How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder by Nina McConigley

How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder is another COA novel, if defined somewhat loosely.

The fish out of water protagonists are mixed race sisters Agatha Krishna Creel and Georgie Ayyar Creel who live in tiny Marley, Wyoming. (They are named after their closet anglophile mother’s favorite authors Georgette Heyer and Agatha Christie.)

Being the only brown students at their school is bad enough, but things get much worse in the summer of 1986 when Uncle Vinny and his family arrive from India for an indefinite stay. Indefinite is cut short when the sisters decide that vile Uncle Vinny must die. And in Georgie’s mind, the British are to blame.  

In a bleakly humorous, acerbic voice, Georgie narrates a story of typical teenager preoccupations, the mall, magazine quizzes (particularly funny), dating, and family. And not so typical – murder, colonialism, and trauma.

Unpredictable and original. A highly recommended read.