A Tariq Twins Mystery: Murder for Two by Niyla Farook
I don’t know what I was expecting, but woah once the actual crimes started piling up and the sleuthing began, I was invested in Riri and Ani working out their differences, solving the case, and freeing their accused dad. At 336 pages, a full on murder, attempted murder, arson, thieving, and arrests all taking place, the book is definitely for older middle grade readers. The premise and dual points of view of 11 year old twins being reunited after 3 years apart by their divorced parents, getting to know how their OCD, ADHD, and autism factor in to their personalities, learning about TUSC, the town of Castlewick, and the side characters that will turn suspects, result in it taking the story a while to get going. But if you can get through it, and can suspend belief, the book is a fun mystery that takes on heavy topics, and crime, but somehow keeps it light and consumable by the intended audience. The twins are Muslim, one wears hijab, and there are Islamic references, but once the identity is established, it really doesn’t play a role, or shape the characters’ view of the world or approach to dealing with their grief, anxiety, and obstacles they face. There is mention of halal marshmallows and hijab, but they never say a quick dua or pray, and by the end is not really even shown to be a big part of their daily lives. I have no idea if the neurodivergent rep is accurate, but the tone and approach is very positive and normalizing. Parents may want to know that the book starts on the last day of school and the teacher is non binary, referred to as Mx Henderson with they/them/theirs pronouns. The character is mentioned a lot in the first nine pages, and then never again. Pronouns for other characters are listed on their profile cards. There is teasing of a girl having a crush on a boy, a few couples dating, a character being born out of wedlock, and a male character being in a relationship with someone named Toby that is mentioned a few times, but only on the final mention in the last few pages of the book, does it clarify that it is a boyfriend. The book seems to be intentionally diverse in ethnicities, religions, identity, and orientation, but the story is a murder mystery, and a family reconnecting, and the mentions in passing are not detailed, or overly explored. I mention all this for adults to determine what is best for their children.
SYNOPSIS:
Supersleuth Imani Tariq aka Ani lives in Castlewick with her father, Abderrazzak and spends time at Cafe Vivlio with Mrs. Kostas. The small town is Ani’s stomping grounds for sleuthing and carrying out the cases her TUSC (Tariq Ultrasecret Supersleuth Centre) organization takes on. She knows everyone, and everyone knows her, and she is not looking forward to spending the summer with her “evil twin” visiting from California. Riri short for Noori, lives with her mom and is heading to the UK so her mom can set up a new office for her company, and the twins can reconnect after being apart for three years. There is a lot of animosity in the former family of four, but the girls slowly start to rely on each other when they find Mrs. Kostas’ dead body in the secret garden, alibis not checking out, relationships coming to light and their dad being arrested for the murder.
WHY I LIKE IT:
I naively thought it would be a murder of a distant side character that the girls tried to solve, or maybe a trick and it looked like a murder, but ended up not being one, so I was really kind of shocked that in fact a murder occurred, that the girls found the body, and that the story of lies, deceit, art theft, secret identities, relationships, and webs of coincidences and manipulation was just getting started. The girls’ voices are distinct, but as they pop around doing what they do, the reader is often just expected to go along with it an not over analyze. I kind of liked that the ending spelled it all out, like a good villain in cartoons the culprit gets their moment to detail and confess what they did, how they did it and why. In full disclosure though, with about 30 pages left in the book, I was genuinely still curious who the guilty person would be.
The book balances very real mirroring threads with absolutely bonkers ones. The girls get counseling for grief, talk about their OCD and ADHD. They also run circles around the police, unravel the plot through research, interviews, crime scene analysis and get the murderer to confess to only them.
The Islamic rep at the start really got me excited, but it stopped rather abruptly and there was no longer even any Assalamualaikums or walakumsalams after about the first 40 pages or so. The characters are of Pakistani decent, but I have never heard “hudafiz” as a farewell before, Allah hafiz and KhudaHafiz, yes, but never with an H. It appears a few times in the book, and even the internet, for whatever it is worth, says it is probably a mistake.
FLAGS: (Things parents might want to know the book contains):
Murder, attempted murder, assault, framing, deceit, lying, arson, teasing, close boy/girl friendships (Muslim characters), hetero and lgbtq+ relationships, romantic interests, child out of wedlock, jealousy, revenge, name calling, parents are divorced, therapy/counseling, ADHD, anxiety, grief, abandonment, loss, OCD, autism, unemployment.
