An illustration of Kate Siegel, author of Charlotte Illes, courtesy of AsurmenCC via DeviantArt.
By Honora Quinn ‘27
Staff Writer
Warning: This story contains spoilers for the book “Charlotte Illes Is Not A Detective” by Katie Siegel.
Despite the murder in the first chapter, Charlotte Illes wants her audience to know that she is sick of mysteries. She used to be a kid detective, like Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, and a famous one at that.
Katie Siegel’s novel “Charlotte Illes Is Not A Detective” is full of interspersed news articles and personal vignettes from the titular character’s childhood. The first few pages illustrate Charlotte on a first date with a woman named Amy. The date is going nowhere fast, and while on the date, Charlotte breaks down for her readers the responses she gets when people learn about her past.
They either want the gory details or to save her from her history. This moment in the novel is reminiscent of a soliloquy, with the world around Charlotte freezing as she hits center stage in a single spotlight. Asides like this, from protagonist to audience, are not uncommon in literature, but the knowing tone of Charlotte’s words brings us in on the joke. There is no separation between the writer and the reader. We can see Charlotte and it appears that she can see us back, guiding us along in her misadventures.
Seigel is a funny writer, her humor influencing the way Charlotte views and moves through the world. She bemoans, she complains and she hides her fears behind a layer of sass directed both at her family and friends and to us, the readers. Charlotte has just been fired from her job and finds herself living at home again, cycling through a series of increasingly relatable questions. Are her best days behind her? Did she peak at the age of 10?
This humor also gives the novel a more comedic tone over that of a traditional mystery, again placing Charlotte more as a contemporary of Nancy Drew than of Agatha Christie's Poirot.
Additionally, the book has a very human protagonist at its core, almost overly human, and Charlotte’s self-isolating behavior can make her stressful or even annoying to follow. This happens especially as she attempts to run away from everyone in her support system, even if they are the ones trying to hire her to solve a mystery in the first place.
This novel deals heavily with the interpersonal, whether it be Charlotte’s discourse with her family or her two closest friends. This often causes the myster(ies) to hit the back burner. In the end, these mysteries layer together quite well, revealing a much larger picture, but it might not hit that way if you don’t like wading through the protagonist’s emotions and introspection.
One of the most interesting things about this book is the fact that it is based on a TikTok. Before becoming an author, Katie Siegel made (and still makes) internet skits under the account name @Katiefliesaway, and after wrapping another web series, she created several ‘pilots’ on her social media accounts, one of which is a short introduction to Charlotte Illes.
This TikTok proved to be the most popular of the pilots and was soon developed into a web series that follows some (but not all) of the mysteries developed in the novel — Siegel was contracted for the novel around the same time and prematurely ended the web series.
Social media over the last few years has changed publishing dramatically, elevating authors and novels from different genres and markets. Apparently, the apps are now earning authors book deals. Another notable example of the new TikTok to Bookstore pipeline is Hannah Nicole Maehrer, whose over 240-part TikTok series, “Assistant to The Villian,” has spawned a multi-book series of the same name. Is elevator pitch via short-form video content the new future of publishing? Only time will tell, but it has created quite a fascinating mystery series with plenty of room to grow. In the end, this is just a fun book, and it's an interesting character study answering a question I never knew to ask. What happens to those ‘meddling kids’ once they grow up and join the real world?
Katie Siegle’s publishing deal with Kensington Books covers two novels, with the second, titled “Charlotte Illes is Not a Teacher,” releasing on July 23, 2024.