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The Disaster Gay Detective Agency
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From award-winning, critically acclaimed crime writer Lev Rosen comes a punchy, hilarious mystery-thriller. Meet the disaster They're messy. They're queer. And they're about to solve a murder… Or die trying.
Brandon is a hopeless romantic. So when a handsome stranger named Jon checks in at the hotel he works at and invites Brandon to his room, Brandon ignores the advice of his crew—a group of loveable and messy queer twenty-somethings—and accepts. What follows is a tale as old as they hook up, Jon promises to text, Brandon falls in love, and Jon ghosts. Case closed—or is it?
When Jon checks out early, leaving behind a bag of belongings and his cellphone, Brandon takes the phone and sets out to find him, thinking that this must at last be his Cinderella story.
But he gets more than he bargained for when he witnesses a murder—and sees Jon fleeing the scene.
Determined (and not in over their heads whatsoever), Brandon, Ollie, Nicole, and Ian decide to solve the mystery of the murder and uncover Jon's true identity…they just have to figure it out before a target falls on their own backs.
Brandon is a hopeless romantic. So when a handsome stranger named Jon checks in at the hotel he works at and invites Brandon to his room, Brandon ignores the advice of his crew—a group of loveable and messy queer twenty-somethings—and accepts. What follows is a tale as old as they hook up, Jon promises to text, Brandon falls in love, and Jon ghosts. Case closed—or is it?
When Jon checks out early, leaving behind a bag of belongings and his cellphone, Brandon takes the phone and sets out to find him, thinking that this must at last be his Cinderella story.
But he gets more than he bargained for when he witnesses a murder—and sees Jon fleeing the scene.
Determined (and not in over their heads whatsoever), Brandon, Ollie, Nicole, and Ian decide to solve the mystery of the murder and uncover Jon's true identity…they just have to figure it out before a target falls on their own backs.
392 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication June 2, 2026
33 people are currently reading
12838 people want to read
About the author
Lev A.C. Rosen
18 books1,246 followersLEV AC ROSEN sometimes is sometimes known as L.C. ROSEN. He is the author of books for all ages.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 173 reviews
March 28, 2026
The author is new to me, but when I found it on NetGalley, I thought it would be a good reading match. The book started off quite well. Loved the tension with the guest and the hotel employee. Crossing the lines and turning into a clandestine meeting to hook up was hot and fun. The friendship among the main characters and all their POVs was a good change of pace. And even figuring out where/how the hot guest disappeared to was intriguing. But somewhere after that, it went off into a few unexpected areas and I struggled to stay focused. This can happen when much of the book isn't narrative but text messaging et al. I understand newer generations may have more of an affinity for that type of communication -- heck, I text all day long -- but I'm more a purist in my reading. I want a story that unfolds through narrative and real dialog, and I don't want to have to stop and think about the sub-context of a text or the missing scene descriptions. Might be purely my reading type! But I liked the characters and the plot and will look at another of the author's books before deciding if their is a good match for style and reading preferences!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
✰ 2.75 stars ✰
I would not say that this was quite a disaster, but it certainly left much to be desired. I haven't read a Rosen novel since 2022, but I thought this might be a fun change of pace. I can't say I had a nice time exactly, but it was a quick read - just marred by some complaints. I did not mind that it was a quadruple multi-perspectives. 🙆🏻♀️ But, I did mind that I had to read particular scenes from each perspective, so as to better comprehend what exactly transpired between certain characters. It was exhausting and did not alleviate the reading.
The blasé way in which the mystery was dismissed and even depicted --- I would not say irked, but it did not feel realistic. Which, yes, fine, I've seen more unbelievable things, but even the way the pieces aligned did not make much sense to me. Let alone a narrative that was included without preamble, and I was left wondering if it belonged to a book or some inner dialogue, until it was finally revealed to be something else entirely. A break in the format would have made it less confusing, rather than misguiding. 😣
“The more you interrogate a bad decision, the harder it becomes to justify.”
The diverse representation in the cast is strong, it was just difficult to like or even care for any of them. Brandon, who fell in love too easily and then behaved so flippantly, Nicole who aspired to be more appreciated, but still could be a bit snappish, Ian who carried a lot of bitterness over their breakup, but still acted rather oddly, all things considered, and Ollie who wanted them just to be a group again, with his valiant, but often times one-tracked efforts.
I liked how each of the four friends were willing to go out on a limb to help each other out - even if for bizarre reasons - but I also felt that their dynamic was very mean-spirited. They had good intentions, but it was flaked by their thoughts that weren't all that nice. 😕 I did not get a friendly vibe from any of them, with some of their selfish antics clouding their good sense.
“What do you want your life to be?”
There is still a little something that everyone can connect and relate to. The desire to change and embrace a new side of oneself from this strange happening was portrayed convincingly. Despite this bizarre coincidence that they all escaped unscathed, it still gave them a chance to find themselves along the way. 🥺 Love is a confusing thing, ain’t it? I just wish the writing style and tone could have been more impactful or even engaging. And maybe a little less chaotic!
Sometimes it felt like I was on spin cycle, the way the characters kept popping in and out, repeatedly cuz of the repetitiveness of a scene, that I would get confused as to if the plot is progressing or I'm yet again reading another take on a scene, not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times! 😵💫 That's a lot of unnecessary action that just could have been condensed in a tighter way to be a more compelling read.
“Love is stupid a lot of the time.”
I would not say that this was quite a disaster, but it certainly left much to be desired. I haven't read a Rosen novel since 2022, but I thought this might be a fun change of pace. I can't say I had a nice time exactly, but it was a quick read - just marred by some complaints. I did not mind that it was a quadruple multi-perspectives. 🙆🏻♀️ But, I did mind that I had to read particular scenes from each perspective, so as to better comprehend what exactly transpired between certain characters. It was exhausting and did not alleviate the reading.
The blasé way in which the mystery was dismissed and even depicted --- I would not say irked, but it did not feel realistic. Which, yes, fine, I've seen more unbelievable things, but even the way the pieces aligned did not make much sense to me. Let alone a narrative that was included without preamble, and I was left wondering if it belonged to a book or some inner dialogue, until it was finally revealed to be something else entirely. A break in the format would have made it less confusing, rather than misguiding. 😣
“The more you interrogate a bad decision, the harder it becomes to justify.”
The diverse representation in the cast is strong, it was just difficult to like or even care for any of them. Brandon, who fell in love too easily and then behaved so flippantly, Nicole who aspired to be more appreciated, but still could be a bit snappish, Ian who carried a lot of bitterness over their breakup, but still acted rather oddly, all things considered, and Ollie who wanted them just to be a group again, with his valiant, but often times one-tracked efforts.
I liked how each of the four friends were willing to go out on a limb to help each other out - even if for bizarre reasons - but I also felt that their dynamic was very mean-spirited. They had good intentions, but it was flaked by their thoughts that weren't all that nice. 😕 I did not get a friendly vibe from any of them, with some of their selfish antics clouding their good sense.
“What do you want your life to be?”
There is still a little something that everyone can connect and relate to. The desire to change and embrace a new side of oneself from this strange happening was portrayed convincingly. Despite this bizarre coincidence that they all escaped unscathed, it still gave them a chance to find themselves along the way. 🥺 Love is a confusing thing, ain’t it? I just wish the writing style and tone could have been more impactful or even engaging. And maybe a little less chaotic!
Sometimes it felt like I was on spin cycle, the way the characters kept popping in and out, repeatedly cuz of the repetitiveness of a scene, that I would get confused as to if the plot is progressing or I'm yet again reading another take on a scene, not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times! 😵💫 That's a lot of unnecessary action that just could have been condensed in a tighter way to be a more compelling read.
Did Not Finish
March 23, 2026DNF at 24%.
I’m a huge fan of Lev AC Rosen’s Evander Mills series, a HUGE fan, but somehow the pacing in this story just didn’t work for me. Even though the short chapters moved quickly, the same moments kept repeating, and that’s something I’m not a fan of. Rather than pushing through and ending up giving it a low rating, I decided to DNF.
I’m a huge fan of Lev AC Rosen’s Evander Mills series, a HUGE fan, but somehow the pacing in this story just didn’t work for me. Even though the short chapters moved quickly, the same moments kept repeating, and that’s something I’m not a fan of. Rather than pushing through and ending up giving it a low rating, I decided to DNF.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I was excited to get offered this ARC, as I enjoyed the Evander Mills book I read (reminder to self: read more of that series) and I was curious to see how Rosen wrote a contemporary. Unfortunately, this just wasn't for me. Way too quirky and shenanigan-filled for my tastes, one of those books where every single character makes the worst possible decision at every single opportunity, which makes it hard to invest in the idea of them being smart or even, you know, functioning adults.
That said: the book was very well-written and cleverly resolved (even if, in order to reach that clever resolution, we had to stagger through hundreds of pages of dumb decisions and incomprehensible behavior); and while I might have dnf'ed it were I not stuck on airplanes/ in airports all day -- not that I don't have a couple hundred unread books on my kindle, but traveling always induces a kind of petulant inertia in me, such that the prospect of picking a new book was a greater hurdle than just pushing through -- the fact that it managed to mostly hold my attention despite airplanes/ airports is testimony to Rosen's pacing and skill. If you like hijinks, great queer rep, hopeless friend groups, and characters doing stupid shit that makes you feel like a fucking genius by comparison, then you'll probably enjoy this. If, on the other hand, the much-maligned (by me) Last Picks series pushed up against your "how much 'quirkiness' can I endure before I throw my e-reader against the wall" threshold, then: run, friends, run!!!!
I got an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
That said: the book was very well-written and cleverly resolved (even if, in order to reach that clever resolution, we had to stagger through hundreds of pages of dumb decisions and incomprehensible behavior); and while I might have dnf'ed it were I not stuck on airplanes/ in airports all day -- not that I don't have a couple hundred unread books on my kindle, but traveling always induces a kind of petulant inertia in me, such that the prospect of picking a new book was a greater hurdle than just pushing through -- the fact that it managed to mostly hold my attention despite airplanes/ airports is testimony to Rosen's pacing and skill. If you like hijinks, great queer rep, hopeless friend groups, and characters doing stupid shit that makes you feel like a fucking genius by comparison, then you'll probably enjoy this. If, on the other hand, the much-maligned (by me) Last Picks series pushed up against your "how much 'quirkiness' can I endure before I throw my e-reader against the wall" threshold, then: run, friends, run!!!!
I got an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Want to Read
January 29, 2026E-ARC generously provided by Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much!
So glad to have this galley!
So glad to have this galley!
January 11, 2026
I received an advance copy from the publisher via Netgalley for review purposes; this in no way influences my review.
I’ve loved Lev AC Rosen’s books for a while now, and seeing he had a new contemporary mystery I knew I needed to get my hands on it. And this does not disappoint! It’s such a delightful, chaotic mess of a book, and I love the main characters so much.
Brandon is a gay Jewish man living in New York and working for a hotel on overnights. One evening this hot guy checks in and flirts with Brandon. Even though it’s against policy, when Jon calls down asking for a towel, Brandon is ready for it to take a porno turn - which it does! But the next day, Jon has checked out early, leaving behind his bag and a cell phone. Brandon snags the cell phone, thinking he can make it into a Cinderella moment by finding Jon and returning the phone. He ropes his best friends in, but instead of returning the phone, Brandon witnesses a murder!
There is so much chaos going on with each of the four friends. Ollie is a trans man still reeling from the death of his father while being a dog walker and house sitter for rich people. He also loves true crime podcasts, so when he witnesses the murder with Brandon, he thinks this is a perfect opportunity to start his own podcast - but first they have the solve the mystery. Nicole is a Black lesbian lawyer who used to be big into activism, but the job and demands have ground her down where she doesn’t even think she can go out with the cute barista because the partners may talk, but maybe she can become a high profile crime lawyer like Ellen. Ian is nonbinary drag queen slash bookstore employee who is always so angry, and has spent the last year hate-stalking their ex who cheated on them and periodically keying his car. The four of them try to be there for each other, but also have so much of their own mess going on, getting roped into possible spy shenanigans forced them closer than they’ve been in a while.
I had so much fun with this, and Rosen’s writing is so engaging. My biggest complaint was how a lot of stuff felt repeated between POV shifts, especially with the way the text conversations were used to situate the timeline. I understand the intent and execution, but across four perspectives, it would start feeling repetitive reading the same chat over and over again. That aside, this was an absolute delight and I especially loved that it was so bonkers and chaotic. I really hope there’s going to be more cuz I already love Brandon, Ian, Nicole, and Ollie so much!
I’ve loved Lev AC Rosen’s books for a while now, and seeing he had a new contemporary mystery I knew I needed to get my hands on it. And this does not disappoint! It’s such a delightful, chaotic mess of a book, and I love the main characters so much.
Brandon is a gay Jewish man living in New York and working for a hotel on overnights. One evening this hot guy checks in and flirts with Brandon. Even though it’s against policy, when Jon calls down asking for a towel, Brandon is ready for it to take a porno turn - which it does! But the next day, Jon has checked out early, leaving behind his bag and a cell phone. Brandon snags the cell phone, thinking he can make it into a Cinderella moment by finding Jon and returning the phone. He ropes his best friends in, but instead of returning the phone, Brandon witnesses a murder!
There is so much chaos going on with each of the four friends. Ollie is a trans man still reeling from the death of his father while being a dog walker and house sitter for rich people. He also loves true crime podcasts, so when he witnesses the murder with Brandon, he thinks this is a perfect opportunity to start his own podcast - but first they have the solve the mystery. Nicole is a Black lesbian lawyer who used to be big into activism, but the job and demands have ground her down where she doesn’t even think she can go out with the cute barista because the partners may talk, but maybe she can become a high profile crime lawyer like Ellen. Ian is nonbinary drag queen slash bookstore employee who is always so angry, and has spent the last year hate-stalking their ex who cheated on them and periodically keying his car. The four of them try to be there for each other, but also have so much of their own mess going on, getting roped into possible spy shenanigans forced them closer than they’ve been in a while.
I had so much fun with this, and Rosen’s writing is so engaging. My biggest complaint was how a lot of stuff felt repeated between POV shifts, especially with the way the text conversations were used to situate the timeline. I understand the intent and execution, but across four perspectives, it would start feeling repetitive reading the same chat over and over again. That aside, this was an absolute delight and I especially loved that it was so bonkers and chaotic. I really hope there’s going to be more cuz I already love Brandon, Ian, Nicole, and Ollie so much!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I usually hate books that are written from more than two POVs, and even then, much prefer books written with just one main character or at least in third person. Had I realized the format the author chose, I would have passed on the book, which would have been a horrible mistake. This was an amazing mystery, and I am so upset that there aren't more books out in the series. I hope to see a million more books in this series!
Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.
Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.
January 18, 2026
ARC Review: The Disaster Gay Detective Agency was a quirky, amusing read with a lot of heart. I really appreciated the diverse cast of characters — it was refreshing to see such a wide range of personalities and identities represented. The humor landed well in many places, and there were moments that genuinely made me laugh.
One thing I especially enjoyed was the strong sense of friendship throughout the story. The characters clearly had deep bonds and truly had each other’s backs, which added warmth and emotional grounding to all the chaos. That found-family dynamic was one of my favorite aspects of the book and made the characters easy to root for.
That said, the story didn’t always keep my attention completely. While the premise was fun and the banter entertaining, the pacing dragged at times and I found myself less engaged in certain sections. There were moments when it felt like the story was building momentum, only for it to slow again before fully pulling me back in.
Overall, this was an enjoyable read with humor, representation, and strong friendships at its core — just not quite as gripping as I hoped it would be. Still, readers who enjoy LGBTQ+ stories with a comedic, character-driven focus will likely find a lot to like here.
One thing I especially enjoyed was the strong sense of friendship throughout the story. The characters clearly had deep bonds and truly had each other’s backs, which added warmth and emotional grounding to all the chaos. That found-family dynamic was one of my favorite aspects of the book and made the characters easy to root for.
That said, the story didn’t always keep my attention completely. While the premise was fun and the banter entertaining, the pacing dragged at times and I found myself less engaged in certain sections. There were moments when it felt like the story was building momentum, only for it to slow again before fully pulling me back in.
Overall, this was an enjoyable read with humor, representation, and strong friendships at its core — just not quite as gripping as I hoped it would be. Still, readers who enjoy LGBTQ+ stories with a comedic, character-driven focus will likely find a lot to like here.
March 31, 2026
This is a book for people who love the Knives out movies, completely ridiculous over the top plot and characters- but just too over the top ridiculous for me.
The beginning of this had me hooked, Brandon who’s working in a hotel having a steamy night with a guest who then just seems to disappear somehow. The beginning of a mystery, a chase and exposing crimes.
To be honest the more I read the less I was interested because while I loved all the characters and how diverse this cast was, it just were too many POVs that told the exact same situation over and over again. Especially the last few chapters were so repetitive I kept skipping huge parts of them.
The story got more and more ridiculous (especially Brandon) and the characters became too stereotypical for me too.
If you’re into a comedic murder mystery - 100% the book for you, just too much for my taste.
The beginning of this had me hooked, Brandon who’s working in a hotel having a steamy night with a guest who then just seems to disappear somehow. The beginning of a mystery, a chase and exposing crimes.
To be honest the more I read the less I was interested because while I loved all the characters and how diverse this cast was, it just were too many POVs that told the exact same situation over and over again. Especially the last few chapters were so repetitive I kept skipping huge parts of them.
The story got more and more ridiculous (especially Brandon) and the characters became too stereotypical for me too.
If you’re into a comedic murder mystery - 100% the book for you, just too much for my taste.
February 3, 2026
I am a fan of Lev A.C. Rosen’s 1950s detective series (Evander Mills), so I was excited to read his new contemporary mystery. The Disaster Gay Detective Agency follows four friends who get caught up in a shady situation when two of them witness a murder.
It had a decent plot, and the characters were pretty well-developed. They truly were a bit of disaster, some more so than others. At times, I got a little frustrated with their bad decisions and/or obliviousness to reality, though I suppose that’s fairly true to real life. (To be honest, I was reminded of a few of my friends more than once.)
We get to see all of the friends’ points of view throughout the narrative, and I thought that worked well at first. The use of their group chat to anchor them all to the timeline was clever; the same text messages would repeat across multiple POVs, showing what each character was doing at the time of the message.
However, this conceit wore a bit thin for me when the same exact scene, a party they’d all attended, was described repetitively from four different perspectives (no brief text messages tying things together, just repeated dialogue). I totally understand why it was presented this way, but I didn’t love sifting through the same words over and over to find the small differences. That section dragged for me a bit.
I did enjoy this book overall. There was a solid beginning and ending, and it had lots of humor. Even the secondary characters were entertaining. Some of the four friends showed a bit of character growth by the end, but there was still plenty of dysfunction left over (enough, I daresay for a sequel or two). This is a fun read, especially if you’re looking for a mystery with an imperfect found family, humor, and LGBTQ+ representation.
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the opportunity to read this ARC.
It had a decent plot, and the characters were pretty well-developed. They truly were a bit of disaster, some more so than others. At times, I got a little frustrated with their bad decisions and/or obliviousness to reality, though I suppose that’s fairly true to real life. (To be honest, I was reminded of a few of my friends more than once.)
We get to see all of the friends’ points of view throughout the narrative, and I thought that worked well at first. The use of their group chat to anchor them all to the timeline was clever; the same text messages would repeat across multiple POVs, showing what each character was doing at the time of the message.
However, this conceit wore a bit thin for me when the same exact scene, a party they’d all attended, was described repetitively from four different perspectives (no brief text messages tying things together, just repeated dialogue). I totally understand why it was presented this way, but I didn’t love sifting through the same words over and over to find the small differences. That section dragged for me a bit.
I did enjoy this book overall. There was a solid beginning and ending, and it had lots of humor. Even the secondary characters were entertaining. Some of the four friends showed a bit of character growth by the end, but there was still plenty of dysfunction left over (enough, I daresay for a sequel or two). This is a fun read, especially if you’re looking for a mystery with an imperfect found family, humor, and LGBTQ+ representation.
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the opportunity to read this ARC.
February 1, 2026
4.75 ⭐️s rounded up.
‘But it was so good to feel like he was special. He starts to cry again a little, collecting beer bottles, and Nicole wordlessly hugs him tightly, and then Ian and Ollie surround him too. He’ll be okay.’
I had a great time reading The Disaster Gay Detective Agency!! I found it so easy to be able to connect with the characters and understand each of their personal perspectives on the situation as it unfolded.
***Sort of spoilers ahead?***
I really liked the bit nearer to the end where you were getting the same scene from all the different perspectives, and you could see how each character had their own unique voice. It was very interesting to pick up on the few times (I believe intentionally) that they didn’t mention certain things. For example, at one point, Nicole apparently screamed “Oh, shut up, Ollie”, but this isn’t shown/said in her perspective, and yet it is in both Ollie and Ian’s.
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with an ARC!
‘But it was so good to feel like he was special. He starts to cry again a little, collecting beer bottles, and Nicole wordlessly hugs him tightly, and then Ian and Ollie surround him too. He’ll be okay.’
I had a great time reading The Disaster Gay Detective Agency!! I found it so easy to be able to connect with the characters and understand each of their personal perspectives on the situation as it unfolded.
***Sort of spoilers ahead?***
I really liked the bit nearer to the end where you were getting the same scene from all the different perspectives, and you could see how each character had their own unique voice. It was very interesting to pick up on the few times (I believe intentionally) that they didn’t mention certain things. For example, at one point, Nicole apparently screamed “Oh, shut up, Ollie”, but this isn’t shown/said in her perspective, and yet it is in both Ollie and Ian’s.
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with an ARC!
February 21, 2026
I am an absolute sucker for a murder mystery. Add in a chaotic found family and a group of messy queer twentyish year olds trying to solve said murder? Lol I was ready to binge this. This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and it did not disappoint.
The story follows Brandon a hopeless romantic who works at a hotel and falls way too fast for a handsome guest named Jon. They hook up Jon promises to text, Brandon starts imagining his Cinderella moment and then Jon ghosts. Except when Jon checks out early, he leaves behind his phone and a bag of belongings. Brandon takes that as a sign to track him down only to witness a murder and see Jon fleeing the scene. So obviously Brandon and his equally chaotic crew Ollie, Nicole, and Ian decide they’re going to solve the murder themselves and uncover who Jon really is before they end up as the next targets. I loved the balance between humor and genuine stakes. The friendships were everything. The found family dynamic felt real and warm and chaotic in the best way they’re messy, they make questionable decisions, but they love each other deeply. That emotional core made the mystery even more engaging because you actually care about what happens to all of them.Normally, multiple POV can be very hit or miss for me. Sometimes it just feels like too much. This book It absolutely worked. I genuinely wanted to be inside each of their heads. Seeing how each character processed clues, danger, and their own insecurities made the mystery feel layered instead of repetitive.Overall this was adorable hilarious and mysterious like a queer Scooby doo gang. If you love murder mysteries with strong queer rep, chaotic detective energy, and a found family you’d absolutely want to join, this is such a fun ride. I had the best time reading it.
The story follows Brandon a hopeless romantic who works at a hotel and falls way too fast for a handsome guest named Jon. They hook up Jon promises to text, Brandon starts imagining his Cinderella moment and then Jon ghosts. Except when Jon checks out early, he leaves behind his phone and a bag of belongings. Brandon takes that as a sign to track him down only to witness a murder and see Jon fleeing the scene. So obviously Brandon and his equally chaotic crew Ollie, Nicole, and Ian decide they’re going to solve the murder themselves and uncover who Jon really is before they end up as the next targets. I loved the balance between humor and genuine stakes. The friendships were everything. The found family dynamic felt real and warm and chaotic in the best way they’re messy, they make questionable decisions, but they love each other deeply. That emotional core made the mystery even more engaging because you actually care about what happens to all of them.Normally, multiple POV can be very hit or miss for me. Sometimes it just feels like too much. This book It absolutely worked. I genuinely wanted to be inside each of their heads. Seeing how each character processed clues, danger, and their own insecurities made the mystery feel layered instead of repetitive.Overall this was adorable hilarious and mysterious like a queer Scooby doo gang. If you love murder mysteries with strong queer rep, chaotic detective energy, and a found family you’d absolutely want to join, this is such a fun ride. I had the best time reading it.
February 27, 2026
I just love Lev AC Rosen’s writing; his Evander Mills series is one of my favourites of all time, and whilst very different in tone, I really enjoyed this fun romp into contemporary mystery!
It’s told from the POV of four friends - Ollie, Ian, Nicole & Brandon. They are a diverse group (gay, lesbian, trans, non binary, diverse ethnicities) and each and every one of them is a complete disaster 😹 Ollie is a couch-surfing dog walker who is grieving his deceased father, Ian is a drag artist and bookstore employee who recreationally vandalises their cheating ex’s car, Nicole is a trainee lawyer whose blood is mostly coffee and misery and Brandon is a hotel clerk who just desperately wants to find love.
When Brandon has a one night stand with hot hotel guest Jon, his friends all tell him it’s a bad idea. But Brandon is definitely in love, and how can that be wrong?! But things do start going very quickly wrong when Jon disappears from the hotel leaving nothing but a smartphone. Spurred on by his love of true crime podcasts, Ollie agrees to help Brandon track down Jon, but they quickly find themselves tangled up in a web of murder and corruption.
This book was very tongue-in-cheek and does read like a true crime podcast; the mystery had me guessing and I loved the way it was wrapped up neatly in the end. Each of the characters was clearly defined and had their own ‘thing’ going on which they were dealing with outside the main mystery. I loved all their messy moments, but also how devoted they all were to each other. Plus special shoutout to Pete the pug, what a guy 💕
The reason this looses a star for me is simply because there was a lot of repetition when we see scenes from different characters’ perspectives… I felt it made the book, which was otherwise quick and snappy, really drag. Annoyingly, I don’t know how the author could even avoid that, as it was key that we did see each of their perspectives but eh… but that’s literally my only gripe.
Read for:
✨ Four friends solving a mystery
✨ Diverse rep; lesbian, gay, non-binary, trans
✨ Diverse ethnicities & backgrounds
✨ For fans of true crime podcasts
✨ Funny & tongue in cheek storytelling
✨ A twisty mystery based on a missing hookup
✨ Maybe it’s true love, maybe he’s a murderer?
Thank you to the wonderful folks at Poisoned Pen Press for an ARC of this book! It’s available on 2nd June 2026 🐶
It’s told from the POV of four friends - Ollie, Ian, Nicole & Brandon. They are a diverse group (gay, lesbian, trans, non binary, diverse ethnicities) and each and every one of them is a complete disaster 😹 Ollie is a couch-surfing dog walker who is grieving his deceased father, Ian is a drag artist and bookstore employee who recreationally vandalises their cheating ex’s car, Nicole is a trainee lawyer whose blood is mostly coffee and misery and Brandon is a hotel clerk who just desperately wants to find love.
When Brandon has a one night stand with hot hotel guest Jon, his friends all tell him it’s a bad idea. But Brandon is definitely in love, and how can that be wrong?! But things do start going very quickly wrong when Jon disappears from the hotel leaving nothing but a smartphone. Spurred on by his love of true crime podcasts, Ollie agrees to help Brandon track down Jon, but they quickly find themselves tangled up in a web of murder and corruption.
This book was very tongue-in-cheek and does read like a true crime podcast; the mystery had me guessing and I loved the way it was wrapped up neatly in the end. Each of the characters was clearly defined and had their own ‘thing’ going on which they were dealing with outside the main mystery. I loved all their messy moments, but also how devoted they all were to each other. Plus special shoutout to Pete the pug, what a guy 💕
The reason this looses a star for me is simply because there was a lot of repetition when we see scenes from different characters’ perspectives… I felt it made the book, which was otherwise quick and snappy, really drag. Annoyingly, I don’t know how the author could even avoid that, as it was key that we did see each of their perspectives but eh… but that’s literally my only gripe.
Read for:
✨ Four friends solving a mystery
✨ Diverse rep; lesbian, gay, non-binary, trans
✨ Diverse ethnicities & backgrounds
✨ For fans of true crime podcasts
✨ Funny & tongue in cheek storytelling
✨ A twisty mystery based on a missing hookup
✨ Maybe it’s true love, maybe he’s a murderer?
Thank you to the wonderful folks at Poisoned Pen Press for an ARC of this book! It’s available on 2nd June 2026 🐶
January 14, 2026
This one started so strong. Group of LGBTQ+ friends end up wrapped up in a dangerous mystery after they witness a murder. I love a found family in NYC and parts are really funny. The last 1/3 of the book though there is a lot of repetition. Like literally dialogue and texts are repeated multiple times. It took away from the momentum of the plot and made the book feel long. Still was a fun read! Their 20-something chaos was delightful and liked the multiple POVs.
3.25/3.5 rounded down.
Thanks to NetGalley and Poison Pen Press for this advanced copy. Pub date 06/02/2026.
3.25/3.5 rounded down.
Thanks to NetGalley and Poison Pen Press for this advanced copy. Pub date 06/02/2026.
January 23, 2026
ARC REVIEW
I was a fan of Lev AC Rosen’s books when I was younger so getting this contemp mystery as an ARC was pretty exciting! It was a quick read and I genuinely enjoyed it. The characters are great, the plot is absolutely wild and the writing is accessible and entertaining.
My only complaint is the fact that we got the same scene from every characters point of view. It bored me and each pov added nothing to the last in my opinion.
Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC!
I was a fan of Lev AC Rosen’s books when I was younger so getting this contemp mystery as an ARC was pretty exciting! It was a quick read and I genuinely enjoyed it. The characters are great, the plot is absolutely wild and the writing is accessible and entertaining.
My only complaint is the fact that we got the same scene from every characters point of view. It bored me and each pov added nothing to the last in my opinion.
Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC!
February 15, 2026
Special thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for the digital ARC. Brand new series from Lev AC Rosen involving 4 best friends from college who are at different stages in their lives, but still need each other as family and perhaps maybe start a detective agency together? This first title shows promise for a cozy amateur sleuth series.
Want to Read
December 2, 2025One of my favorite authors!! I can't wait to read this!!
A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
Read
January 14, 2026This was fun! RTC
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
No One Here Should Be Solving Crimes
That is precisely what makes Lev Rosen’s “The Disaster Gay Detective Agency” such a lively and revealing novel about incompetence, desire, queer friendship, and the occasional usefulness of a terrible idea.
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | April 4th, 2026
A blue ring left in a pale, overquiet room becomes the novel’s best emblem: childish, comic, incriminating, and strangely tender, a small clue glowing in the aftermath of bad judgment and improvised love.
Some novels drop a corpse into the early chapters as a promise of speed. Lev Rosen drops one into a friend group already buckling under crushes, dead-end work, professional drift, grief, and the ordinary embarrassments of being young and broke in New York, then asks a better question: what if disaster does not uncover hidden greatness so much as reveal that your most mortifying traits were skills waiting for the right emergency?
That is the sly engine of “The Disaster Gay Detective Agency,” which wears the bright jacket of a queer comic thriller but keeps tightening into something more surprising. On paper, the machinery is deliciously overclocked. A boutique-hotel concierge hooks up with a beautiful guest. The guest vanishes, leaving behind a phone. A meeting in an alley ends with a shooting. The body disappears. A private military outfit, a black-market data auction, mercenaries, hostages, and a game night turned interrogation spiral outward from there. Rosen can absolutely deliver those pleasures. The book is fast, flirtatious, and gloriously willing to let bad judgment masquerade as momentum. But its deeper accomplishment lies elsewhere. Again and again, Rosen tugs attention away from the shiny apparatus of the caper and back toward the people the caper places under strain, as if the real mystery were not who killed whom or who wants the flash drive, but what these four friends are actually for.
Brandon, the hotel concierge, is the group romantic, which is to say the one most likely to mistake intensity for destiny and an attractive stranger for narrative design. Jon, the guest, is handsome enough that Brandon is halfway to matching bathrobes before checkout. When Jon disappears early, Brandon refuses to treat the abandoned phone as the stale remainder of a one-night stand. It must mean something. That interpretive error, or act of faith, depending on one’s tolerance for Brandon, pulls in his three closest friends. Ollie is a dog walker stalled by grief and overeducated in true-crime logic. Nicole is a junior lawyer so disciplined she has nearly trained the softness out of herself. Ian is a drag performer and bookseller whose wit, volatility, and improvisational nerve tend to arrive fused together. Soon there is one dead man, then more than one, then an auction site, then a game night designed as an amateur trap, then a hostage exchange. Rosen keeps raising the stakes, but the real escalation is internal. The plot does not simply happen around these four. It keeps discovering uses for qualities that ordinary adulthood has taught them to experience as defects.
That discovery gives the novel its shape and, more importantly, its moral weather. Brandon’s romantic foolishness is also receptivity. Ollie’s obsessive pattern-making is also investigative instinct. Nicole’s overtraining, which has mostly served to make her efficient inside institutions she no longer fully believes in, becomes actual strategy under live conditions. Ian’s appetite for drama, flirtation, and risk starts looking suspiciously like field intelligence. Rosen’s wager is that vocation may arrive not as destiny or mastery but as the one habit you could never quite sand down finally finding the right use. The detective-agency ending is funny because it is ridiculous, but it lands because the book has already made it feel faintly, alarmingly plausible.
The prose is what makes that unlikely premise stick. Rosen does not write in a style of grand flourish. He writes as if speed were not the enemy of texture but one of its delivery systems. The sentences move quickly, often in clipped bursts, but they do not feel thin. He is good at timing, especially the split second in which concern sours into annoyance, flirtation snaps into self-protection, or banter reveals it has been storing grievance for months. The dialogue is the book’s steadiest instrument: quick without becoming lacquered, funny without flattening everyone into the same register, and unusually alert to interruption, overlap, misfire, and the tiny humiliations by which friendship actually gets lived. Rosen has a sharp ear for weaponized tenderness, for the joke that is a joke until it isn’t, and for the way people who know one another best are often the people most efficient at cutting precisely where the skin is thin.
The game-night sequence is where the novel pays off most fully. What begins as a comic setup, trivia as interrogation, a suspicious guest in a white-rich townhouse, exes, flirtation, expensive cheese, everyone trying and failing to act normal, turns into the book’s emotional center. The friends try to test Jon with categories built around guns, drugs, fake IDs, combat, and international politics. The evening collapses into accusation, injury, jealousy, wounded loyalty, and the group’s old habit of treating Brandon’s love life as a running joke rather than the place where he is most exposed. The scene is funny, then abrasive, then genuinely sad. Rosen does not flatten it into a lesson about communication or make everyone suddenly eloquent about their pain. He lets each person be half-right, half-cruel, and fully themselves. The result is one of the book’s sharpest recognitions: friendship is not mutual transparency. It is an unstable arrangement of teasing, rescue, surveillance, defensive wit, and the occasional failure to take the right person seriously until it is much too late.
Brandon is indispensable here, because the novel’s emotional intelligence depends on not mistaking comic susceptibility for shallowness. He is the easiest to laugh at. He falls fastest, interprets hardest, and keeps wanting romance to redeem evidence that clearly points the other way. Yet Rosen never treats that openness as mere foolishness. Brandon is the book’s moral weather vane. His optimism is excessive, but it also makes him the first to register when the group’s knowingness has tipped into contempt. The friend most likely to sound ridiculous is therefore the one most likely to say the thing everyone else has organized their self-respect around not having to hear. The novel understands that being the designated fool inside a group often means being the person asked to carry its sentiment at a discount.
Nicole’s subplot with Ellen Kang gives the book some of its nastiest and smartest social intelligence. Nicole begins as someone who once wanted to save the world and has, by increments small enough to pass for maturity, become highly effective inside a machine she no longer quite respects. Ellen, glamorous, ruthless, and professionally magnetic, looks at first like the version of adulthood Nicole might still be able to grow into if she gave up the last of her scruples and called it sophistication. Their flirtation and eventual sexual entanglement are funny, sexy, strategically disastrous, and thematically exact. Then Rosen opens Ellen’s apartment and lets the fantasy rot on contact. The mess is not just comic revelation. It is exposure. Clothes with tags still on them, piles of takeout, legal papers among expensive junk, auction receipts everywhere: power, Rosen suggests, can look impeccable from the hallway. Then the door opens, and the whole place smells like exhaustion, acquisitive panic, and food gone cold in its carton. It is one of the novel’s best reversals, not because it humiliates Ellen, but because it shows Nicole the cost of mistaking polish for a life.
That thread helps explain why “The Disaster Gay Detective Agency” feels more diagnostically alive than its premise first advertises. Rosen is writing about overwork, underformation, ambition as self-erasure, grief without ceremony, romantic self-mythology, and the humiliating wish to believe that this latest bad decision might finally mean something. Brandon needs Jon to mean more than a hookup because otherwise he must confront a more banal injury. Nicole wants Ellen to represent arrival because otherwise she has to admit how far she has drifted from her own first principles. Ian keeps mistaking heat for life. Ollie mistakes pattern for control because randomness has already taken enough from him. The thriller apparatus matters because it intensifies those tendencies, but Rosen’s deeper subject is the unstable story each person tells about what sort of life they are in.
The ending is smarter than its lightness first suggests. Rosen does not pretend that one wild adventure turns these people into finished adults. He gives them partial clarity, not cure. That distinction matters. The crisis reorganizes self-knowledge without curing the habits that made the crisis legible in the first place. Brandon is still Brandon. Ollie is still Ollie. Nicole has not become pure, and Ian has not become prudent. What changes is relation. They begin to see that the traits making them look unserious inside ordinary professional or romantic life may be the beginnings of a form. The detective agency is a joke, yes, but it is also the first structure any of them have found that might contain their chaos without merely punishing it.
Where Rosen is less persuasive is in the world beyond the quartet. The covert apparatus surrounding them, the private military company, the criminal clients, the auctioned data, the lattice of contractor intrigue, is serviceable, sometimes clever, and occasionally vivid, but it is not as socially inhabited as the friendships it disturbs. Rosen clearly knows how to move his characters through that machinery, yet the machinery rarely acquires the same density of observation he brings to flirtation, job drift, queer social life, or post-college disappointment. The thriller scaffolding does what it needs to do: it creates secrecy, danger, leverage, and enough moving parts to shove the friends into competence. But it can feel schematic in a novel whose best scenes feel embarrassingly, wonderfully lived. Readers coming primarily for a fully realized underworld may find themselves admiring the setup more than inhabiting it.
Even that imbalance reveals the book’s priorities. “The Disaster Gay Detective Agency” is less interested in the grandeur of conspiracy than in what conspiracy does to a group chat. Its relevance comes not from forced topicality but from temperament. Rosen is writing about how friendship can function as emergency infrastructure while you figure out whether your defining traits are liabilities or tools. Not because friends always understand you. Quite the opposite. Because they often understand you badly, wound you predictably, mock the wrong thing at the wrong time, and still remain the people most likely to keep you alive. That is a far riskier emotional claim than the novel’s glossy premise lets on, and Rosen mostly earns it.
I’d put the book at 84/100 – 4 stars on Goodreads. That feels right to its scale and its achievement. Rosen is very good at what he is trying to do, and more ambitious than the premise first suggests, but the novel’s excellence lies more in ensemble intelligence, comic timing, and emotional accuracy than in fully realized thriller mechanics. It is strongest when it lets embarrassment, longing, and tactical improvisation occupy the same sentence. It slackens whenever the covert apparatus must do more than shove the friends into collision. Still, there is real pleasure in watching Rosen refuse the false choice between entertainment and perception. He gives the book snap, but also grain.
By the end, the case has been solved well enough, the criminals have sorted themselves into their various grades of charm and menace, and the quartet has become newly readable to itself. One friend edges toward work that may align more closely with belief. Another tries to convert grief into vocation. Another finally learns that not every blaze deserves to be called passion. And Brandon, poor impossible Brandon, winds up where he was always going to wind up: behind a desk, looking up as a beautiful man walks through the door. In a lesser novel that would be merely a joke about people who never learn. Rosen makes it stranger, sadder, and kinder than that. Hope is still Brandon’s worst habit. It may also be the thing that keeps the next door from becoming just another wall.
These first thumbnail tries test how much emptiness the room can bear before the blue ring stops reading as clue and starts reading as ache.
The faint underdrawing locates the novel’s geometry of aftermath: doorway, floor, table, absence, and one small object stubborn enough to hold the whole emotional composition together.
In the first wash, the room begins to gather its hush, with pale stains and cool shadows doing the work of tone before detail ever arrives.
The swatch sheet reduces the final image to its emotional grammar: chalk light, bruised shadow, faint warmth, and the sharper blue that lets comedy and evidence briefly share the same floor.
All watercolor illustrations by Demetris Papadimitropoulos.
That is precisely what makes Lev Rosen’s “The Disaster Gay Detective Agency” such a lively and revealing novel about incompetence, desire, queer friendship, and the occasional usefulness of a terrible idea.
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | April 4th, 2026
A blue ring left in a pale, overquiet room becomes the novel’s best emblem: childish, comic, incriminating, and strangely tender, a small clue glowing in the aftermath of bad judgment and improvised love.
Some novels drop a corpse into the early chapters as a promise of speed. Lev Rosen drops one into a friend group already buckling under crushes, dead-end work, professional drift, grief, and the ordinary embarrassments of being young and broke in New York, then asks a better question: what if disaster does not uncover hidden greatness so much as reveal that your most mortifying traits were skills waiting for the right emergency?
That is the sly engine of “The Disaster Gay Detective Agency,” which wears the bright jacket of a queer comic thriller but keeps tightening into something more surprising. On paper, the machinery is deliciously overclocked. A boutique-hotel concierge hooks up with a beautiful guest. The guest vanishes, leaving behind a phone. A meeting in an alley ends with a shooting. The body disappears. A private military outfit, a black-market data auction, mercenaries, hostages, and a game night turned interrogation spiral outward from there. Rosen can absolutely deliver those pleasures. The book is fast, flirtatious, and gloriously willing to let bad judgment masquerade as momentum. But its deeper accomplishment lies elsewhere. Again and again, Rosen tugs attention away from the shiny apparatus of the caper and back toward the people the caper places under strain, as if the real mystery were not who killed whom or who wants the flash drive, but what these four friends are actually for.
Brandon, the hotel concierge, is the group romantic, which is to say the one most likely to mistake intensity for destiny and an attractive stranger for narrative design. Jon, the guest, is handsome enough that Brandon is halfway to matching bathrobes before checkout. When Jon disappears early, Brandon refuses to treat the abandoned phone as the stale remainder of a one-night stand. It must mean something. That interpretive error, or act of faith, depending on one’s tolerance for Brandon, pulls in his three closest friends. Ollie is a dog walker stalled by grief and overeducated in true-crime logic. Nicole is a junior lawyer so disciplined she has nearly trained the softness out of herself. Ian is a drag performer and bookseller whose wit, volatility, and improvisational nerve tend to arrive fused together. Soon there is one dead man, then more than one, then an auction site, then a game night designed as an amateur trap, then a hostage exchange. Rosen keeps raising the stakes, but the real escalation is internal. The plot does not simply happen around these four. It keeps discovering uses for qualities that ordinary adulthood has taught them to experience as defects.
That discovery gives the novel its shape and, more importantly, its moral weather. Brandon’s romantic foolishness is also receptivity. Ollie’s obsessive pattern-making is also investigative instinct. Nicole’s overtraining, which has mostly served to make her efficient inside institutions she no longer fully believes in, becomes actual strategy under live conditions. Ian’s appetite for drama, flirtation, and risk starts looking suspiciously like field intelligence. Rosen’s wager is that vocation may arrive not as destiny or mastery but as the one habit you could never quite sand down finally finding the right use. The detective-agency ending is funny because it is ridiculous, but it lands because the book has already made it feel faintly, alarmingly plausible.
The prose is what makes that unlikely premise stick. Rosen does not write in a style of grand flourish. He writes as if speed were not the enemy of texture but one of its delivery systems. The sentences move quickly, often in clipped bursts, but they do not feel thin. He is good at timing, especially the split second in which concern sours into annoyance, flirtation snaps into self-protection, or banter reveals it has been storing grievance for months. The dialogue is the book’s steadiest instrument: quick without becoming lacquered, funny without flattening everyone into the same register, and unusually alert to interruption, overlap, misfire, and the tiny humiliations by which friendship actually gets lived. Rosen has a sharp ear for weaponized tenderness, for the joke that is a joke until it isn’t, and for the way people who know one another best are often the people most efficient at cutting precisely where the skin is thin.
The game-night sequence is where the novel pays off most fully. What begins as a comic setup, trivia as interrogation, a suspicious guest in a white-rich townhouse, exes, flirtation, expensive cheese, everyone trying and failing to act normal, turns into the book’s emotional center. The friends try to test Jon with categories built around guns, drugs, fake IDs, combat, and international politics. The evening collapses into accusation, injury, jealousy, wounded loyalty, and the group’s old habit of treating Brandon’s love life as a running joke rather than the place where he is most exposed. The scene is funny, then abrasive, then genuinely sad. Rosen does not flatten it into a lesson about communication or make everyone suddenly eloquent about their pain. He lets each person be half-right, half-cruel, and fully themselves. The result is one of the book’s sharpest recognitions: friendship is not mutual transparency. It is an unstable arrangement of teasing, rescue, surveillance, defensive wit, and the occasional failure to take the right person seriously until it is much too late.
Brandon is indispensable here, because the novel’s emotional intelligence depends on not mistaking comic susceptibility for shallowness. He is the easiest to laugh at. He falls fastest, interprets hardest, and keeps wanting romance to redeem evidence that clearly points the other way. Yet Rosen never treats that openness as mere foolishness. Brandon is the book’s moral weather vane. His optimism is excessive, but it also makes him the first to register when the group’s knowingness has tipped into contempt. The friend most likely to sound ridiculous is therefore the one most likely to say the thing everyone else has organized their self-respect around not having to hear. The novel understands that being the designated fool inside a group often means being the person asked to carry its sentiment at a discount.
Nicole’s subplot with Ellen Kang gives the book some of its nastiest and smartest social intelligence. Nicole begins as someone who once wanted to save the world and has, by increments small enough to pass for maturity, become highly effective inside a machine she no longer quite respects. Ellen, glamorous, ruthless, and professionally magnetic, looks at first like the version of adulthood Nicole might still be able to grow into if she gave up the last of her scruples and called it sophistication. Their flirtation and eventual sexual entanglement are funny, sexy, strategically disastrous, and thematically exact. Then Rosen opens Ellen’s apartment and lets the fantasy rot on contact. The mess is not just comic revelation. It is exposure. Clothes with tags still on them, piles of takeout, legal papers among expensive junk, auction receipts everywhere: power, Rosen suggests, can look impeccable from the hallway. Then the door opens, and the whole place smells like exhaustion, acquisitive panic, and food gone cold in its carton. It is one of the novel’s best reversals, not because it humiliates Ellen, but because it shows Nicole the cost of mistaking polish for a life.
That thread helps explain why “The Disaster Gay Detective Agency” feels more diagnostically alive than its premise first advertises. Rosen is writing about overwork, underformation, ambition as self-erasure, grief without ceremony, romantic self-mythology, and the humiliating wish to believe that this latest bad decision might finally mean something. Brandon needs Jon to mean more than a hookup because otherwise he must confront a more banal injury. Nicole wants Ellen to represent arrival because otherwise she has to admit how far she has drifted from her own first principles. Ian keeps mistaking heat for life. Ollie mistakes pattern for control because randomness has already taken enough from him. The thriller apparatus matters because it intensifies those tendencies, but Rosen’s deeper subject is the unstable story each person tells about what sort of life they are in.
The ending is smarter than its lightness first suggests. Rosen does not pretend that one wild adventure turns these people into finished adults. He gives them partial clarity, not cure. That distinction matters. The crisis reorganizes self-knowledge without curing the habits that made the crisis legible in the first place. Brandon is still Brandon. Ollie is still Ollie. Nicole has not become pure, and Ian has not become prudent. What changes is relation. They begin to see that the traits making them look unserious inside ordinary professional or romantic life may be the beginnings of a form. The detective agency is a joke, yes, but it is also the first structure any of them have found that might contain their chaos without merely punishing it.
Where Rosen is less persuasive is in the world beyond the quartet. The covert apparatus surrounding them, the private military company, the criminal clients, the auctioned data, the lattice of contractor intrigue, is serviceable, sometimes clever, and occasionally vivid, but it is not as socially inhabited as the friendships it disturbs. Rosen clearly knows how to move his characters through that machinery, yet the machinery rarely acquires the same density of observation he brings to flirtation, job drift, queer social life, or post-college disappointment. The thriller scaffolding does what it needs to do: it creates secrecy, danger, leverage, and enough moving parts to shove the friends into competence. But it can feel schematic in a novel whose best scenes feel embarrassingly, wonderfully lived. Readers coming primarily for a fully realized underworld may find themselves admiring the setup more than inhabiting it.
Even that imbalance reveals the book’s priorities. “The Disaster Gay Detective Agency” is less interested in the grandeur of conspiracy than in what conspiracy does to a group chat. Its relevance comes not from forced topicality but from temperament. Rosen is writing about how friendship can function as emergency infrastructure while you figure out whether your defining traits are liabilities or tools. Not because friends always understand you. Quite the opposite. Because they often understand you badly, wound you predictably, mock the wrong thing at the wrong time, and still remain the people most likely to keep you alive. That is a far riskier emotional claim than the novel’s glossy premise lets on, and Rosen mostly earns it.
I’d put the book at 84/100 – 4 stars on Goodreads. That feels right to its scale and its achievement. Rosen is very good at what he is trying to do, and more ambitious than the premise first suggests, but the novel’s excellence lies more in ensemble intelligence, comic timing, and emotional accuracy than in fully realized thriller mechanics. It is strongest when it lets embarrassment, longing, and tactical improvisation occupy the same sentence. It slackens whenever the covert apparatus must do more than shove the friends into collision. Still, there is real pleasure in watching Rosen refuse the false choice between entertainment and perception. He gives the book snap, but also grain.
By the end, the case has been solved well enough, the criminals have sorted themselves into their various grades of charm and menace, and the quartet has become newly readable to itself. One friend edges toward work that may align more closely with belief. Another tries to convert grief into vocation. Another finally learns that not every blaze deserves to be called passion. And Brandon, poor impossible Brandon, winds up where he was always going to wind up: behind a desk, looking up as a beautiful man walks through the door. In a lesser novel that would be merely a joke about people who never learn. Rosen makes it stranger, sadder, and kinder than that. Hope is still Brandon’s worst habit. It may also be the thing that keeps the next door from becoming just another wall.
These first thumbnail tries test how much emptiness the room can bear before the blue ring stops reading as clue and starts reading as ache.
The faint underdrawing locates the novel’s geometry of aftermath: doorway, floor, table, absence, and one small object stubborn enough to hold the whole emotional composition together.
In the first wash, the room begins to gather its hush, with pale stains and cool shadows doing the work of tone before detail ever arrives.
The swatch sheet reduces the final image to its emotional grammar: chalk light, bruised shadow, faint warmth, and the sharper blue that lets comedy and evidence briefly share the same floor.
All watercolor illustrations by Demetris Papadimitropoulos.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Received the ARC from the publisher, does not influence the rating. Thank you Sourcebooks for the copy.
This cute LGBTQ+ rom com merges with a cozy mystery. There's a little spice, lots of "whodunit," and plenty of smiles. The protagonists have a great friendship and would truly do anything for each other, including risking being murdered. A fun read!
This cute LGBTQ+ rom com merges with a cozy mystery. There's a little spice, lots of "whodunit," and plenty of smiles. The protagonists have a great friendship and would truly do anything for each other, including risking being murdered. A fun read!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
ARC provided by NetGalley and this is my honest review:
This really pleasantly surprised me! I knew it would be a fun read, but it was actually really good too!! Fun characters, an engaging plot, and some laugh out loud moments. I loved these truly disaster gays. I was a bit skeptical seeing there were four POVs, but all the characters had distinct feels and developments. I really liked seeing scenes from multiple perspectives. Was there true character development? Not really since they are all still complete disasters at the end. But, disasters with self awareness.
Really hope we see more of these characters in the future. Excited to see what Rosen can do with this mad little world he created.
This really pleasantly surprised me! I knew it would be a fun read, but it was actually really good too!! Fun characters, an engaging plot, and some laugh out loud moments. I loved these truly disaster gays. I was a bit skeptical seeing there were four POVs, but all the characters had distinct feels and developments. I really liked seeing scenes from multiple perspectives. Was there true character development? Not really since they are all still complete disasters at the end. But, disasters with self awareness.
Really hope we see more of these characters in the future. Excited to see what Rosen can do with this mad little world he created.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Rating: 4 ⭐
The Disaster Gay Detective Agency is a refreshingly fun and chaotic queer mystery that follows four messy, lovable friends—Brandon, Ollie, Nicole, and Ian—as they stumble into a murder investigation after Brandon's one-night stand with a hotel guest named Jon turns into something far more dangerous.
The book switches between four character perspectives, and for the most part, the narrative juggling works beautifully. Each character feels vivid and fully realized with their own messy lives, struggles, and growth arcs. Brandon is the hopeless romantic who falls hard and fast (sometimes frustratingly so). Ollie, a trans man dealing with grief and loneliness, became my absolute favorite—his emotional depth and relatability hit close to home. Nicole is the overworked lawyer sacrificing her present for a future that keeps slipping away. And Ian, a nonbinary drag queen with anger issues and an ex they can't stop hate-stalking, delivers some of the book's funniest and most chaotic moments.
Lev A.C. Rosen handles LGBTQ+ representation phenomenally. The queer identities feel authentic and central without being tragic or stereotypical, which as a gay man myself, I deeply appreciated. The dialogue is sharp, hilarious, and full of iconic moments—Ian's interactions with men had me laughing out loud multiple times.
The mystery element takes a bit to get going, but once it does, it's engaging with clever twists and some genuinely surprising reveals. The tone strikes a great balance between fun, campy humor and real emotional stakes. It reminded me a bit of Pretty Little Liars but with political intrigue, espionage vibes, and a lot more queer chaos.
That said, the pacing does stumble in the middle. There's an 80+ page game night confrontation sequence where the same events replay from each character's perspective with only minor new details added. While I appreciated the inner monologues and individual motivations, the repetition became draggy and pulled me out of the story. My ADHD brain desperately wanted to move forward. The author could have condensed this section significantly without losing impact.
Despite that pacing issue, the finale was satisfying with some surprises I didn't see coming and others I'd pieced together earlier. The character growth throughout the book is strong, and the friendships at the heart of the story are what make it truly special. These are characters I genuinely cared about and rooted for, even when they made questionable (or downright dumb) decisions.
Overall, The Disaster Gay Detective Agency is a quick, entertaining read with fantastic queer representation, memorable characters, and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. If you're looking for a mystery that's fun, messy, and unapologetically queer, this is absolutely worth picking up.
Spoiler Section
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing an advance copy of The Disaster Gay Detective Agency by Lev A.C. Rosen in exchange for an honest review.
The Disaster Gay Detective Agency is a refreshingly fun and chaotic queer mystery that follows four messy, lovable friends—Brandon, Ollie, Nicole, and Ian—as they stumble into a murder investigation after Brandon's one-night stand with a hotel guest named Jon turns into something far more dangerous.
The book switches between four character perspectives, and for the most part, the narrative juggling works beautifully. Each character feels vivid and fully realized with their own messy lives, struggles, and growth arcs. Brandon is the hopeless romantic who falls hard and fast (sometimes frustratingly so). Ollie, a trans man dealing with grief and loneliness, became my absolute favorite—his emotional depth and relatability hit close to home. Nicole is the overworked lawyer sacrificing her present for a future that keeps slipping away. And Ian, a nonbinary drag queen with anger issues and an ex they can't stop hate-stalking, delivers some of the book's funniest and most chaotic moments.
Lev A.C. Rosen handles LGBTQ+ representation phenomenally. The queer identities feel authentic and central without being tragic or stereotypical, which as a gay man myself, I deeply appreciated. The dialogue is sharp, hilarious, and full of iconic moments—Ian's interactions with men had me laughing out loud multiple times.
The mystery element takes a bit to get going, but once it does, it's engaging with clever twists and some genuinely surprising reveals. The tone strikes a great balance between fun, campy humor and real emotional stakes. It reminded me a bit of Pretty Little Liars but with political intrigue, espionage vibes, and a lot more queer chaos.
That said, the pacing does stumble in the middle. There's an 80+ page game night confrontation sequence where the same events replay from each character's perspective with only minor new details added. While I appreciated the inner monologues and individual motivations, the repetition became draggy and pulled me out of the story. My ADHD brain desperately wanted to move forward. The author could have condensed this section significantly without losing impact.
Despite that pacing issue, the finale was satisfying with some surprises I didn't see coming and others I'd pieced together earlier. The character growth throughout the book is strong, and the friendships at the heart of the story are what make it truly special. These are characters I genuinely cared about and rooted for, even when they made questionable (or downright dumb) decisions.
Overall, The Disaster Gay Detective Agency is a quick, entertaining read with fantastic queer representation, memorable characters, and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. If you're looking for a mystery that's fun, messy, and unapologetically queer, this is absolutely worth picking up.
Spoiler Section
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing an advance copy of The Disaster Gay Detective Agency by Lev A.C. Rosen in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
When I was given the chance to try an eARC of this book, The Disaster Gay Detective Agency by Lev A.C. Rosen, I leapt at the chance to sign up and hoped I'd get the chance to read it. I'd seen books by Rosen before but hadn't had the chance to read any of them yet. After reading this, I've already borrowed several others copies of Rosen's titles from my library. I definitely want to read more of Rosen's books. This book has so many wonderful things going for it that it is sure to find fans once it is released.
The Disaster Gay Detective Agency follows four queer friends determined to solve a mystery and a murder. The book starts with Brandon working the night shift at a hotel when a handsome guest, Jon, checks in. Jon invites Brandon up to his room and after a quick consult with his friends, Brandon decides to throw caution to the wind and take a leap head first into a chance at true love. Except Jon is gone by the time Brandon shows up for work the next day and he hasn't answered any of Brandon's texts. Jon leaves a bag and a phone in his room and Brandon takes the chance again to find Jon to return his things, making himself a kind of hero and saving the day for his new true love. Except when he arrives at the meeting site with his friend Ollie in tow, they witness a murder. Now the four of them, including Ian and Nicole, are trying to figure out what trouble Jon is mixed up in before someone decides to get rid of Brandon, Ollie, Ian and Nicole instead.
The best part of this book was the characters. I loved the four of these friends together. They've known each other since college and have managed to keep a standing brunch date and a group chat going for them to talk. They know everything about each other and are in constant contact so that there is always one of them available to help when another needs it. This kind of support system is so wholesome and wonderful to see in a book. I adored when these four were together as they really worked best when they were all in the same room.
That being said, I wanted to sit Brandon down and give him a lecture. This sweetheart was head over heels for a man he only just met and was determined to ignore EVERYTHING, I mean every RED FLAG wrong with Jon. Brandon was quick with the excuses, with the defense, with ANYTHING really, to prove that Jon was going to be his future and I just wanted more moments of clarity with him. There were times where he would start to face the truth but Brandon was just so stubborn, he'd dismiss it quickly to go back to trying to save Jon because obviously THAT was what Brandon was meant to do, save Jon so they could live in love together forever. It made me sigh and grumble a lot when we joined Brandon again in the book.
Now, the rest of the characters were amazing. I loved Ollie with his love for murder podcasts and his dog walking business. I thought Ollie was so sweet with the way he was quick to offer compliments and words of love for his friends. I wanted to scoop Ollie up and give him a hug and then also find them someone to talk to about what might have been depression with the tragic loss they'd experienced. I wanted the rest of the group to really sit down and have Ollie start to open up. Ollie's interest in murder mysteries really endeared him to me and I loved how the focus of solving the case made Ollie shine.
I thought Nicole was the level-headed one of the group. I loved her for her ambition and her need to take care of her friends. Her chapters showed a woman who had purpose and drive and was determined to make something of herself. I want Nicole to find the right vision for her life and to succeed in her profession and her love life. I enjoyed every chapter with Nicole and I think I identified with her mothering instinct the most. Nicole was focused on her job but she was quick to drop everything to take care of her friends and that kind of devotion is admirable.
Ian is the last of the group and they were fun and complicated at the same time. Ian had issues with a past relationship that they had let take up a lot of their time and I wanted Nicole to sit Ian down, as the most I guess responsible one of the group, and tell them to let their past go but I'm sure that is easier said than done. Ian's chapters were interesting and intriguing, even with Ian's point of wanting to stay angry at their ex. I thought their dreams, wanting to own their own club and be the headliner, share their life with their friends, were lovely and I wanted Ian to be happy.
Still, I did have some issues with the book. A lot of the main action started over from every character's perspective, showing the same conversations over and the same beats again, which made the book seem a repetitive. I found myself kind of skimming these sections because it was almost exactly the same, they just had little asides added in to color what had happened and then eventually we moved into something that we didn't see before and then the story moved on. It wasn't my favorite way to get the story moving.
Another issue I had was with a fifth narrative added in to the book that didn't have any identifiable means for these passages. When I read the first one, I thought it was an excerpt from a book Ian was reading and I had no idea why it was there. Eventually, after the second or third excerpt I realized what the passages were but it feels like something formatting might be able to help to distinguish it better. Maybe a page break and italics so readers know these pieces are linked and separate from the main narrative. Just something because it was just added in at the end of some chapters and they felt out of place as a result.
In the end, I liked this book. I wanted to LOVE it but Brandon's love story as the driving force of the case kind of frustrated me. The constant belief in this fated love was not great for me. Maybe if Brandon was not so focused on this love of a lifetime, I would have liked the story better. If he'd had more moments where he knew his love interest was flawed and then maybe had given him up and then worked on the case for the sake of understanding what they saw and solving the murder, I think the book would have been a lot stronger for me. Still, I WILL be reading more Rosen books soon and I hope to love those when I get to read them.
Rating on my scale: 6.5 Stars. The way this one ends feels like there is a potential for a sequel and if there is, I will be back to see more of this friend group. The cast of characters and the representation among them was diverse and strong and I loved them even if I didn't love the story I had to see them in.
My thanks to Netgalley, Poisoned Pen Press and Lev A.C. Rosen for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
The Disaster Gay Detective Agency follows four queer friends determined to solve a mystery and a murder. The book starts with Brandon working the night shift at a hotel when a handsome guest, Jon, checks in. Jon invites Brandon up to his room and after a quick consult with his friends, Brandon decides to throw caution to the wind and take a leap head first into a chance at true love. Except Jon is gone by the time Brandon shows up for work the next day and he hasn't answered any of Brandon's texts. Jon leaves a bag and a phone in his room and Brandon takes the chance again to find Jon to return his things, making himself a kind of hero and saving the day for his new true love. Except when he arrives at the meeting site with his friend Ollie in tow, they witness a murder. Now the four of them, including Ian and Nicole, are trying to figure out what trouble Jon is mixed up in before someone decides to get rid of Brandon, Ollie, Ian and Nicole instead.
The best part of this book was the characters. I loved the four of these friends together. They've known each other since college and have managed to keep a standing brunch date and a group chat going for them to talk. They know everything about each other and are in constant contact so that there is always one of them available to help when another needs it. This kind of support system is so wholesome and wonderful to see in a book. I adored when these four were together as they really worked best when they were all in the same room.
That being said, I wanted to sit Brandon down and give him a lecture. This sweetheart was head over heels for a man he only just met and was determined to ignore EVERYTHING, I mean every RED FLAG wrong with Jon. Brandon was quick with the excuses, with the defense, with ANYTHING really, to prove that Jon was going to be his future and I just wanted more moments of clarity with him. There were times where he would start to face the truth but Brandon was just so stubborn, he'd dismiss it quickly to go back to trying to save Jon because obviously THAT was what Brandon was meant to do, save Jon so they could live in love together forever. It made me sigh and grumble a lot when we joined Brandon again in the book.
Now, the rest of the characters were amazing. I loved Ollie with his love for murder podcasts and his dog walking business. I thought Ollie was so sweet with the way he was quick to offer compliments and words of love for his friends. I wanted to scoop Ollie up and give him a hug and then also find them someone to talk to about what might have been depression with the tragic loss they'd experienced. I wanted the rest of the group to really sit down and have Ollie start to open up. Ollie's interest in murder mysteries really endeared him to me and I loved how the focus of solving the case made Ollie shine.
I thought Nicole was the level-headed one of the group. I loved her for her ambition and her need to take care of her friends. Her chapters showed a woman who had purpose and drive and was determined to make something of herself. I want Nicole to find the right vision for her life and to succeed in her profession and her love life. I enjoyed every chapter with Nicole and I think I identified with her mothering instinct the most. Nicole was focused on her job but she was quick to drop everything to take care of her friends and that kind of devotion is admirable.
Ian is the last of the group and they were fun and complicated at the same time. Ian had issues with a past relationship that they had let take up a lot of their time and I wanted Nicole to sit Ian down, as the most I guess responsible one of the group, and tell them to let their past go but I'm sure that is easier said than done. Ian's chapters were interesting and intriguing, even with Ian's point of wanting to stay angry at their ex. I thought their dreams, wanting to own their own club and be the headliner, share their life with their friends, were lovely and I wanted Ian to be happy.
Still, I did have some issues with the book. A lot of the main action started over from every character's perspective, showing the same conversations over and the same beats again, which made the book seem a repetitive. I found myself kind of skimming these sections because it was almost exactly the same, they just had little asides added in to color what had happened and then eventually we moved into something that we didn't see before and then the story moved on. It wasn't my favorite way to get the story moving.
Another issue I had was with a fifth narrative added in to the book that didn't have any identifiable means for these passages. When I read the first one, I thought it was an excerpt from a book Ian was reading and I had no idea why it was there. Eventually, after the second or third excerpt I realized what the passages were but it feels like something formatting might be able to help to distinguish it better. Maybe a page break and italics so readers know these pieces are linked and separate from the main narrative. Just something because it was just added in at the end of some chapters and they felt out of place as a result.
In the end, I liked this book. I wanted to LOVE it but Brandon's love story as the driving force of the case kind of frustrated me. The constant belief in this fated love was not great for me. Maybe if Brandon was not so focused on this love of a lifetime, I would have liked the story better. If he'd had more moments where he knew his love interest was flawed and then maybe had given him up and then worked on the case for the sake of understanding what they saw and solving the murder, I think the book would have been a lot stronger for me. Still, I WILL be reading more Rosen books soon and I hope to love those when I get to read them.
Rating on my scale: 6.5 Stars. The way this one ends feels like there is a potential for a sequel and if there is, I will be back to see more of this friend group. The cast of characters and the representation among them was diverse and strong and I loved them even if I didn't love the story I had to see them in.
My thanks to Netgalley, Poisoned Pen Press and Lev A.C. Rosen for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
April 20, 2026
The Disaster Gay Detective Agency is a cozy mystery, with multiple points of view, and a group of friends who were really at the wrong place/wrong time.
After a one night stand, Brandon is convinced he has found his heimweh, or true love, in Jon. They connected on so many levels, and even exchanged numbers. But, then Jon is gone, Brandon completely ghosted. Brandon is not entirely convinced Jon is a bad guy, even after he and his friend Ollie quite literally witness a murder in which Jon is involved. They immediately call Nicole, a lawyer, instead of the cops for advice, and she tells them to lay low while she looks into it more. But this mysterious guy with a heart eye emoji tattoo has popped up at the club Ian performs drag at, and also happens to be the guy who came for Jon's bag at the hotel, and the 4 friends are on a roller coaster murder mystery, trying to solve it before they end up murdered themselves.
I enjoyed the multiple POVs, each of the 4 friends had their own POV chapters, back and forth throughout the story. For not being a super long book, I felt we did get to know each character pretty well, because they had their own POVs. I loved each of the characters, they were all so very unique. I was also annoyed by each of them at least once throughout the story though! Brandon, you cannot be in love with the guy you hooked up with the hotel you work at! But also, how many of us in our 20s, thought we were totally in love with someone, completely without reason, after one good night, or one good date. Brandon's character is so sweet and innocent, I loved it even though his infatuation was a bit much.
Brandon's infatuation with Jon is what caused the group to get involved in this murder mystery! Brandon is just so naive, he is convinced Jon is a good guy and obviously had nothing to do with it! Ollie and Ian both have what seem like fun jobs. Ollie is a dog walker/house sitter, bouncing from mansion to mansion. I think that would be fun for a while at least. Ollie is the real sleuther of the group, and is actually quite excited to be solving a real life murder, being into true crime podcasts and all. Ian works at a bookstore by day, and does drag shows by night, both sound like such fun jobs! Ian's vendetta against his ex is also a bit over-the-top, but also having an ex who is in law enforcement, while investigating a murder, might come in handy. Then there is Nicole, she is honestly the least annoying of the group, but she definitely works too hard, and puts a very high expectation on herself. She also seems to be the only one who is taking the fact that they witnessed a murder seriously.
With Ollie having "fun" searching for clues, Brandon just hoping to find Jon and prove he's innocent, Ian maybe/maybe not possibly being stalked by the murderer (and into it), and Nicole trying to actually find out what's going on with her lawyer contacts, this story is quite the ride. Oh, and can't forget Pete! The cute black chug that lives at the house Ollie is house-sitting, Pete has his own role to play in the story as well!
The only part I struggled a bit with was the game night scene. The game night itself was a disaster, but then we had to re-read the entirety of events from each of the 4 characters, and it felt repetitive by the third POV. We needed those POVs to understand what really happened, but I didn't feel like every single aspect had to be repeated, we could have just had the characters specific different part of the night added, vs the entire game night re-hashed four times.
Otherwise, if you enjoy a group of friends who really don't take an actual murder too seriously, and have a multitude of semi-amusing relationship issues, and a fun murder mystery, you will enjoy this story!
Thank you so much to Poisoned Pen Press for a copy of this book!
Some fav quotes:
""Maybe he wanted to leave everything behind and he'll think I'm some crazy stalker. I mean, I am a crazy stalker right now, right?" "I think it's romantic." Ollie says..."
"...maybe they could do it together-that could be their thing: one big gay detective agency."
"Otherwise, what is all this chaos leading to? With everything that's happened, it has to be true love. Heimweh."
"Ian smiles, putting their bowl in the sink and going up to the master bedroom. Even the walls are covered in white fabric. Absolutely mental-hospital chic."
"...(pursuing a guy even after seeing someone murdered is probably worse than the three months he spent dating a guy who wouldn't even kiss him because it might distract from his tuba career-probably)."
"Brandon needs to save everyone. That's what Prince Charming does, right? Slays the dragon and hands over the glass slipper-or phone in this case. Those might actually be two different stories, he realizes. But the principle still applies."
"Heart-eyes looks up and smiles, and Ian's heart beats faster. Is this guy about to kill them with a highbrow erotic coffee-table book?"
"Yes, sleeping with her boss is a transcendently bad idea. That said, it was a good time..."
"Does Ian really like this guy, or are they trying to be a nonbinaire fatale?"
After a one night stand, Brandon is convinced he has found his heimweh, or true love, in Jon. They connected on so many levels, and even exchanged numbers. But, then Jon is gone, Brandon completely ghosted. Brandon is not entirely convinced Jon is a bad guy, even after he and his friend Ollie quite literally witness a murder in which Jon is involved. They immediately call Nicole, a lawyer, instead of the cops for advice, and she tells them to lay low while she looks into it more. But this mysterious guy with a heart eye emoji tattoo has popped up at the club Ian performs drag at, and also happens to be the guy who came for Jon's bag at the hotel, and the 4 friends are on a roller coaster murder mystery, trying to solve it before they end up murdered themselves.
I enjoyed the multiple POVs, each of the 4 friends had their own POV chapters, back and forth throughout the story. For not being a super long book, I felt we did get to know each character pretty well, because they had their own POVs. I loved each of the characters, they were all so very unique. I was also annoyed by each of them at least once throughout the story though! Brandon, you cannot be in love with the guy you hooked up with the hotel you work at! But also, how many of us in our 20s, thought we were totally in love with someone, completely without reason, after one good night, or one good date. Brandon's character is so sweet and innocent, I loved it even though his infatuation was a bit much.
Brandon's infatuation with Jon is what caused the group to get involved in this murder mystery! Brandon is just so naive, he is convinced Jon is a good guy and obviously had nothing to do with it! Ollie and Ian both have what seem like fun jobs. Ollie is a dog walker/house sitter, bouncing from mansion to mansion. I think that would be fun for a while at least. Ollie is the real sleuther of the group, and is actually quite excited to be solving a real life murder, being into true crime podcasts and all. Ian works at a bookstore by day, and does drag shows by night, both sound like such fun jobs! Ian's vendetta against his ex is also a bit over-the-top, but also having an ex who is in law enforcement, while investigating a murder, might come in handy. Then there is Nicole, she is honestly the least annoying of the group, but she definitely works too hard, and puts a very high expectation on herself. She also seems to be the only one who is taking the fact that they witnessed a murder seriously.
With Ollie having "fun" searching for clues, Brandon just hoping to find Jon and prove he's innocent, Ian maybe/maybe not possibly being stalked by the murderer (and into it), and Nicole trying to actually find out what's going on with her lawyer contacts, this story is quite the ride. Oh, and can't forget Pete! The cute black chug that lives at the house Ollie is house-sitting, Pete has his own role to play in the story as well!
The only part I struggled a bit with was the game night scene. The game night itself was a disaster, but then we had to re-read the entirety of events from each of the 4 characters, and it felt repetitive by the third POV. We needed those POVs to understand what really happened, but I didn't feel like every single aspect had to be repeated, we could have just had the characters specific different part of the night added, vs the entire game night re-hashed four times.
Otherwise, if you enjoy a group of friends who really don't take an actual murder too seriously, and have a multitude of semi-amusing relationship issues, and a fun murder mystery, you will enjoy this story!
Thank you so much to Poisoned Pen Press for a copy of this book!
Some fav quotes:
""Maybe he wanted to leave everything behind and he'll think I'm some crazy stalker. I mean, I am a crazy stalker right now, right?" "I think it's romantic." Ollie says..."
"...maybe they could do it together-that could be their thing: one big gay detective agency."
"Otherwise, what is all this chaos leading to? With everything that's happened, it has to be true love. Heimweh."
"Ian smiles, putting their bowl in the sink and going up to the master bedroom. Even the walls are covered in white fabric. Absolutely mental-hospital chic."
"...(pursuing a guy even after seeing someone murdered is probably worse than the three months he spent dating a guy who wouldn't even kiss him because it might distract from his tuba career-probably)."
"Brandon needs to save everyone. That's what Prince Charming does, right? Slays the dragon and hands over the glass slipper-or phone in this case. Those might actually be two different stories, he realizes. But the principle still applies."
"Heart-eyes looks up and smiles, and Ian's heart beats faster. Is this guy about to kill them with a highbrow erotic coffee-table book?"
"Yes, sleeping with her boss is a transcendently bad idea. That said, it was a good time..."
"Does Ian really like this guy, or are they trying to be a nonbinaire fatale?"
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
3.5 stars
The Disaster Gay Detective Agency was a fun, quick read that began with a lot of promise but lost steam in the second half.
The novel opens with Brandon, one of our four POVs, having a one-night-stand with a hot guest at the hotel he's working in. Brandon is a die-hard romantic and falls in love with the idea that this man might be his soulmate, so when the guest checks out early leaving a few things behind, Brandon keeps his phone and decides to find him and return it to him. He's aided in that quest by his besties (and our other three POVs): Ollie, a trans man and true-crime-podcast addict; Ian, a non-binary drag queen slash bookstore employee; and Nicole, a workaholic black lesbian lawyer, working her way up the corporate ladder. In the process of finding Brandon's mystery man, the friends witness a murder and stumble into some pretty serious crime shenanigans while navigating the demands of life and love and friendship.
The lifestyle of this group is miles away from mine with their edibles and the drag show brunches and the whole US/NYC vibe, but I found each character relatable in some way. Rosen has done well in providing the interiority of his characters, and I sympathised a lot with Nicole's bitterness over being overlooked at work, with Ollie's loneliness and listlessness, with Ian's anger, and even with Brandon's hopeless romanticism (initially--more on that below). Each character is drawn vividly and they complement each other. Their friendship isn't perfect, and the characters' flaws are sometimes glaring, which made it all the more real and relatable.
The novel spends, at first, equal time on the mystery as well as the characters' lives. As they try to work out where the mystery man is, we get to know these characters and learn about the other people in their lives as well as their circumstances. Rosen handles this fairly large (and equally diverse) secondary cast deftly. There's humour and banter, dogs and a group chat. It's fun! Then the crime happens and the tension ratchets up as a villain with a tattoo appears on the scene.
However, this is where the book began losing me. The balance between the mystery and the characters' lives tipped over towards their daily routine. We had chapters about their meeting people, arranging a date, talking to customers in the bookshop, reaching out to an ex etc etc, all the while not making any significant investigative progress. I like to follow clues and to figure things out myself but here the mystery plot was sidelined in favour of the interpersonal relationships of the group. The other thing that really annoyed me around that point was Brandon's inability to accept his "soulmate" might be some dodgy criminal. (and then I was annoyed with Ollie enabling him.) It felt completely childish to be so vehemently "but perhaps there is another reason why [something terrible and suspicious] happened" for a man he had a quickie with for half an hour. The idea he'd look for him at first made sense. But after the murder and the rest happened, it made Brandon look incredibly deluded to the point that I'd stage an intervention.
My final and more serious complain is the repetition. The friends would have a text exchange and then we'd see parts of it repeated in a few more chapters. Initially it was fine; the text was brief and it served to anchor us to what everyone was doing at the same time. But in the second half we had repetitions of an entire scene. We saw the exact same thing, pages and pages of it, happen from four POVs, each one adding a little to the scene but nothing that was crucial to the story. We also had a random POV inserted at some point. The formatting made it seem like it was one of the main characters, until it was clear that it wasn't. The ending held no surprising solution to the mystery, or suspense, or even the tension from earlier. (I will say, though, I'm VERY much into that new ship that appeared towards the end).
In short, if you're after a typical murder mystery with clues and suspects and plot twists, this might disappoint. However, if you're into reading about a diverse queer group of people in their 20s in NYC, struggling with identity and love and discovering who they want to be, with maybe a sprinkle of a mystery thrown in, then you'll love this.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
The Disaster Gay Detective Agency was a fun, quick read that began with a lot of promise but lost steam in the second half.
The novel opens with Brandon, one of our four POVs, having a one-night-stand with a hot guest at the hotel he's working in. Brandon is a die-hard romantic and falls in love with the idea that this man might be his soulmate, so when the guest checks out early leaving a few things behind, Brandon keeps his phone and decides to find him and return it to him. He's aided in that quest by his besties (and our other three POVs): Ollie, a trans man and true-crime-podcast addict; Ian, a non-binary drag queen slash bookstore employee; and Nicole, a workaholic black lesbian lawyer, working her way up the corporate ladder. In the process of finding Brandon's mystery man, the friends witness a murder and stumble into some pretty serious crime shenanigans while navigating the demands of life and love and friendship.
The lifestyle of this group is miles away from mine with their edibles and the drag show brunches and the whole US/NYC vibe, but I found each character relatable in some way. Rosen has done well in providing the interiority of his characters, and I sympathised a lot with Nicole's bitterness over being overlooked at work, with Ollie's loneliness and listlessness, with Ian's anger, and even with Brandon's hopeless romanticism (initially--more on that below). Each character is drawn vividly and they complement each other. Their friendship isn't perfect, and the characters' flaws are sometimes glaring, which made it all the more real and relatable.
The novel spends, at first, equal time on the mystery as well as the characters' lives. As they try to work out where the mystery man is, we get to know these characters and learn about the other people in their lives as well as their circumstances. Rosen handles this fairly large (and equally diverse) secondary cast deftly. There's humour and banter, dogs and a group chat. It's fun! Then the crime happens and the tension ratchets up as a villain with a tattoo appears on the scene.
However, this is where the book began losing me. The balance between the mystery and the characters' lives tipped over towards their daily routine. We had chapters about their meeting people, arranging a date, talking to customers in the bookshop, reaching out to an ex etc etc, all the while not making any significant investigative progress. I like to follow clues and to figure things out myself but here the mystery plot was sidelined in favour of the interpersonal relationships of the group. The other thing that really annoyed me around that point was Brandon's inability to accept his "soulmate" might be some dodgy criminal. (and then I was annoyed with Ollie enabling him.) It felt completely childish to be so vehemently "but perhaps there is another reason why [something terrible and suspicious] happened" for a man he had a quickie with for half an hour. The idea he'd look for him at first made sense. But after the murder and the rest happened, it made Brandon look incredibly deluded to the point that I'd stage an intervention.
My final and more serious complain is the repetition. The friends would have a text exchange and then we'd see parts of it repeated in a few more chapters. Initially it was fine; the text was brief and it served to anchor us to what everyone was doing at the same time. But in the second half we had repetitions of an entire scene. We saw the exact same thing, pages and pages of it, happen from four POVs, each one adding a little to the scene but nothing that was crucial to the story. We also had a random POV inserted at some point. The formatting made it seem like it was one of the main characters, until it was clear that it wasn't. The ending held no surprising solution to the mystery, or suspense, or even the tension from earlier. (I will say, though, I'm VERY much into that new ship that appeared towards the end).
In short, if you're after a typical murder mystery with clues and suspects and plot twists, this might disappoint. However, if you're into reading about a diverse queer group of people in their 20s in NYC, struggling with identity and love and discovering who they want to be, with maybe a sprinkle of a mystery thrown in, then you'll love this.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Genre: Mystery / thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Release date: June 2nd 2026
Firstly thank you so much netgalley and the publisher for a arc copy of this book!
listen the rating has me so sad but like 3 stars is still pretty good, so the plot sounded very promising and like it would be a good mystery thriller but with humor and great friendships and listen while the plot was interesting and I was entertained throughout this book it just felt like a lot of setup, it’s on the longer side so it felt like a lot of set up and like the main plot got dragged along / dragged out because there was little side plots going on with the 3 other main characters being Nicole, Ian and Ollie which made this more on the longer side and feel drawn out, also because of the side plots there was just way more drama than I expected when i started this and I have to be in a very specific mood for a drama filled book like this because I was low key like raging at one point because of the drama kinda towards the end, and while this does drag on like for 80% I will say the last like 20% is really easy to read and really quick to read. Also like there wasn’t really a plot twist in this so don’t go in expecting one just so your aware.
I did really enjoy getting to know the characters and I liked most of them, get ready to buckle in because wow I have a lot to say so let’s start with
Brandon, so Brandon is our love sick puppy with Jon and is seriously like a love sick puppy but is a sweetheart who’s just a hopeless romantic and wants love and believes in true love, listen I really liked him in the beginning like just the sweetheart character that you just want to reach through the pages and give him a big hug but my god did he make a lot of stupid decisions and was so blinded by love… like my guy there’s so many red flags here and your just ignoring them like really? It got so frustrating after a while because he’s just like so oblivious but you still feel bad for him.
Now let’s talk Ollie, so at first Ian was my favorite because of his sass and his attitude but Ollie QUICKLY took that spot as my favorite character in this, my gosh Ollie is just your typical kind of sad stoner boy who loves true crime which I just fell in love with him because same, like I love my true crime as well and he loves playing detective to try to figure out the case which I love to do and we both love the like drama and thrill of it but anyway his chapters oddly enough were the only ones that didn’t frustrate me, I wasn’t bored through them and the story never seemed to drag in his chapters, I don’t know, he’s your stoner boy but wants everyone around him to be happy which is so cute to me and I wanted to multiple times just reach through the pages and give him a hug
Now for Ian, so yes my favorite at the beginning which quickly changed because my gosh the drama with his ex and his whole craving a toxic relationship basically and craving that fight just got to a point of kinda annoying me because like … whatever let’s just leave it at that but I really enjoyed the sass and the attitude like definitely had a good laugh with them even if he frustrated me and made me rage sometimes however there seemed to be a small amount of character growth by the end which I did like but he is my second favorite out of the group still.
Finally last but not least we have nicole, so where to start? I feel like I don’t have as much to say about her because look I liked her but I didn’t feel fully connected to her like I did the boys, like she was a okay character, I didn’t fully connect with her, didn’t fall in love with her sure I liked seeing the law side of things in this (since she works in a law firm) but like there was a love triangle in this that was really pointless and just frustrated me so much and so like… that’s it, that’s all I have to say because she was like just an okay character to me.
There was one thing so confusing in this and that’s a pov that we get, it never said who’s pov it was which I think is on purpose and supposed to be kind of up to you to guess who it is but it really threw me for a loop at first and I was very confused until the pieces started clicking together and I figured it out then it wasn’t really confusing.
Rating: 3 stars
Release date: June 2nd 2026
Firstly thank you so much netgalley and the publisher for a arc copy of this book!
listen the rating has me so sad but like 3 stars is still pretty good, so the plot sounded very promising and like it would be a good mystery thriller but with humor and great friendships and listen while the plot was interesting and I was entertained throughout this book it just felt like a lot of setup, it’s on the longer side so it felt like a lot of set up and like the main plot got dragged along / dragged out because there was little side plots going on with the 3 other main characters being Nicole, Ian and Ollie which made this more on the longer side and feel drawn out, also because of the side plots there was just way more drama than I expected when i started this and I have to be in a very specific mood for a drama filled book like this because I was low key like raging at one point because of the drama kinda towards the end, and while this does drag on like for 80% I will say the last like 20% is really easy to read and really quick to read. Also like there wasn’t really a plot twist in this so don’t go in expecting one just so your aware.
I did really enjoy getting to know the characters and I liked most of them, get ready to buckle in because wow I have a lot to say so let’s start with
Brandon, so Brandon is our love sick puppy with Jon and is seriously like a love sick puppy but is a sweetheart who’s just a hopeless romantic and wants love and believes in true love, listen I really liked him in the beginning like just the sweetheart character that you just want to reach through the pages and give him a big hug but my god did he make a lot of stupid decisions and was so blinded by love… like my guy there’s so many red flags here and your just ignoring them like really? It got so frustrating after a while because he’s just like so oblivious but you still feel bad for him.
Now let’s talk Ollie, so at first Ian was my favorite because of his sass and his attitude but Ollie QUICKLY took that spot as my favorite character in this, my gosh Ollie is just your typical kind of sad stoner boy who loves true crime which I just fell in love with him because same, like I love my true crime as well and he loves playing detective to try to figure out the case which I love to do and we both love the like drama and thrill of it but anyway his chapters oddly enough were the only ones that didn’t frustrate me, I wasn’t bored through them and the story never seemed to drag in his chapters, I don’t know, he’s your stoner boy but wants everyone around him to be happy which is so cute to me and I wanted to multiple times just reach through the pages and give him a hug
Now for Ian, so yes my favorite at the beginning which quickly changed because my gosh the drama with his ex and his whole craving a toxic relationship basically and craving that fight just got to a point of kinda annoying me because like … whatever let’s just leave it at that but I really enjoyed the sass and the attitude like definitely had a good laugh with them even if he frustrated me and made me rage sometimes however there seemed to be a small amount of character growth by the end which I did like but he is my second favorite out of the group still.
Finally last but not least we have nicole, so where to start? I feel like I don’t have as much to say about her because look I liked her but I didn’t feel fully connected to her like I did the boys, like she was a okay character, I didn’t fully connect with her, didn’t fall in love with her sure I liked seeing the law side of things in this (since she works in a law firm) but like there was a love triangle in this that was really pointless and just frustrated me so much and so like… that’s it, that’s all I have to say because she was like just an okay character to me.
There was one thing so confusing in this and that’s a pov that we get, it never said who’s pov it was which I think is on purpose and supposed to be kind of up to you to guess who it is but it really threw me for a loop at first and I was very confused until the pieces started clicking together and I figured it out then it wasn’t really confusing.
April 12, 2026
This book really looked me dead in the eye and said “what if your worst decisions did have consequences… but also jokes?” and I said okay fine, ruin my life then. Lev AC Rosen’s The Disaster Gay Detective Agency is the kind of chaotic, queer, murder-adjacent fever dream where you know things are going to go horribly wrong… and you keep reading anyway because the vibes are immaculate. Poisoned Pen Press, thank you (and NetGalley!) for the gifted ARC because this was exactly the kind of unhinged, character-driven chaos my soul apparently needed.
This isn’t your typical mystery where everything is clean and clever and tied up in a bow. This is messy. Loud. Emotional. It’s about Brandon—our resident hopeless romantic who falls in love after approximately five minutes and zero critical thinking—who hooks up with Jon, a hotel guest who is hot, mysterious, and immediately suspicious to literally everyone except Brandon. When Jon ghosts (as men like that always do), Brandon decides this is not a red flag but a romantic challenge and goes looking for him… only to witness a murder and see Jon fleeing the scene like a man who absolutely does not have good intentions.
Naturally—and by naturally, I mean terribly—Brandon ropes in his equally chaotic crew: Ollie, the soft-hearted, true-crime-loving dog walker carrying grief like a second skin; Nicole, the overworked, hyper-disciplined lawyer slowly losing herself to a life she thought she wanted; and Ian, the sharp-tongued, emotionally volatile, nonbinary drag queen/bookstore employee who is one minor inconvenience away from choosing violence at all times. Together, they form the least qualified detective agency in history… and yet somehow, you believe in them anyway.
And that’s the thing. This book isn’t really about solving the murder—it’s about the people trying to survive it. It’s about friendship that’s messy and imperfect and sometimes a little cruel, but still deeply rooted in love. It’s about being in your twenties and feeling like everyone else is moving forward while you’re stuck figuring out who you even are. It’s about grief, ambition, loneliness, identity… and yeah, also crime.
“But it was so good to feel like he was special.”
That line? It hit harder than it had any right to. Because underneath all the humor and chaos, there’s this very real, very human ache running through the entire story. Brandon’s desperation to believe in love. Nicole’s slow realization that success doesn’t always equal happiness. Ollie’s quiet loneliness. Ian’s anger that masks something softer underneath. These characters aren’t polished—they’re raw, flawed, and sometimes deeply frustrating… but that’s exactly what makes them feel real.
The multiple POV structure gives you a front-row seat to how differently each of them processes the same chaos, which I loved conceptually—even if, yes, there were moments where it felt a little repetitive. But honestly? I didn’t even care that much because I was too busy being emotionally invested in this absolute disaster of a friend group.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars
This is for the reader who wants their mystery with personality. Who loves found family dynamics more than perfectly plotted twists. Who enjoys a little chaos, a little humor, and a lot of heart. If you like your stories to feel like a group chat spiraling out of control at 2am while someone casually mentions witnessing a murder… congratulations, this is your book.
Also, can we talk about the fact that these people continuously made the worst possible decisions and I still would trust them with my life? Because same.
So now I need to know—are you the logical friend trying to stop the chaos… or are you grabbing the metaphorical flashlight and saying “wait, let’s investigate”?
#TheDisasterGayDetectiveAgency #LevACRosen #NetGalley #PoisonedPenPress #BookReview #ARCReview #LGBTQBooks #QueerReads #MysteryBooks #CozyMystery #FoundFamily #Bookstagram #ReadersOfInstagram #BookishThoughts #MustRead2026
This isn’t your typical mystery where everything is clean and clever and tied up in a bow. This is messy. Loud. Emotional. It’s about Brandon—our resident hopeless romantic who falls in love after approximately five minutes and zero critical thinking—who hooks up with Jon, a hotel guest who is hot, mysterious, and immediately suspicious to literally everyone except Brandon. When Jon ghosts (as men like that always do), Brandon decides this is not a red flag but a romantic challenge and goes looking for him… only to witness a murder and see Jon fleeing the scene like a man who absolutely does not have good intentions.
Naturally—and by naturally, I mean terribly—Brandon ropes in his equally chaotic crew: Ollie, the soft-hearted, true-crime-loving dog walker carrying grief like a second skin; Nicole, the overworked, hyper-disciplined lawyer slowly losing herself to a life she thought she wanted; and Ian, the sharp-tongued, emotionally volatile, nonbinary drag queen/bookstore employee who is one minor inconvenience away from choosing violence at all times. Together, they form the least qualified detective agency in history… and yet somehow, you believe in them anyway.
And that’s the thing. This book isn’t really about solving the murder—it’s about the people trying to survive it. It’s about friendship that’s messy and imperfect and sometimes a little cruel, but still deeply rooted in love. It’s about being in your twenties and feeling like everyone else is moving forward while you’re stuck figuring out who you even are. It’s about grief, ambition, loneliness, identity… and yeah, also crime.
“But it was so good to feel like he was special.”
That line? It hit harder than it had any right to. Because underneath all the humor and chaos, there’s this very real, very human ache running through the entire story. Brandon’s desperation to believe in love. Nicole’s slow realization that success doesn’t always equal happiness. Ollie’s quiet loneliness. Ian’s anger that masks something softer underneath. These characters aren’t polished—they’re raw, flawed, and sometimes deeply frustrating… but that’s exactly what makes them feel real.
The multiple POV structure gives you a front-row seat to how differently each of them processes the same chaos, which I loved conceptually—even if, yes, there were moments where it felt a little repetitive. But honestly? I didn’t even care that much because I was too busy being emotionally invested in this absolute disaster of a friend group.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars
This is for the reader who wants their mystery with personality. Who loves found family dynamics more than perfectly plotted twists. Who enjoys a little chaos, a little humor, and a lot of heart. If you like your stories to feel like a group chat spiraling out of control at 2am while someone casually mentions witnessing a murder… congratulations, this is your book.
Also, can we talk about the fact that these people continuously made the worst possible decisions and I still would trust them with my life? Because same.
So now I need to know—are you the logical friend trying to stop the chaos… or are you grabbing the metaphorical flashlight and saying “wait, let’s investigate”?
#TheDisasterGayDetectiveAgency #LevACRosen #NetGalley #PoisonedPenPress #BookReview #ARCReview #LGBTQBooks #QueerReads #MysteryBooks #CozyMystery #FoundFamily #Bookstagram #ReadersOfInstagram #BookishThoughts #MustRead2026
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC of The Disaster Gay Detective Agency by Lev AC Rosen!
The Disaster Gay Detective Agency is exactly what it promises to be: chaotic, queer, funny, heartfelt, and just a touch unhinged. If Only Murders in the Building had a baby with Clue and raised it on true-crime podcasts and Disney fairytale romances, this book would be the result.
The story follows a group of queer twenty-somethings who accidentally stumble into a murder mystery they have absolutely no business solving. Their friend group feels incredibly lived-in, with that subtle drifting-apart tension that hits painfully close to home for anyone in their mid-20s. Throughout the story, we jump between their POVs, and while that’s not usually my preference, I ended up really liking how fully fleshed out every character felt. There is a little repetition between POVs—sometimes we see the same scene or the same texts more than once—but it’s a minor complaint in an otherwise incredibly fun ride. Honestly, it feels like something that would work even better as a movie montage.
Brandon, first of all, completely stole my heart. He is the perfect disaster gay—sweet, earnest, hopelessly romantic, and frankly too dumb for this world in the most endearing way possible. Imagine if Ted Mosby and SpongeBob had a baby. That’s Brandon. I wanted to put him in bubble wrap.
Ollie, though, is my absolute favorite. A dog walker who doesn’t have his life figured out and feels left behind as the group gets older, he is both painfully relatable and wildly entertaining. He’s the true-crime-obsessed friend who is convinced he can solve the case, the ultimate yes-man because he genuinely wants his friends to be happy. He never puts Brandon down, and his encouragement is so sweet.
Ian is Brandon’s roommate—cynical, angry, a little toxic in relationships, and deeply loyal. Beneath the prickliness, all they want is to protect the people they love.
Nicole, the lawyer (well, assistant), is the most practical one of the group. She works nonstop but still shows up when it matters, and by the end, I was genuinely proud of her.
The mystery itself is surprisingly fun and twisty. It has that classic, slightly old-fashioned “amateur sleuths making terrible choices” energy—think Scooby-Doo, but if Fred and Velma were queer millennials with anxiety. I kept laughing at their decision-making (or, more accurately, the lack of it).
As for the plot twists: I knew Jon (or Conner, whatever his name is) was shady from the start, but watching Brandon trip headfirst into crush-fueled delusion was both hilarious and heartbreaking. It stings because Brandon deserves the world, and Jon was absolutely not it. Hopefully, he finds someone better in the next book. And I knew Ellen was in on it!
The finale is wild, chaotic, and perfect for this little disaster squad. Is this the most realistic story? Absolutely not. Does it need to be? Absolutely not. It’s fun, silly, heartfelt, and full of friendship, queer joy, and questionable decisions.
Also? Ian and Heart Eyes? I love them and cannot WAIT for the gang to find out. XD
By the end, I wasn’t just entertained—I was genuinely sad to say goodbye to this group. I would 100% read an entire series about these disaster gays solving crimes they are wildly unqualified for.
The Disaster Gay Detective Agency is exactly what it promises to be: chaotic, queer, funny, heartfelt, and just a touch unhinged. If Only Murders in the Building had a baby with Clue and raised it on true-crime podcasts and Disney fairytale romances, this book would be the result.
The story follows a group of queer twenty-somethings who accidentally stumble into a murder mystery they have absolutely no business solving. Their friend group feels incredibly lived-in, with that subtle drifting-apart tension that hits painfully close to home for anyone in their mid-20s. Throughout the story, we jump between their POVs, and while that’s not usually my preference, I ended up really liking how fully fleshed out every character felt. There is a little repetition between POVs—sometimes we see the same scene or the same texts more than once—but it’s a minor complaint in an otherwise incredibly fun ride. Honestly, it feels like something that would work even better as a movie montage.
Brandon, first of all, completely stole my heart. He is the perfect disaster gay—sweet, earnest, hopelessly romantic, and frankly too dumb for this world in the most endearing way possible. Imagine if Ted Mosby and SpongeBob had a baby. That’s Brandon. I wanted to put him in bubble wrap.
Ollie, though, is my absolute favorite. A dog walker who doesn’t have his life figured out and feels left behind as the group gets older, he is both painfully relatable and wildly entertaining. He’s the true-crime-obsessed friend who is convinced he can solve the case, the ultimate yes-man because he genuinely wants his friends to be happy. He never puts Brandon down, and his encouragement is so sweet.
Ian is Brandon’s roommate—cynical, angry, a little toxic in relationships, and deeply loyal. Beneath the prickliness, all they want is to protect the people they love.
Nicole, the lawyer (well, assistant), is the most practical one of the group. She works nonstop but still shows up when it matters, and by the end, I was genuinely proud of her.
The mystery itself is surprisingly fun and twisty. It has that classic, slightly old-fashioned “amateur sleuths making terrible choices” energy—think Scooby-Doo, but if Fred and Velma were queer millennials with anxiety. I kept laughing at their decision-making (or, more accurately, the lack of it).
As for the plot twists: I knew Jon (or Conner, whatever his name is) was shady from the start, but watching Brandon trip headfirst into crush-fueled delusion was both hilarious and heartbreaking. It stings because Brandon deserves the world, and Jon was absolutely not it. Hopefully, he finds someone better in the next book. And I knew Ellen was in on it!
The finale is wild, chaotic, and perfect for this little disaster squad. Is this the most realistic story? Absolutely not. Does it need to be? Absolutely not. It’s fun, silly, heartfelt, and full of friendship, queer joy, and questionable decisions.
Also? Ian and Heart Eyes? I love them and cannot WAIT for the gang to find out. XD
By the end, I wasn’t just entertained—I was genuinely sad to say goodbye to this group. I would 100% read an entire series about these disaster gays solving crimes they are wildly unqualified for.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC in exchange for a review.
CW: gun violence, murder, mentions of parental death
This book was a lot of fun!
I loved that the cast were disastrous queer people right from the start and that each perspective felt like different people with their own voices. I loved following this group of friends navigate a kind of ridiculous situation, and how they cared and showed up for one another (the representation within this group of friends was really nice to see too!). The mystery was also interesting and I wanted to see how it would unfold. But, while I liked a lot of elements of this book, it didn't hit every mark for me.
The main issue I had was the repetition. I understand that the point of having the same texts or scenes across multiple POVs is to show how each character reacts to these things, but this went on and on and on until I could basically recite what was going to be written. I don't need things that were said a page ago to be rehashed again and again (there's a scene at the end that would just never end — it was taking one step forwards and five steps back). I found this type of repetition to make the writing style tell more than show, and I struggle to enjoy those types of writing styles on the best of days.
On the topic of tell more than show, I didn't really see the chemistry between most of the romantic pairings. We were told that one character found another sexy or told explicitly from another's POV that these characters have chemistry, but it wasn't shown as much. I totally understand that romance was not really the point of this book, however, I think being able to see instead of being told makes what's going on more believable and draws the reader further into the story.
While I liked the multiple POVs, there was one that I didn't think was signalled as a new POV very well. I was extremely confused when one POV just changed to another in a new paragraph since that hadn't been the case before. Personally, I would've liked to have seen a more significant separation, or for that POV to have not been included at all — in the scheme of things, it didn't add much.
As for the mystery itself, it was as chaotic as the main characters. There were some elements that I felt weren't given enough closure, and I know that this book has a humorous tone, but some things were made light of that I didn't think should be (I'm generalising to avoid spoilers). It's definitely a personal preference!
On a sort of funny note, I went into this book thinking it was YA (I've read a few of the author's other books), and very quickly realised it was very much not when I got to the first sex scene. Completely my bad!
As a whole, I enjoyed The Disaster Gay Detective Agency as a fast-paced mystery with a bunch of messy queer people, and I'm looking forward to reading more of the author's work.
CW: gun violence, murder, mentions of parental death
This book was a lot of fun!
I loved that the cast were disastrous queer people right from the start and that each perspective felt like different people with their own voices. I loved following this group of friends navigate a kind of ridiculous situation, and how they cared and showed up for one another (the representation within this group of friends was really nice to see too!). The mystery was also interesting and I wanted to see how it would unfold. But, while I liked a lot of elements of this book, it didn't hit every mark for me.
The main issue I had was the repetition. I understand that the point of having the same texts or scenes across multiple POVs is to show how each character reacts to these things, but this went on and on and on until I could basically recite what was going to be written. I don't need things that were said a page ago to be rehashed again and again (there's a scene at the end that would just never end — it was taking one step forwards and five steps back). I found this type of repetition to make the writing style tell more than show, and I struggle to enjoy those types of writing styles on the best of days.
On the topic of tell more than show, I didn't really see the chemistry between most of the romantic pairings. We were told that one character found another sexy or told explicitly from another's POV that these characters have chemistry, but it wasn't shown as much. I totally understand that romance was not really the point of this book, however, I think being able to see instead of being told makes what's going on more believable and draws the reader further into the story.
While I liked the multiple POVs, there was one that I didn't think was signalled as a new POV very well. I was extremely confused when one POV just changed to another in a new paragraph since that hadn't been the case before. Personally, I would've liked to have seen a more significant separation, or for that POV to have not been included at all — in the scheme of things, it didn't add much.
As for the mystery itself, it was as chaotic as the main characters. There were some elements that I felt weren't given enough closure, and I know that this book has a humorous tone, but some things were made light of that I didn't think should be (I'm generalising to avoid spoilers). It's definitely a personal preference!
On a sort of funny note, I went into this book thinking it was YA (I've read a few of the author's other books), and very quickly realised it was very much not when I got to the first sex scene. Completely my bad!
As a whole, I enjoyed The Disaster Gay Detective Agency as a fast-paced mystery with a bunch of messy queer people, and I'm looking forward to reading more of the author's work.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This was my first Rosen book and I liked it.
It was a bit complicated to read with all four of them getting their own chapters and many scenes/text messages getting repeated. But I loved the story.
Hopeless romantic Brandon falls in insta-love with a hotel guest and then crimes and whatnots happen and our chaotic Fantastic Four try to find out what is going on and who are the bad people here. While trying to survive all that plus life and friendships and relationships and expectations and hopes and fears!
It could've been edited a tiny bit better or written with a bit more interesting/detailed/exciting/moving et cetera content and not so many repetitions - but I really enjoyed reading this.
Funny, crazy, exciting, chaotic, queer, adorable, mysterious. Wouldn't mind getting a series about those four with their own Detective Agency!
click ►HERE - to buy the book!
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