Scarlett Undercover by Jennifer Latham is a refreshing YA mystery with a smart, snarky Muslim-American teen detective at its center. Scarlett digs into a case that uncovers dark family secrets and ancient curses, all set in a modern urban world. Engaging and fast-paced, it’s perfect for fans of diverse, thrilling mysteries.

Scarlett Undercover by Jennifer Latham

335 Pages
Publisher: Little Brow Books for Young Readers
Release Date: May 19, 2015

Fiction, Teens, Young Adult

Scarlett is a fifteen-year-old private detective. She placed business cards in schools’ bathrooms looking for clients. She is in her office when Gemma Archer, nine years old, announces her brother Oliver killed Quinn Johnson and dumped the body in Las Almas Bay. She feels bad for Gemma and tells her she would investigate Quinn’s death. Eyewitnesses said he jumped off the bridge on his own. Leaving the Archer house, Scarlett picks up a couple of tails. She recognizes the symbol that Oliver has carved in his bedroom but cannot place it. She realizes she saw it in the mosque. Emmet is her ally in the police department.

The story is fast paced, the characters are well developed, and it is written in the first-person point of view. Scarlett is plucky, sarcastic, and I loved her right away. If you like young adult detective stories like Nancy Drew, you will enjoy this book.

Scarlett Undercover by Jennifer Latham

I saw "Muslim American" in the synopsis and rejoiced. I love reading about people who come from different backgrounds than I do. I also saw "for fans of Veronica Mars" and got excited. I love that show, and I do see the similarities in this book (although I would have liked more suspense overall). The supernatural element threw me a little bit, because I wasn't expecting it and didn't see anything in the book's synopsis that indicated a supernatural twist, but I was ok with it. The writing is great! All in all, this was a quick and enjoyable read

Scarlett Undercover was my first read featuring a Muslim American protagonist. Not knowing much, rather anything, about Islam, I thought the author did a good job writing about it. Latham neither slams nor pushes it. It is merely a part of who Scarlett is and her world. The book started off slow, but picked up around thirty-five percent. Prior to reading this book, I had never heard of the Solomon Knot or the myth surrounding King Solomon. I enjoyed the myth and must do more research on it. I didn't like Scarlett, but neither did I dislike her. She was a tolerable protagonist. I liked her spunk, but she crossed the line toward disrespectful often; plus the "gum shoe detective" lingo got old fast. Scarlett's and Decker's romance was sweet and cute. Closing with them was a nice way to end the novel.

Scarlett is a smart-ass, sarcastic teen with her own detective agency. When 9-year old Gemma hires her to look into her bother's mysterious personality shift, Scarlett stumbles onto some legitimately concerning cult practices that might be tied to a mysterious artifact left behind by her deceased father. The further Scarlett gets into the mystery the more convinced she becomes that solving it will also lead to her father's killer.


I did appreciate the set-up for this novel, which made no sense but in a very Spy Kids sort of way. Like, throw logic out the window and just make a noir novel about a teen detective, who cares! Why isn't she in school? How the hell did she get her own office space? Psh, this is pure escapist fantasy, we don't have time for those kinds of questions. Taking all that setup stuff as a given and just running with it really made it all work.


Unfortunately, that's the end of my praise for Scarlett Undercover. It's painfully clear from the very start that this character was written by a white woman. Scarlett is thoroughly divorced from her religion and her culture, even calls attention to that fact, and only brings any scraps of that stuff in when it relates to the pseudo-mystic-magical McGuffin at the center of the detective story. The mystery has far too many coincidences to be entertaining and Scarlett's "noir detective" voice is grating after a while. There was barely an attempt to put a 15 year-old spin on that kind of dialogue (which would have made it fun) so it wound up severely out of place given the characters.

Really great story and characters. I loved the diversity so much, and I fell in love with the whole thing. Absolutely wonderful read.