Shenanigan Swift and her large, quirky family are back in the third volume of this hilarious, smart mystery series, which reads like a mash-up of Agatha Christie and Lemony Snicket, blended with (in this volume) the classic caper movie The Sting. Shenanigan and siblings Phenomena (a budding scientist) and Felicity (a fashion maven), along with cousin Erf (a nonbinary family iconoclast), are coming off the success of their previous sleuthing adventure—but when selfish, untrustworthy cousin Atrocious seeks their help to protect Dandelion DeMille, brother of family friend Daisy DeMille (who is dating Shenanigan’s cousin Flora), Shenanigan is suspicious. She’s also bored and curious, and ultimately agrees.
Shenanigan, Phenomena, Felicity, and Erf thus go from the Swift manor in England to the DeMille tower in New York City, seat of the DeMille flower empire controlled by Hesperantha DeMille. There, they meet siblings Moss and Delphi DeMille, the children of Daisy’s sister Iris, who become their companions in solving the threats to Dandelion. But murder, and a snowstorm traps both Swifts and DeMilles in the tower, creating a locked-room mystery where each botanically-themed floor brings new dangers, and everyone, from family to employees, is a suspect.
Shenanigan finds inspiration and help in The Swindler’s Handbook, a volume from the Swift family library that offers advice on how to con. Always a mischievous sort, Shenanigan feels “seen” by the book and attempts to practice its precepts. But is the lonely life of a swindler really for her?
Author Beth Lincoln’s love of language and her oddball characters again make the book shine, while Claire Powell’s entertaining pencil drawings add to our sense of the characters. The mystery is happily convoluted and the setting unique and vividly described. It is Shenanigan’s personal growth over the course of the book that gives it heart, however, as she discovers more of who she really is and what sets her apart from people like Atrocious.
As in the previous volumes, queer characters, including Erf, Daisy, and Flora, are seamlessly included and accepted.
Two characters have physical disabilities: Southerly Swift, a pilot and tinkerer, has a prosthetic leg (with sockets to hold her tools); Moss DeMille wears a cochlear implant. Moss in particular plays a large role, and while his deafness is not the focus of his character, Lincoln doesn’t ignore it, but rather weaves in moments that feel authentic to how someone with a cochlear implant would move in the world, e.g., worrying about a power outage when he forgets to charge its battery, or having to explain about various microaggressions.
Readers are advised to start with the first volume of the series if they haven’t yet done so; those who have already met the Swifts should be delighted by this highly recommended third volume of their adventures.
Shenanigan, her sisters, and Erf are White; Southerly is South Asian; Hesperantha and Delphi (and presumably many if not all of the other DeMilles) are Black.
