Elise Bryant
Books: Mystery
Mavis Miller: It’s Elementary (2024), The Game Is Afoot (2025)
Mavis Miller
It’s Elementary (2024)
The principal has disappeared and the
head of the PTA was seen wearing latex gloves, paper booties, and
lugging black trash bags into her mini-van in the middle of the night.
Are these things related? Mavis Miller, the newly volun-told head of the PTA DEI committee thinks so.
Mavis is a single mom who lives with her dad, and works at a non-profit where she is underpaid and overworked. But Pearl’s dad isn’t out of the picture–just constantly out of town.
The “Daddy Tracker” is what Pearl calls Find My Phone, the app and website that we use to track where Corey is every night.
One of the things I particularly liked about this story is that Pearl and the other kids are real kids.
(A)ll the time we’ve gained is lost when I can’t find Pearl’s favorite silver-and-black-striped knee socks, just her other silver-and-black-striped knee socks. So I have no choice but to break several traffic laws on the drive to the school, basically drifting in on two wheels, while Pearl stares resentfully at the impostor socks in the back seat.
Yes!” Pearl squeals, her eyes lighting up. “I only did that once before, but then Mommy told me I couldn’t do it again.” She gives me the side-eye, leaning into Jasmine.
I sigh. “That’s because you did it with permanent marker.”
“Can I have some, too?” Langston asks, pulling up his mask.
“Yes, sir,” Jasmine says, twirling her finger at him. “That’s about to bring this whole look together, little man.”
Despite being a cozy mystery, it’s blunt about much of the bullshit that goes on in society.
I open up Outlook, and there’s an email from Rose sitting at the top of my inbox: Can you convert this Word doc into a PDF? I still can’t figure it out, ha ha!
See? Crucial.
I convert the file for her, a thirty-second task that Rose could easily learn herself if she just tried to be a little less helpless…and I stopped indulging her learned helplessness.
DEI means diversity, equity, and inclusion, sure.
But it also means free labor to be given willingly to fix problems that we didn’t create. It means a box checked with no real change made.
Which I appreciated, since as a middle-aged white lady, I can guess at things, but don’t know them.
But you should read this book because it’s a good mystery, and it’s a lot of fun.
I can think of a lot more things I’d rather do in this moment. Get my annual Pap smear. Do my taxes. Clean slime out of a rug. Listen to that song about sharks on repeat for the rest of my life
Characters: Mavis Miller, Pearl, Mr. Miller, Corey, Polly, Langston Hammonds, Anabella Holbrook, River Ackerman, Mason Ackerman, Brody, Sojourner Soso Hart, Trisha Holbrook, Jasmine Hammonds, Leon Hammonds, Corinne Ackerman, Dyvia Mehta, Ruth Gentry, Felicia Barlow, Florence Michaelson, Angela Hart, Charlie Lee, Paul McGee, Jack Cohen, Principal Thomas Smith, Mrs. Smith , Mrs. Nelson, Ms. Castillo, Mrs. Tennison, Mrs. Lilliam, Rose, Nelson
Cover illustration by Camila Pinheiro
Publisher: Berkley
Rating: 9/10
The Game Is Afoot (2025) #2
I’m not rating this book.
I had a very difficult time reading and finishing it (it took me more than a month) so I don’t think I can clearly judge it.
Why? Because for most of the book Mavis is in denial about her anxiety and PTSD and needing therapy to deal with both.
… of course my school psychologist boyfriend is going to give me my very own personal session of Making Friends With Big Feelings. If only he didn’t look so cute doing it, and then I could be a lot more annoyed.
And we can clearly see her spiraling.
It’s like an alarm bell has been rung and now my body is living in the reverberation, trapped in this pulsating, overwhelming beat. And it’s all rushing together as it plays on repeat.
I struggled to get through those passages, and ended up skimming several of them. Because I know those feelings all to well, and watching someone else go through them and not being able to do anything about it… no.
On the plus side, Pearl remains delightful.
Bowel movements, bowel movements,” Pearl repeats, trying it out in her mouth. “That sounds funny!”
“It’s the mystery,” she continues, “of why Mr. Forest gave Anabella the lead in Annie when she can’t even sing! She sounds like…like—permission to say that bad word you taught me?”
“Permission not granted.”
And I like her father and how he’s enjoying his retirement.
But watching Mavis deny her issues and see her making her problems worse was just too much.
Characters: Mavis Miller, Pearl Harding, Corey Harding, Mr. Miller, Polly, Jack Cohen, Ms. Joyce, Nelson, Trisha Holbrook, Anabella Holbrook, Florence Michaelson, Jasmine Hammonds, Leon Hammonds, Langston Hammonds, Dyvia Mehta, Marigold, Hank, Bethany Bowman, Rose, Axel, Dakota, Ruth Gentry, Elijah Miller, Derek, Dom Dwyer, Sally, Della Lively, Charlie Lee, Mackenzie Skinner, Detective Berry, Detective De La Rosa, Principal Thomas Smith, Mr. Forest, Angela Hart, Cole Robinson / Dabrowski, Irene Dabrowski, Christine, Mrs. Alene Tennison
Cover by Camila Pinheiro
Publisher: Berkley
Rating: NR