Review: 'Skin Deep' (Siobhan O'Brien #1) by Sung J. Woo

Skin Deep has a lot of things I enjoy and yet, and yet, I am deeply, intensely conflicted about it. As a mystery it has all the fun and drama you might want, with an interesting protagonist and solid side characters. However, there are certain aspects of the main mystery I didn't feel were handled well, which affected by entire reading experience. Thanks to Datura Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 17/06/2025
Publisher: Datura Books

Korean-American adoptee Siobhan O'Brien has spent much of her life explaining her name and her family to strangers, but her more pressing problem is whether to carry on the PI agency that her dead boss unexpectedly left to her. Easing into middle age, Siobhan would generally rather have a donut than a romance, but when an old friend asks Siobhan to find her daughter who has disappeared from her dorm room, the rookie private detective's search begins in Llewellyn College.

A private institution of higher learning in upstate New York, Llewellyn, for the first time in its two- hundred-year history, has opened its doors to men, causing a clash between the female students and their former fashion-model president. The financial reasons prompting the change seem like a ruse when fringe-group The Womyn of Llewellyn, aided by Siobhan, discover a newly built science center, which is under 24-hour surveillance.

As Siobhan delves deeper into locating the missing girl and campus politics, she encounters vegan cooking that just might kill her, possibly deadly yoga poses, and politely dangerous billionaires.

To get the big thing out of the way first: there is a certain element of the mystery Siobhan needs to solve that, in my opinion, is handled in a way that is utterly irresponsible, especially in this day and age. I am going to discuss it here, so spoilers, although I'll attempt to be a little vague. Do skip to the next paragraph if you don't want any spoilers, but for those whose triggers may include female reproductive health issues, perhaps consider reading. Siobhan is asked to look for her friend's daughter, Penny, who has gone missing from university. Along the way, she ends up entangled in all kinds of other drama which is somewhat tangentially related. This latter drama, in my opinion, takes away the focus from Penny. I found this a little egregious, considering the things that are later revealed to have happened to her, which is almost treated like an afterthought. Skin Deep here plays with the tension surrounding elements of abortion and all kinds of conspiracy theories that play into it and I was legitimately a little shocked when this came up in an otherwise low-key cozy detective novel. Now, it's not that I am against these things being discussed. In fact, I think it is very important that they are discussed in a variety of different forums. Here, however, it is presented as a little shiny element of Shock and Horror and then just as casually set aside. In the current political climate in the US, I felt that this was a little irresponsible and unnuanced. Of course I don't know what kind of conversations took place about this behind the scenes, but it solidly affected my otherwise positive experience with the book.

Siobhan O'Brien finds herself at a crossroads. She has been left her boss' private detective company and isn't entirely sure if she is ready to run it all by herself. Enter the little sister of a childhood friend, who she had met at a summer camp for other Korean-born adoptees. Her daughter, Penny, herself adopted from Korea, has gone missing from university. Despite herself, Siobhan accepts the case and begins exploring the campus of Llewelyn College. There is more to this case than a young woman going no-contact with a slightly overbearing mother. The campus of Llewelyn College is in the midst of major changes and Penny's disappearance seems to be related. As Siobhan detects, more and more strange things occur which all seem to tangle around the college's president, a yoga retreat, and a super-wealthy Korean family. Reviewer Matthew Galloway described this book as "cozy-noir" on Goodreads and I think that is the perfect descriptor for it. It has the brooding and conflicted detective behind their big desk, the on-the-fly thinking, dark buildings with dark pasts, etc., but it is all covered in a slightly goofy and soothing sauce. Siobhan's interior monologue is very Millennial in a way I can't entirely put my finger on, but it's quite dry and sarcastic while also being empathetic. I really liked her as the protagonist and think I would've enjoyed following her on more mysteries, were it not for the above which made me feel icky. 

I haven't read anything by Sung J. Woo before, but I did enjoy much of the atmosphere he created in this book. Siobhan is fun as a main character and because of this also makes the whole detective work seem quite fun. I like that she is not some ingenue just stumbling across a case but rather someone who has studied and paid attention, meaning that it makes sense she would solve a case. However, the case itself is a bit all over the place. As I mentioned above, it begins with Penny being missing but then spirals higher and higher until it loses much of its shape and proportion. Now, detective mysteries do not need to be realistic to be fun or good or both. But if I need to so utterly and entirely suspend my disbelief that I begin appreciating billionaires then something has gone wrong for me. This might not be an issue for other readers, who'll enjoy the hijinks across campus, but for me it somewhat dampened my enthusiasm. Also, while Siobhan is a solid protagonist, other characters felt quite two-dimensional by design. I appreciate that mysteries have their stock characters, but even where there was an attempt to add some background and flesh to them, it was delivered in such a direct way that it didn't feel entirely natural. All of this might sound very critical and yet I did have a lot of fun with at least the first half of the book. I really enjoyed Siobhan's inner monologue and some of the tensions Woo set up within her arc. I also liked the initial mystery and its expansion into campus drama. But especially the last third pushed this into territory that felt underdeveloped and not fully thought out. I might pick up future Siobhan O'Brien mysteries, but I'm not entirely sure yet. 

I give this novel...

3 Universes!

In my rating I've tried to be fair both to the fact that I enjoyed much of Skin Deep and to the fact that I had serious issues with some of its focus. I'm in two minds about it, still, and don't know if I'll continue the series.