2 Sisters Detective Agency — A Surprisingly Fun Crime Duo

Some crime novels are all plot. Others live or die on their characters. 2 Sisters Detective Agency works because it understands that the best mysteries aren’t just about what happened — they’re about who you’re stuck solving it with.

Rhonda Bird is not looking for reinvention. She’s a pink-haired lawyer returning to Los Angeles to bury an estranged father and shut a door on an uncomfortable chapter of her life. Instead, that door swings wide open. Waiting on the other side is a private detective agency she didn’t know existed and a teenage half-sister, Baby, who has been quietly running it.

Baby is the unexpected star of this book. Fifteen, perceptive, and far more emotionally complex than anyone gives her credit for, she brings both competence and vulnerability to the story. Watching Rhonda and Baby navigate their sudden, forced partnership is where the novel shines. Their dynamic is messy, funny, tense, and occasionally touching — never sentimental, but always human.

The case they’re drawn into pulls them into a darker world than either expects: wealthy teens playing dangerous games, blurred moral lines, and an undercurrent of violence that keeps the stakes real. The pacing is brisk and clean, clearly influenced by James Patterson, while the sharper character work and grit feel unmistakably Candice Fox.

The opening throws a lot at you and takes a moment to settle, but once it does, the book finds its rhythm. By the end, it’s clear this is less about a single mystery and more about a pairing worth following.

I closed this one wanting more cases, more banter, and more of Rhonda and Baby figuring each other out — which, honestly, is exactly what you want from the start of a series.