverse cast of characters (Gabe and Olivia are standouts) and Siegel’s straightforward approach to describing them all. Her writing is concise and her dialogue between characters feels real and very emotional at times. I did not find the mystery to be predictable and loved the twists towards the end. Watching Charlotte connect the dots was satisfying. This book might’ve made me a mystery reader!

25 year old Charlotte is tired of people googling her before dates.... Because once she was that precocious 10 year old that was out in her mom's garage solving neighborhood crimes. So when Charlotte's brother calls and says his girlfriend is being stalked, she decides to just go check it out. What's the harm in checking in out?

The cast? Immaculate. Charlotte Illes? Fantastic. The premise? To die for. Absolutely great. The writing style? Dry, humorous, witty, made for the mystery book crowd.

Well that sounds too good to be true? Let's get to the meandering problem. There's this weird problem where the plot just will stagnate and wander for a few pages at a time.. it's hard to focus and keep your attention. I've heard this started as a video series and if that's the case, I solved it. Editing.

Otherwise, there's strong bones here. I really enjoyed it. I hope that Charlotte gets another book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for review.

I'm torn on this one. Sometimes I enjoyed it, and sometimes it dragged on. It will probably appeal to a younger crowd, especially as this grew out of a TikTok video series. I enjoyed the trio of main characters who set out to solve a mystery. I did not enjoy the mystery, which revolved around a corporate workplace and a union. The scenes set in the office were not exciting and the mystery felt underdeveloped.

Great book! Easy read. Lots of plot twists. I loved each and every character, gabe might have been my favorite though hehe.

This was a great read and I truly felt like I was reliving my Harriet the Spy days as an adult. Even better, it has some pretty good dialogue that will have you laughing out loud, lightening the mood and releasing those endorphins. Best of all though, the LGBTQIA+ community is represented and I love a good cozy that breaks out of the traditional plain vanilla now and then.

I’m down for more in this series and cannot wait to see what life has in store for Charlotte next.

Charlotte Illes was a kid detective like Cam Jansen or Nancy Drew. Can she recapture those skills? Does she want to? And if she decides against it, what will that mean for her family and friends?
This is a funny, high energy cozy mystery with a flawed yet plucky heroine whose quirky friends and family add to the fun. The milieu is unusual for a cozy mystery -- gender-fluid tech workers.
I look forward to reading more in the seriies.

Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Charlotte Illes Is Not a Detective by Katie Siegel is a comedy mystery with a really intriguing premise! The story revolves around Charlotte, who used to be a kid detective. Now 25, she has to deal with being a former minor celebrity. But when she's drawn into a new case, will she come out of retirement? Not if she has anything to say about it. She's happy to have given up detecting for good.

Here is a humorous excerpt from Chapter 1, when Charlotte is on a first date:

"Charlotte shifted in her seat. “I wasn’t really famous,” she said, beginning what was now a well-rehearsed speech. “I just—”
“You were!” Amy said, as if she were gifting Charlotte a great compliment.
...
“I mean, there were so many articles about the mysteries you solved,” Amy continued, her eyes bright. “You were, like, a mini Sherlock Holmes.”
Yup, just a ten-year-old solving mysteries and doing cocaine. Charlotte had made that joke the first time she got the Sherlock Holmes comparison on a date. It didn’t land. She never made it again."

Overall, Charlotte Illes Is Not a Detective is a comedy-mystery that will appeal to fans of the Finlay Donovan series or Siri, Who am I? One highlight of this book is how funny it is. There are plenty of funny moments. Another highlight of this book is the premise of a former child detective getting back into detecting as an adult. When I read the premise, I knew I had to read this book right away. Lastly, this book is full of LGBT representation and lovely platonic friendships. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of mysteries in general, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in June!

Charlotte Iles is a former child detective who is now in her 20s and trying to figure out what to do with her life. She has distanced herself from her family and friends and is determined to stay away from her detective past. However, her brother entices her to take a new case, involving his girlfriend, and Charlotte is back to investigating along with her friends Lucy and Gabe. A low-stakes and lighthearted mystery that is also about the importance of friendships. Readers of Maureen Johnson will really like this one.

3.75/5 stars! This book was very sweet and very cozy. This is for fans of Encyclopedia Brown and those readers who don't need high-stakes danger to make their stories complete. I enjoyed the story but could have used a bit more adventure for my taste. But for a quick and sweet read with good pacing and fun characters, this story works.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.