Author: Mette Ivie Harrison
Published: September 2, 2025, by Severn House
Format: Kindle, 223 Pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: An Ada Latia Mystery #1
Blurb: Ada Latia is twenty-four years old. She used to be the youngest millionaire in the cosmetics industry. She used to be married. Now, she spends her time studying ways to communicate with aliens. After all, aliens could not possibly be more cruel or deceitful than other humans.
Ada’s spiteful ex-husband Rex believes autistic people like her are monsters, so she’s not surprised when he calls her to share a clickbait article gleefully shouting that one autistic child has killed another at a special school in Idaho.
Rex just means to hurt her, but when Ada reads the article, it’s not the lies about autism being fake that catch her it’s a disturbing photograph of the dead child. The image of the girl is perfect – too perfect. As if someone has committed a murder, and then carefully staged the scene to cover it up.
Ada reports her suspicions to the FBI, and the case crosses the desk of her old classmate Henry Bloodstone, who invites her to assist him. Ada’s not a trained investigator. It’s painful for her to come up against situations she’s not an expert in. She barely remembers Henry, even though it’s clear that he remembers her. But the death is a mystery – and Ada, who counts murder as one of her special interests, has never learned to let a mystery go.
My Opinion: This book won’t be for everyone, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The novel introduces Ada Latia, a 24-year-old neurodivergent protagonist written by a neurodivergent author, Mette Ivie Harrison. That pairing brings a distinct lens to both character development and narrative structure, one that’s different but also challenging in execution.
The slim page count suggests a lean, focused mystery, but instead, the story gets bogged down in repetition. Tangents and teaching moments, likely meant to illuminate Ada’s perspective, start to feel like reruns. The prose itself is choppy, which might be a stylistic choice to reflect Ada’s thought patterns, but it made for a disjointed reading experience.
From the outset, Ada’s ex-husband Rex makes his presence known, and not in a good way. He’s the kind of character you hope ends up as the victim, but alas, he’s just the messenger, nudging Ada toward a murder investigation involving a school for autistic children. His stance on the case is clear-cut, and not in a way that invites nuance.
As the plot unfolds, it leans heavily on convenience. Clues fall into place too easily, and the mystery loses its grip. Instead of feeling immersed in a whodunit, I felt like I was being walked through a tutorial on autism; well-meaning, but not well-balanced.
I genuinely wanted to engage with what the author was trying to portray. The premise had promise, and Ada’s voice deserved space. But by the 25% mark, I was already contemplating a DNF. Sadly, I didn’t get much further before I set it aside.
Ada’s spiteful ex-husband Rex believes autistic people like her are monsters, so she’s not surprised when he calls her to share a clickbait article gleefully shouting that one autistic child has killed another at a special school in Idaho.
Rex just means to hurt her, but when Ada reads the article, it’s not the lies about autism being fake that catch her it’s a disturbing photograph of the dead child. The image of the girl is perfect – too perfect. As if someone has committed a murder, and then carefully staged the scene to cover it up.
Ada reports her suspicions to the FBI, and the case crosses the desk of her old classmate Henry Bloodstone, who invites her to assist him. Ada’s not a trained investigator. It’s painful for her to come up against situations she’s not an expert in. She barely remembers Henry, even though it’s clear that he remembers her. But the death is a mystery – and Ada, who counts murder as one of her special interests, has never learned to let a mystery go.
My Opinion: This book won’t be for everyone, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The novel introduces Ada Latia, a 24-year-old neurodivergent protagonist written by a neurodivergent author, Mette Ivie Harrison. That pairing brings a distinct lens to both character development and narrative structure, one that’s different but also challenging in execution.
The slim page count suggests a lean, focused mystery, but instead, the story gets bogged down in repetition. Tangents and teaching moments, likely meant to illuminate Ada’s perspective, start to feel like reruns. The prose itself is choppy, which might be a stylistic choice to reflect Ada’s thought patterns, but it made for a disjointed reading experience.
From the outset, Ada’s ex-husband Rex makes his presence known, and not in a good way. He’s the kind of character you hope ends up as the victim, but alas, he’s just the messenger, nudging Ada toward a murder investigation involving a school for autistic children. His stance on the case is clear-cut, and not in a way that invites nuance.
As the plot unfolds, it leans heavily on convenience. Clues fall into place too easily, and the mystery loses its grip. Instead of feeling immersed in a whodunit, I felt like I was being walked through a tutorial on autism; well-meaning, but not well-balanced.
I genuinely wanted to engage with what the author was trying to portray. The premise had promise, and Ada’s voice deserved space. But by the 25% mark, I was already contemplating a DNF. Sadly, I didn’t get much further before I set it aside.
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