I really tried to like this book as it has lots of things I like with the fantasy and I loved the investigative team of witches idea.

Unfortunately I did find it a bit slow and ponderous, couldn’t take to the writing style and found the main characters in particular Mallory just hard work.

I do get trying to give voice to a character with a chronic Illness but honestly we don’t need to know how tired she is on every page.

Theodore is a highlight and the mystery is ok though any seasoned crime reader will
Get the bad guy pretty much instantly:

It is fun at times and at others I just found myself sighing at reading some of the dialogue.

Disappointing for me but I imagine there could be a massive audience there to absolutely lap this up.

This book tries to be too many things at once. On the one hand, it is a fairly typical cozy mystery: A (group of) amateur sleuth(s) in a charming small town, where everyone seems to know almost everyone (and which, nevertheless, seems to have an impressive club scene). Sure, it's also a fantasy book; the town is an occult town, full of witches, vampires, fae etc. the sleuths themselves are witches, and the murders are also magical. It's also not aimed at quite the same age-group as the average cozy. The sleuths are in their 20s and there are so many Tumblr and TikTok memes. So many. Too many, I would say, but then perhaps I am no longer in the target age demographic for that kind of book.

Anyway, neither the witches nor the 'un-alived' jokes stop the story from feeling very cozy. And neither does the fact that the mein character has a chronic illness. Cozys have occasionally handled heavier topics. Sometimes well, sometimes not (I let someone who understand the topic better judge on which side this book falls).

So you're reading a cozy, and then you get suddenly hit with a ... side-plot? (or random mention? I'm not sure, actually) about for-profit prisons and how bad they are. And the main characters all have a deep distrust of the police. Police violence and institutionalized -isms don't actually get mentioned, though. They just don't like the police, because. They like neither occult police forces nor the apparent (non-magical) ones. Which are separate things. I think? At least occult towns are separate from apparent ones and have universal basic income, which seems to suggest some sort of separate government, but occult towns and apparent towns also seem to exist side-by-side in one country.

Ah, yes. Before I got distracted by the world-building, I wanted to say: there's a time and place for everything and the time and place for a condemnation of for-profit prisons, is perhaps not in a book that also features a cat-eared ghost who can't stop talking.

I think this was a case of 'it's not the book, it's me,' because this should be something I loved, but I just really struggled to get into it. I didn't feel like the characters were particularly invested in the mystery/crime they were solving, they all seemed a little flighty for me. I ended up DNF'ing at around 25%.

oh my god, I LOVED this book! it has great characters and great worldbuilding, which are my two favourite things in books – plus everyone is gay *and* the main character has fibromyalgia; it’s like The Undetectables was written specifically to delight me. as a person with a chronic illness very similar to fibro, it was incredibly meaningful and rewarding to read about a character who struggles with issues like mine (not just physically, but the feelings of isolation and not wanting to be a burden and all of that, phewwww!) and gets to solve a mystery and help her friends and just generally be kind of a badass. I loved Mallory not just because of her fibro but because she’s a really fun and interesting character and also extremely relatable. And I fell completely in love with Theodore right there in the first chapter even though it told me the story wasn’t about him, but damn, what an absolutely delightful beginning!

the plot is well constructed, trots along very nicely, and kept me interested all the way through, but it’s really the humour and whimsy combined with a bit of angst and just absolutely lovely friendship shenanigans that really made the book for me. By the end I felt like I’d only dipped my toe into this world and there’s just so much more to explore – I do hope Courtney Smyth is planning a sequel, but whatever they write next I’m going to want to read it.

with thanks to netgalley for the arc (but I am going to be buying a copy too!).

Mixed feelings about this one. Probably a 3.5.

Lots of things I loved
- The murder mystery combined with fantasy elements.
- The friendship group of Mallory, Diana, Cornelia and Theodore. I wanna be part of this crew!
- The chronic illness rep was so good and soooo relatable. Recognised so much of Mallory’s thoughts, feelings and experiences.
- Lots of the dialogue and writing style was funny and entertaining.

However, it did feel quite long. I think some of the writing could have been slicker and I did guess who the Whistler was.

Even so, was an entertaining read and I would be interested in trying more from this author.

As a child (... and as the 21 year old I am now) I LOVED shows like Charmed and movies like Halloweentown and I've got to say that The Undetectables feels like the perfect modern day answer to both of these classics from my childhood.
I loved everything about this book from the three leading female characters whose friendship felt authentic and true, including the conflicts and resentments that crept up throughout the book. I especially appreciated Mallory as the third person narrator who was diagnosed with fibromialgia. Her disability was written with so much care and thought, whether or not this is from the authors personal experience I don't know. Mallory's diagnosis was part of who she was a character, it came with it's own set of challenges and obstacles for Mallory to overcome and those experiences influenced who she became, but it never became her sole identifying feature.
The mix of magic with science was something that I really enjoyed reading about, especially from a criminal forensic point of view (I also loved all the CSI shows growing up). While the magical/scientific did have to be explained through a lot of exposition that became overwhelming at times, the uniqueness of it, along with the characters personality being added to this dialogue, helped to not totally take me out.
Finally Theodore. One of my new favourite characters. I highlighted so many of his hilarious and dramatic remarks while reading. He never failed to make me smile <3

The Undetectables starts with such a hit of ludicrous fun and chaotic energy that it carried me through the novel, and I'm just disappointed I didn't end up liking it as I expected. There's certainly tons of potential in the premise, plenty of charisma and chemistry in the characters, and unabashed cheesy humour, and I also love to see a fellow person with chronic pain/fatigue as protagonist. The big problem with fantasy whodunnits is that only the author knows what magic in this world can do, and we as readers don't even really understand what Mallory and the gang think are the limits of witchcraft. This really locks us out of the mystery, made worse when the characters make baffling decisions, miss obvious clues, and fail to follow up on topics purely for plot purposes - the culprit is particularly obvious, which doesn't help. It just makes it harder to view Mallory as the icon she is supposed to be, and I can't help but feel the particular framing of her disability (which, again, I empathise with) and a dose of main character privilege means she gets away with some very dubious behaviour. By the climax (which I found surprisingly long and yet rushed), I had lost that love for the book I had at the start, but I am rooting for it a future instalment to recapture the spark.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for sending me a copy in exchange for a review.

The tagline of "Be gay. Solve crimes. Do naps." was what had me drawn in straight away, but it was truly the fact that 1. one of the team was a ghost permanently in a cat costume and 2. our main character Mallory has Fibromyalgia because I also have that illness.
This was the best representation of Fibromyalgia I have ever read (Sorry Get A Life Chloe Brown, but you were not the one) and it felt so real to me. The author's descriptions of what Mallory was going through both physically but also mentally with not wanting to be a burden and feeling left out by friends was spot on with how I also feel 99% of the time.

The plot was good, although I did guess the killer pretty early on, but I truly wasn't there for the plot, but the found family and dynamics of the crime solving team.
Theodore was without a doubt my favourite character out of the bunch, just because he's so loving and also hilarious.
Overall, I loved this book - it was such fun time and I never wanted it to end! I have preordered 2 copies, and will be hand selling it in store at work. I'm praying there'll be a book 2 soon!

If you want a grown up Scooby Doo gang with a ghost instead of a loveable dog, with some supernatural creatures, gay goings on, chronic illness rep, and a cosy murder mystery for the fall nights, this is the one!

The Undetectables is a hilarious, heart-wrenching, page-turning murder mystery and an absolute triumph of a debut. Courtney Smyth manages to balance weaving humour and heartbreak into a twisting, intricate plot with deft skill. With an unapologetically queer and diverse cast that it's wonderful to see on the page, the characters have layers and nuance, and the relationships between them all are powerful and moving.

The depiction of Mallory's chronic illness is one of the most accurate portrayals of chronic illness I've ever read, and as a disabled writer myself that representation meant so much to see. Smyth's wit and warmth permeates even the most heartbreaking of scenes, and the world they have created is so engrossing and well built that you lose yourself in it entirely.

I adored The Undetectables, and I am already counting down to Smyth's next book. While enjoyable at any time of year, this will be the perfect spooky season read this year.

Theodore the cat eared ghost will forever be one of my all time favourite characters.

I just couldnt get into this. Whilst I was looking forward to the representation of chronic illness, there's only so many times you can read the same thing about it before it becomes overwhelming and detracts from the story. Show don't tell, right? Some likeable characters but none that felt fully fleshedout.

Fantasy detective murder mystery. The Undetectables, three witches and a ghost. Each bringing different skills to solving crime, all are feisty and none are quite what they let show to the world or even each other. Finding out about these characters, their past, their history with each other, their flaws and their love and protection of each other is what made the book interesting to me. I did work out early in who the villain was, but that didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the book. Thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

his book is definitely my top read of 2023, its concept, its representation everything makes my heart sing. I mean, with a tagline like Be Gay. Solve Crime. Take Naps it was always going to be a hit.

A murder mystery set in a fantastical world filled with witches, vampires, trolls and fairies, we follow an amateur detective agency who must find the serial killer before they are next. The murder mystery is filled with suspense, twists and will keep you hooked from page one. The characters will bury themselves in your heart, the found family is perfection.

One of my favourite elements of this book is the disability representation. Our main character Mallory, is a witch with Fibromyalgia. The representation is seamless, interwoven into the tale in such a perfect way, with the way Mallory interacts with the world around her.

The manner in which the Mallory’s magic is affected by her fibromyalgia is GENUIS and highlights the effects it has on the body physically. In this world magic comes with a sacrifice, in this case any magical spell, takes energy from its user. Painting a wall for example can be done magically but, it will take the same energy from the spell caster as doing it physically, meaning Mallory often cannot use her magic.

Tbh, their isn't enough stars to showcase my full for this book.

This is a gem of a book. It’s a fairly large book but it read’s incredibly quickly. I will definitely pick up any following books if the exist.

This was utterly delightful. The queer, (fairly) cosy mystery I didn’t know I was searching for. Funny, smart and engaging. I meant only to peer at the first few pages but instead deprived myself of sleep and read it in one sitting. Marvellous.