Mix an Agatha Christie manor-house mystery with the wordplay of Norton Juster’s classic The Phantom Tollbooth, stir in the sisterly adventures of Little Women, a heap of Lemony Snicket gothic creepiness, and season with a queer sprinkle, and you might come up with something like this novel by Beth Lincoln. Lincoln evokes all of these but weaves a totally original tale of mystery and mayhem centered on an eccentric family living in a sprawling, ancient manor house.
Every member of the Swift family is given a name randomly chosen from the sacred Family Dictionary, a name understood to determine their personality and interests. Shenanigan Swift, the protagonist, is indeed a troublemaker. She and older sisters Phenomena and Felicity live with their Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude, the family matriarch, while their parents are overseas doing linguistic research. Shenanigan spends her time trying to map their house’s many rooms, with their hidden (and sometimes dangerous) traps, hoping to find Grand-Uncle Vile’s long-lost treasure.
When Schadenfreude calls a Family Reunion, however, she is murdered just after relatives convene from near and far. Shenanigan and her squabbling sisters must hunt for the killer, aided by Cousin Erf (who is nonbinary and has rejected their Dictionary name), even as other relatives fall prey. Shenanigan’s mishaps lead her sisters to doubt her helpfulness, however, and Shenanigan wonders if her name really determines her personality.
An oddball series of secondary characters (Uncle Maelstrom! Cousin Atrocious!) and a twisty plot make the book a delight, but Lincoln’s love of language is what makes it shine. There are eye-rolling puns, captivating archaisms, and dazzling descriptions—but under the fun of all this is an unexpectedly poignant and powerful message about finding who we are and how we fit into our families, both born and chosen.
Cousin Erf’s nonbinary identity is not a primary focus, although we do see them struggle to tell some family members about changing their given name, a particular challenge in this family where Dictionary names carry such weight. Shenanigan is initially surprised about Erf’s name and identity, not because they are nonbinary, but because the idea of anyone pushing back against the name and identity chosen for them is new to her.
Another major character is a transgender woman, although we do not learn this until more than halfway through the book. It’s not a big “reveal,” however, as in too many stories of trans people—it simply wasn’t relevant until the character wants to reassure Erf that identities aren’t dictated, and mentions the incorrect assumption of her gender at birth. (Her parents, she notes, were “terribly embarrassed by their mistake” of not realizing she was a girl.) It’s a nice moment of elder queer mentorship. I’ll say no more about the character (this is a mystery book, after all), except to note that she’s significant. Additionally, one male character has a husband, which is happily unremarkable.
While the ending of this clever, funny, and surprisingly insightful tale is fully satisfying, there are also hooks for a sequel—and that, we might say in Swift-family fashion, would be splendiferous.
