A Gallery of Rogues

Starred review from December 19, 2022
A gothic novel of corrosive values that’s centered around a family reunion, Lincoln’s manor-set murder mystery maintains a Knives Out feel by way of Lemony Snicket. As the story opens, scores of relatives are poised to descend upon Swift House for the event, which is also a family-wide hunt for the treasure hoard that Grand-Uncle Vile once secreted on the estate. Named fatefully from the Family Dictionary, dauntless 13-year-old Shenanigan longs to find the treasure, and keeps a list of the idiosyncratic home’s possible hiding places, including suspicious paintings. She dreads the family gathering, but when an attempt is made on Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude’s life, Shenanigan, frustrated with her adult relations’ inadequate sleuthing, enlists the help of sister Phenomena and nonbinary cousin Erf. The initially whimsical story takes a darker tone as murders ensue and the family begins to close ranks, but crackling puns outpace the body count as this archly told, never muddled debut whodunit reveals a roster of distinct characters, a labyrinthine setting and plot, and a mystery that is as clever and impish as its heroine. The family’s members have varying skin tones. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 8–12. Agent: Zoë Plant, Bent Agency.

Starred review from June 1, 2024
The over-the-top Swift family might be able to reconcile with their cousins--if art theft doesn't interfere. In this second series entry, as delightfully hilarious and witty as the first, Shenanigan Swift learns she has family in Paris--the Martinet cousins--with whom the English Swifts have long been feuding. The Swifts' new Matriarch, Fauna, decrees that they must make peace with the Martinets, especially after the theatrical theft of a painting from the Swift family home. Ouvolpo is a flamboyant crime collective that lifts looted and stolen art and returns it to the rightful owners, leaving behind fantastical crime scene tableaux. Does their theft of A Clown Laments His Lot in Life by the famous surrealist Pierrot mean Ouvolpo believe the painting rightfully belongs to the Martinets? Piratical Uncle Maelstrom takes Shenanigan and her sister Phenomena to Paris, where Shenanigan is overwhelmed by the city, charmed by artist cousin Pomme, and enraged by the thieves. "No one breaks into my House, leaves behind an inflatable bird, and gets away with it," she declares. But some of the Martinets are untrustworthy, even by family standards. Even Maelstrom's loyalty is questionable, since he keeps flirting with The Law (in the person of his nemesis, Haitian Interpol inspector Hugo Rousseau), leaving Shenanigan, Phenomena, and Erf, their nonbinary cousin, to save both families. The family is multiracial, and queerness is comfortably normalized. Abundant wordplay and humor will keep the pages turning. An amorally charming hero stars in this comically flamboyant heist mystery. (Mystery. 10-13)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2024
Grades 4-7 Visits to relatives don't usually lead to brawls, burglaries, and murder--but most families aren't like the Swifts and their French kin, the Martinets. News that vacationing Felicity Swift has incautiously gone for a stay with the Parisian branch leads to an immediate rescue mission that plunges her younger sisters Shenanigan and Phenomena, nonbinary cousin Erf, and other Swifts into a whirl of intrigues and investigations. The story is atmospherically set in a seedy Parisian hotel with a mysteriously bricked-up floor and is centered around a priceless work of art with a shady past. Lincoln fills out her interestingly named main cast with a gang of international art thieves dedicated to outrageously clever heists, corpses both fresh and skeletal, and a whole troop of traditionally costumed Pierrots storming in to add physical comedy to the climactic brouhaha. Also tucked in are perceptive observations on topics ranging from the ins and outs of extended families and absent parents to the way great art can elicit profound personal responses. Another smart, silly whodunit.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2024
Young detective Shenanigan Swift is at it again. In this sequel to The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels (rev. 1/23), a robbery of a painting at the family home leads our fearless and hilarious hero and her bevy of eccentric relatives to a new mystery and a new location: Paris. It turns out that the Swifts are linked to a French family, the Martinets. The two clans have been at loggerheads, off and on, since the Norman Conquest. The search for the Swifts' stolen painting leads them to become involved in a radical art-heist group whose mission is to steal art and return it to the original owners, a sort of Robin Hood enterprise. The plot is acrobatic in its complications. While the first book goofed around with the conventions of the English country house mystery, this one revels in the tropes of the stylish French "gentleman thief" tradition (think Arsene Lupin) while presenting the opportunity for outrageous wordplay in two languages and surprises aplenty. It keeps readers on their toes as it sparkles with energy, wit, and good humor. (Final art unseen.) Sarah Ellis

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2024
Young detective Shenanigan Swift is at it again. In this sequel to The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels (rev. 1/23), a robbery of a painting at the family home leads our fearless and hilarious hero and her bevy of eccentric relatives to a new mystery and a new location: Paris. It turns out that the Swifts are linked to a French family, the Martinets. The two clans have been at loggerheads, off and on, since the Norman Conquest. The search for the Swifts' stolen painting leads them to become involved in a radical art-heist group whose mission is to steal art and return it to the original owners, a sort of Robin Hood enterprise. The plot is acrobatic in its complications. While the first book goofed around with the conventions of the English country house mystery, this one revels in the tropes of the stylish French "gentleman thief" tradition (think Arsene Lupin) while presenting the opportunity for outrageous wordplay in two languages and surprises aplenty. It keeps readers on their toes as it sparkles with energy, wit, and good humor. (Final art unseen.)

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)