Play The Fool is an entertaining mystery with relatable characters. Not quite a cozy mystery, it does feature an amateur sleuth who gets herself into quite a few scrapes along the way. Katie is proficient at reading tarot cards, having been taught by her aunt as a child. She carries a deck with her all the time and when she has interactions with people, she often thinks of a particular card that would apply to that person or the situation. This made for a unique perspective and made me want to learn more about tarot cards.

Katie is stuck in dead-end jobs, after dropping out of college, kind of a “failure to launch” situation. Her current job is at a mall store in the Chicago suburbs that specializes in Russian/East European items. She has made friends with another young woman who works at a nearby store that I couldn’t quite figure out - some sort of goth store, maybe? Anyway, this Marley disappears and without spoiling the story, Katie is convinced she’s been murdered. Without a body, the local police can’t do much, but a detective who has transferred in from Los Angeles for personal reasons, tries to work on the case with her unofficially.

There’s a lot of humor embedded in this mystery novel, which I appreciated. There are astute observations about failing businesses, and impressions about people. Katie’s older sister is a go-getter in real estate and is always offering Katie a job, which Katie knows she’d be terrible at. Katie’s younger brother, Owen, is somewhere on the autism spectrum, it seems. Katie is terrific with and very protective of him.

I did figure out the mystery but it didn’t mar my enjoyment of seeing Katie and Jamie (the detective) figure things out. This was a debut novel and I’d love to see another book featuring Katie and her tarot cards.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book, although I’m late to it. Because I was late to it, I bounced between the ARC and the published audiobook, courtesy of my public library. Kristen Sieh did a good job with the narration. All opinions are my own.

Unfortunately this was a dnf for me. I only made it about 30%? of the way through and it never fully captured me. despite being a third of the way through the book, I couldn't feel any or much movement towards the plot and didn't want to invest more time in it.

One Sentence Summary: When Katie unexpectedly learns her friend has been murdered, she willingly jumps into danger to solve her murder, in spite of being a complete disaster of a person.

Overall
Play the Fool is a fun murder mystery with characters I loved, but I found it was lacking a bit in danger and I was disappointed there wasn’t more tarot. Katie is absolutely intent on solving her friend’s murder, with the help of her new detective friend Jamie and her brother Owen, but, while there’s some danger, there’s nothing really that truly puts Katie in real danger. Despite being a complete mess of a person and huge disappointment, she had a remarkable ability for getting lucky breaks. There were some nice twists and turns to the mystery; I just wish Katie had faced more actual danger and consequences. I also wish there had been more tarot because, while it was a nice touch, I didn’t think it was absolutely necessary to the story. Still, this was fun and quite an easy read that flowed well.

Extended Thoughts
Katie is a complete mess and a complete disappointment of a daughter, complete with an overachieving sister and brilliant brother who appears to be on the autism spectrum. She’s completely failed to make something of herself, finding herself back in her home town, working to sell tchotchkes and do tarot readings on the side, and practically living in squalor. At least, her small apartment seems to want to fall apart around her ears.

But she has one friend, a young, mysterious woman named Marley who happens to work in a nearby store at the same mall. Their friendship is brief, but it’s basically all Katie has to cling to to make it through the day. When Katie unexpectedly sees a photo on a stranger’s phone that suggests Marley has been murdered, Katie immediately springs into action, finding suspects everywhere she turns and clues around every corner. Her recklessness gets her tangled up with a local detective with a sad history of his own, but real, actual danger is looming.

I’m not sure what it was about Play the Fool that caught my attention, but it was a fun ride if I didn’t think too hard about it. There were some nice twists and turns, and a delightful mess of a main character, that kept me reading. Actually, I really enjoyed most of the characters, and the family interactions felt like a nice touch to Katie’s life, but the actual mystery part had me going back and forth on whether I actually enjoyed it.

I liked Katie. She was really fun, and I especially liked how she was just a disaster at this thing called life. Her voice was a lot of fun, and I took a great deal of amusement from reading it. But it was also sometimes just excruciatingly painful to read about her bad decisions and why she made those bad decisions. There were so many times I just wanted to yell at her, but it did help feed into the idea that Katie is absolutely a mess. She’s functional, capable of keeping her head just barely above water, but she’s definitely a big disappointment, and absolutely willing to just play into it. At the same time, she really did have a good heart. Despite barely knowing Marley, she was willing to go all out to solve her murder. But it was her relationship with her brother Owen that stole my heart. Initially, Owen was just delightfully eccentric. I loved him and found him to be quite interesting. It was later in the book that I realized he’s probably on the spectrum, and everything Katie did just to make sure he was okay just melted my heart. With the rest of her family, well, she’s clearly a disappointment to them, but they love her anyways, even if it takes her a while to see it. I really liked those family interactions. They were slightly odd and awkward, but I’m glad the story ended the way it did in terms of Katie and her family.

My favorite relationship, though, was that between Katie and detective Jamie. I found their romance to be cute and I thought they made a good team, even if Jamie continually broke the rules for her. It made me want to shake him a few times as well, but I did like the way they just worked so well together, almost as though they’d been working together for quite a while. Jamie was kind of an odd character. He’s got a serious past that still hurts him, so I suppose it made him run hot and cold. Sometimes he was all about being the perfect cop, and other times he was willing to bend the rules until he was practically bent in half. But, in the end, I found I enjoyed their romance a lot more than the mystery, if only because it was light compared to a lot of other non-romance books I’ve read with a romance. It felt more natural and I liked that they weren’t completely at ease with each other until the end. I liked that it felt like a solid friendship where there were clearly feelings on both sides, but both parties are just too damaged to really deal with it.

As for the mystery, it did have some nice twists and turns, but it also annoyed me how Katie either became too distracted or too stuck on one thing. She’s not a detective, so, clearly, she has no idea what she’s doing, but the fact that she was able to stumble around and not get hurt just kind of astounded me. She had so many lucky breaks I don’t think I could count them all. It made the story feel kind of low-stakes, because there was no way Katie was going to end up in serious trouble. The police force, too, was a disappointment. Of course I understand it’s small and they probably don’t deal with murders very often, but Katie just got away with so much. It helped make the story move and continually push forward, but it also got a little annoying, like I wanted a serious roadblock to be placed in her way so she had to rely a little more on her brain than just luck.

But I think my biggest disappointment was how much there wasn’t much tarot. So much of the description and even the cover makes me think it’ll play a bigger role, but, other than Katie doing a few readings and thinking of different cards when it came to different people and situations, I don’t feel like the tarot was really instrumental to the story. If it was completely stripped out, I think I would have gotten exactly what I did get out of it. It was an interesting touch, but I felt it was just something brought in to give Katie a direction to go in at the end of the book. I had hoped for some serious readings that would lead somewhere, lending an air of mysticism, but, sadly, that wasn’t to be, and I was left understanding no more about tarot than I went into the book with, which is to say very little.

Play the Fool was a fun mystery to read, but wasn’t without its problems. The characters were my favorite part of this book. I loved how Katie was just such a mess and such a disappointment, and she never minded. It actually helped her bumble her way through solving the case. I still don’t really understand why she was so adamant about solving the murder of someone she barely knew, but I guess it gave her something to focus on other than selling tchotchkes. I also wish there had been more actual danger presented to Katie and serious consequences for her actions, considering all the close calls she had, but I wonder if the point of this was just to present a fun murder mystery with some interesting elements. The characters were the stars for me, and I could have used more actual danger in the mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

This book was the perfect one to pick up to get out of a reading slump. It was witty and funny and even though I don’t typically like “cozy mysteries” I enjoyed this one.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review

3.5 stars!

"Play the Fool" by Lina Chern is a fairly standard, pretty predictable mystery/thriller, but that doesn't mean it's all bad. The first 50% is vastly better and more intriguing than the last 50%. When FMC Katie finds a picture of her friend Marley murdered on a strange customer's phone, she gets wrapped up in something she never expected as she tries to find out what happened. The mystery elements are strong early on as readers are left guessing what happened to Marley, what led to her demise, and who was involved in her death. I liked the characters despite their screw-ups. I like how author Lina Chern doesn't force Katie to be this toxically positive main character. She's a frequent screw-up: she knows it, and so do her friends and family. All of the side characters, including Owen (Katie's brother), Jamie (a former LAPD-detective-turned-small-town-cop who starts working with Katie on Marley's case), and even Marley herself. Unfortunately, the ending is pretty wildly inconceivable and took me out of the book almost entirely. As the book goes on, it ventures more and more into "crime comedy" territory, and I have to admit, it did make me laugh a couple of times. I enjoyed the tarot/card reading element to the story; Katie is constantly explaining how the people she interacts with line up with specific cards, which made the story a little more ominous. I think my biggest issue with the story is that Chern is quite scatterbrained with her plot. Things are mentioned once and dropped, there are a lot of storylines intersecting with one another... the book needed a little more focus.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lina Chern, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and Bantam for providing me with an ARC copy of this book! All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for my review.

A charming debut!
Lina Chern has been published in Mystery Weekly, The Marlboro Review, The Bellingham Review, Rhino, The Collagist, Black Fox Literary Magazine, and The Coil. She lives in the Chicago area with her family and is represented by Joanna MacKenzie at Nelson Literary Agency. Play the Fool is her debut novel.

Katie True is an under achiever, working in a small antiquities store in a mall in Chicago. One day, while performing a tarot reading for a client, Katie catches a glimpse of his phone screen and to her horror, sees an image of her friend and coworker, Marley, lying dead with a gunshot to the head. She inserts herself into the case as an amateur sleuth, assisting the police and using her tarot reading skills to hunt down the killer.

This book felt more like a fun mystery than a thriller to me. I loved the humor of the protagonist, Katie True, which brought a light-heartedness to the book and lifted some of the tension around her obvious character flaws. I found the chapters a little long (for my taste), but the pace was steady enough. I enjoyed the fact that, even though most of her life was unstable, the one thing she could rely on was her intuition and the gift of reading tarot (and people). Chern’s descriptions are vivid and her characters felt well fleshed out.

3/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
For readers who enjoy a lighthearted mystery with a headstrong protagonist.

This book had everything. Mystery, romance, suspense and friendship. The main character was so relatable it almost hurt and now I feel like I need to reevaluate what I want to do with my life. Awesome debut! Can't wait to see what's next!

When a man stumbles into the shop where Katie True works, she decides to do a tarot reading for him. But when she sneaks a glance at his phone and finds a photo of her friend Marley, dead with a bullet hole in her head, everything changes. Now she’s gotten herself tangled up in a world of lies and deceit, putting her own life in danger while searching for Marley’s killer. But how well did she truly know Marley and how far is she willing to go to find the truth?

For me, this book was pretty good, but I think I enjoyed the idea of the story more than the actual story itself. Some parts dragged on and were a bit anticlimactic, and when Katie discovered what really happened to Marley, I was surprised but also a little disappointed. I felt bad for Katie getting dragged into something that had nothing to do with her, all because she cared so much about Marley and wanted her to get the justice she deserved.

Overall, it was a good story and I round up to 4 ⭐️.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam for providing an ARC copy of this book for a review.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book in return for an honest response.

I was so excited when I first started reading this book. It was such a great storyline in the beginning but started losing traction about 40-50% of the way through. It felt like the story was trying to go to crazy points to keep the book going. I liked the characters but didn’t love them. The main character was very down on herself and it felt like that was her main storyline. Overall, it wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t something I will continue to think about.

Part murder mystery, part insightfully hilarious story of arrested development, with some tarot sprinkled over top for flavor. I didn't entirely know what to expect when I picked up Play the Fool, but I ended up discovering an enjoyable and often funny read that dug into the messy parts of life.

Katie True has been stuck in dead-end jobs and a shitty apartment for eight years now, with little motivation to change anything. And then she meets Marley, the cool girl from the mall shop across the way. And then Marley gets murdered. Suddenly Katie has the motivation her family is always faulting her for lacking - the motivation to solve Marley's murder. Even if it gets her into trouble.

The plot of this book was fun and full of enough twists and turns to keep me engaged, but where Play the Fool really shined was its characters. Katie is self-aware and relatable, stuck and afraid of the future but also hopeful. The people she meets along the way - Marley, Jamie, and Nico, plus her family members - are all equally messy and complicated, well-rounded enough that their actions make sense and rough enough around the edges that they feel real. This isn't a story of black and white, but rather the shades of grey that Katie is so fond of.

And then there's the tarot element. That, for me, was what sent this book over the edge from being a run-of-the-mill mystery into something quirkier and more fun. Katie knows the deck inside and out, and Chern's incorporation of the cards into Katie's view of the world felt organic, fleshing out her internal monologue.

Play the Fool isn't perfect, of course. At times, it feels a little too messy and also a little predictable. But over all, it was an enjoyable and off-beat read that kept me sucked in from start to finish.

4/5

I chose to DNF this book at 25% because I just never wanted to pick it up. The writing isn’t bad or anything, it’s just not for me I think.

This was one of those books where I loved the title, the cover, loved the premise but just couldn't get into it. There was something about the voice and the pacing that just didn't drawn me in. After 25% in, I found myself skipping to the end to get the resolution and ultimately didn't care that much about what it was. There's a chance that I just wasn't in the right mood or headspace to love this book, because there was nothing objectively bad about it--it just wasn't calling to me. If you're looking for a modern mystery that's not a cozy, this may be worth a try. You can always request it from your local library!

Thanks to the publisher for my eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3 stars - 5/10

DNF @ 20%. Unfortunately, this one is a no for me. Minimally invested, writing not my jam, main character entirely unbelievable. Thanks for the opportunity to review.

One of the standout aspects of this novel is Chern's ability to create deeply layered and flawed characters that feel incredibly real. The pacing of the novel is generally well-balanced, although there are instances where the introspective nature of the writing slows down the plot. While these moments contribute to the character development, they may not appeal to readers who prefer a faster-paced story. However, the author's skillful handling of the emotional depth of the characters compensates for these slower moments.

I have to admit this was one of those don't judge a book by its cover. I loved loved loved the cover with the neon and the tarot aspects. But unfortunately for me, this did not keep me wanting to finish this book. It seems far-reaching in some parts and alittle to out there.



Thanks to #NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was fun and exactly what I needed. Though certain aspects were heavy, it was a light read. The characters were great and I loved the banter between Jamie and Katie.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

Katie True is living an aimless existence bouncing from one dead-end job to the next. When she meets Marley, she thinks she's found someone that truly gets her. But when a strange man stumbles bleeding into the shop where she works, her world is upended.. She reads his tarot cards, and while he isn't looking, she looks at his phone and sees a picture of Marley...dead. As he struggles to find out what happened to Marley, she may find herself in more trouble than she bargained for.

Though predictable I enjoyed this book. stuck with it even though there were many times I had to suspend belief. Katie was relatable in that she was a young woman searching for purpose and fulfillment. What was not so relatable is the way she just started acting like she was a member of the police force, interrogating potential suspects and using Tarot as an interrogation method. All in all, it was a fun little read as long as you don't take it too seriously. Rounded up to a 4 from 3.5

Thank you PRH for sending me this novel!

To be honest, I don't usually read this genre. PRH sent me this novel without me requesting it, so I was just like, fine I'll read it. I don't know if it was more me or more the book, but I just really couldn't get into it. I'm just not a mystery person. I'm sure people will love this book, but it just didn't fit what I usually read.

3-3.5 stars

When a man stumbles into the shop where Katie True works, she decides to do a tarot reading for him. But when she sneaks a glance at his phone and finds a photo of her friend Marley — with a bullet hole in her head — everything changes. Now she’s gotten herself tangled up in a world of lies and deceit, putting her own life in danger while searching for Marley’s killer. But how well did she truly know Marley and how far is she willing to go to find the truth?

For me, this book was just okay, but I think I enjoyed the idea of the story more than the actual story itself. Some parts dragged on and were a bit anticlimactic, and when Katie discovered what really happened to Marley, I have to admit, I was surprised but also a little disappointed. I felt bad for Katie getting dragged into something that had nothing to do with her, all because she cared so much about Marley and wanted her to get the justice she deserved.

Overall, it was a decent story but I’m not sure if I’d recommend this one.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam for providing a copy of this book to review.*

I have mixed feelings about this one. The cover drew me to the book, and with the main character being a card reader I was definitely interested to see where it went! The book wasn’t terrible, but it also wasn’t good. The first half was decent, but the further into the investigation of Marley’s death the more unrealistic things got. The ending was a little expected, but still liked the closure it brought to the story.