Title:
Zodiac P.I., Book OnePublisher’s rating:
Youth, Age 7+Genre:
MysteryPublisher's Website:
TokyopopAnime:
NoneSound bite:
A teenage sleuth solves murder mysteries with help from spirits of the zodiac. Good, old-fashioned mystery plots, spiced up with the supernatural angle. Includes murder scenes and discussion of suicide that may disturb younger children.My rating:
The murder scenes make this not suitable for most kids under 12, and even then, the talk of suicide may be troubling for some children.Kid Reviews:
ShojuOneMore details:
Plot Summary:
Lili is a schoolgirl who solves mysteries with the help of spirits who are associated with the signs of the zodiac. She is competing with her father, who is a policeman, and a classmate named Oikawa, a genius who already has a college degree in criminal justice.
The first volume has two mysteries. In the first, a classmate is found hanging from a tree, but Lili and Oikawa are convinced it is not a suicide. (In fact, the reader sees her being strangled on the first page.) Lili calls up the "astral spirit" of the student and uses her horoscope to gain insight into the case. Meanwhile, Oikawa uses old-fashioned deductive skills. Independently, they both figure out that a teacher murdered the girl.
In the second, a piano teacher is found dead in a practice room of a school that is supposedly haunted. Lili figures out that the teacher's fiance murdered him, using an elaborate booby trap. Then Oikawa points out that in fact, the knife missed the teacher--but he realized his fiance had set the trap, and he stabbed himself.
Character and morality:
Lili is a bit thoughtless and self-centered but basically wants to be helpful. Oikawa is more logical and less emotional, and the competitiveness between Lili and Oikawa helps drive the story along.
There is a great deal of talk of suicide in this book. The first murder is staged to look like a suicide. The second is committed by a woman whose first boyfriend did commit suicide--he was a gifted pianist until he was in an accident that destroyed his fingers. After revealing this, the murderer holds a knife to her own throat, but Lili stops her. In the end, Oikawa reveals that the teacher stabbed himself.
Violence:
Although there are only a few violent scenes, they may be graphic enough to disturb children. On the first page, we see a silhouette of a girl being strangled (see preview pages on the Tokyopop website for this page). A few pages later we see a vague outline representing her hanging corpse. When Lili confronts the murderer, he throttles her, but Oikawa interrupts them and Lili breaks free. In the second mystery, we see three views of the corpse: a bloody hand, a torso with a knife plunged into it and blood coming out, and the body from the rear, knife sticking up between the shoulder blades. We see this last scene a second time in a flashback.
Sexuality/body functions:
No sex or nudity. Oikawa is allergic to girls and breaks out in a rash whenever he touches one.
Language:
No offensive language.
Substances:
No drinking, drugs, or smoking.
