always print the business cards

Emersyn Gray just got fired. She’s smart, but she’s not willing to be treated badly just because she’s a server. She’s not sure what’s next, but she needs to think of something fast. She’s 28, and she needs to make money for rent and food for herself and for her 7-year-old niece Livy. She had some money in savings to help, but her ex-boyfriend Hoffman had absconded with that when he left.

But best friend Jemma shows up with a plan. She made business cards for Emersyn that say Wyatt Investigations, Discretion, Expertise, Results. And while Jemma may have dropped one or two of them outside of Emersyn’s apartment building, the Mirage, when she handed them over, Emersyn really only needed one. She could hand that to Hoffman, saying that she had hired the investigator to look into how he had broken into her bank account. Emersyn takes the cards and heads to the country club when she sees Hoffman posted from there on his social media.

Jemma had chosen the name Wyatt based on Emersyn’s ideal man, a cowboy named Wyatt who could help her with all her problems. And as Emersyn was cleaning herself up a little before trying to get into the country club, she met another Wyatt, a handsome man who was not a cowboy but reached out to give her a hand in a difficult moment. He also helps her get into the country club, where she confronts Hoffman and lets him know that she needs that money back.

Emersyn goes back home to try to find another job, and she finds that Freddie the superintendent had been killed. The Mirage had once been a luxury Art Deco hotel, but that was many years ago. It was chopped up into apartments, and its better days seem behind it. But the people who live there see themselves as a community. Emersyn has a neighbor, Mrs. Nagy, who babysits Livy when Emersyn is out. But when her husband is arrested for Freddie’s murder (just because he had chased the superintendent around the lobby with a croquet mallet recently), Mrs. Nagy begs Emersyn to investigate.

Emersyn is reluctant—she’s definitely not a detective. But she does want to help Mrs. Nagy. And Wyatt shows up on her doorstep, hoping to get a job in her detective agency. Add in Theo, the teenaged girl in the building who goes to school half online and rolls through the hallways in her wheelchair. She sets up a website for Wyatt Investigations, and pesters Emersyn to investigate Freddie’s murder.

It turns out that Wyatt is something of a security consultant (former bodyguard), and Emersyn does have a knack for uncovering clues in a murder case. But when her parents find out that she lost her server job, they decide it’s time to step in and try to create a more secure life for Livy. Emersyn was her brother’s choice of caregiver for Livy, and that little girl is the light of her life, so she knows she will fight for her. But does she really have what it takes to catch a killer? Or will she lose her niece, her home, and maybe even her life trying to solve a murder?

Definitely Maybe Not a Detective is a smart, funny, big-hearted mystery novel. Emersyn is reluctant to try being an detective, but she is surrounded by those who believe in her. These characters are so much fun to spend time with, I was a little disappointed when the story ended. Emersyn may be a reluctant detective at first, but she is all-in as an aunt and friend, and I loved that about her. I hope she keeps investigating for years to come.

Egalleys for Definitely Maybe Not a Detective were provided by Bantam through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.