Paris Secord—known as DJ ParSec to her growing fan base—is throwing one last pop-up party before taking the world by storm. But then she’s unexpectedly murdered. Her body is found by Paris’ friends, Kya and Fuse, but the two are sworn enemies. But in order to find ParSec’s killer, they’ll have to set their differences aside and work together. Spin is a fast-paced, intricately layered whodunit: Be prepared to stay up late to finish it.
Edgar Award-nominated author Lamar Giles (Overturned) serves up plenty of potential suspects in this thriller, from a demanding ex-boyfriend to ParSec’s older manager who was fired, to a subset of fans whose love sometimes turns into obsession. Fuse and Kya have to bridge uncomfortable class divisions to find common ground; they unite in the belief that the police don’t care about finding their friend’s killer, an assumption that’s proven to be not entirely correct. The generational gap between these tech-savvy kids and their parents—whose 1980s and ’90s rap and R&B records are the classics these teens were raised on and inspired by—tugs at the reader’s heart.
By the time the killer is sussed out, our frenemies have found they have more than their late friend in common. Giles has created a true-to-form mystery that’s utterly modern and occasionally surreal. (The horror movie masks favored by ParSec’s more out-there fans are deeply creepy, just like their behaviors.) Even the title, Spin, is eventually revealed to mean more than it does at first glance, just one more twist in this gripping thriller.
