The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels by Beth Lincoln

Rating: Not Recommended 

The brilliant plot twists, clever themes, and vibrant characters make it difficult to rate this middle-grade murder mystery as “Not Recommended.“ 

I can’t recommend something that points to the occult:

• Talking with dead spirits, using (effectively) a technologically-savvy Ouija board

Other potential concerns:

• Gender identity conservatives will not like some explicit conversations: (1) between a young non-binary supporting character and the main character about their choice to be neither male nor female, (2) another supporting character discusses looking forward to when the family lead is neither Patriarch  (male) nor Matriarch (female), and (3) a major family leader tells the aforementioned non-binary kid that she used to be considered a boy and it took some years for her to convince everyone she was actually a girl.
• Marriage structure conservatives might also not like a reference to a man having a husband.
• There is one attempted murder, one accidental death staged as murder, and one dual to the death that ended in murder.

All this said, the writing style is excellent, but I just can’t recommend it.

You may wish to also see also the review of this book on ChristianParentReviews.com: https://christianparentreviews.com/book-reviews/The-Swifts