Queen of the Tiles

Bringing to mind The Queen’s Gambit, Alkaf’s (The Weight of Our Sky) intense Malaysia-set murder mystery finds brown-skinned hijabi Najwa Bakri, 16, returning to the Scrabble tournament where her best friend, “Queen of the Tiles” Trina Low, died during a match one year prior. Still recovering from the trauma of Trina’s unexplainable sudden death, and navigating anxiety, panic attacks, and dissociative amnesia, Najwa is determined to become the new Scrabble royal in Trina’s honor. Najwa’s not the only one, though. Trina’s hot-tempered former boyfriend Mark, Mark’s reserved ex-girlfriend Puteri, distant and calculating Josh, and Trina’s bubbly childhood friend Yasmin, all 16, are also after the title. But when cryptic anagrams start posting to Trina’s Instagram, and secrets about last year’s tournament and the high-stakes world of competitive Scrabble come to a head, the group must decipher the anagrams and confront the mysterious circumstances behind Trina’s death. Clever chapter openings feature words alongside their Scrabble point values, and their definitions foreshadow the action in this carefully plotted drama that explores coping with loss as well as grief’s sometimes frustratingly nonlinear progression. Ages 12–up. Agent: Victoria Marini, Irene Goodman Literary. (Apr.)