In the world of Jumata Emill’s young adult murder mysteries, the kids are alright—and they might even change the world after they finish cracking the case of the crimes that have rocked their high schools.

Emill’s second novel “Wander in the Dark” will be released by Delacorte Press on Tuesday and has already garnered rave reviews.

“I’ve always been drawn to young adult stories, ever since I was growing up,” Emill told The Dispatch in an interview. “I think that’s a really interesting time in a person’s life where you really start to see the world and figure it out for what it is.”

Like many classic teen stories, “Wander in the Dark” starts off at a high school party. Staying true to his Louisiana roots, Emill sets the opening act at a 16th birthday bash on Mardi Gras day in New Orleans for the son of a restaurant mogul. The shocking death of a popular girl from their prestigious private school leads to the arrest of a Black classmate, and no one believes in his innocence except his brother.

“The whole dynamic behind ‘Wander in the Dark’ came from a question that I had around privilege and whether or not Black people who are upper middle class or upper class share the same privileges that a white upper class person will have,” Emill said. “Going into writing this book, my thought was, ‘Well, yes, they can, but with conditions.’”

Emill’s first book “The Black Queen,” which he set in a fictional town in south Mississippi, took on racism from the angle of another rite of passage: high school homecoming.

Perhaps the biggest twist in his teen thrillers is who remains alive and well: the parents. While some young adult novels keep them out of the picture, Emill said he makes a point to involve adults.

“In both of my books, the parents have played such a central role in the story and what was happening to the kids. I think that’s more realistic too,” he said. “Sometimes all your kid needs you to do is just show up.”

“And a lot of times I think children need to understand that sometimes parents don’t always have the right answers, but they’re coming from a place of love, and sometimes maybe you’re going to have to meet them halfway,” he added.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Where are you right now?

I’m based right now in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which is where I was born and raised. But after I graduated college, I spent five years in Hattiesburg … where I had my first job as a newspaper reporter. I worked for the Hattiesburg American, and I covered crime and local politics there.

What was interesting about Hattiesburg, and I felt Mississippi in general, especially being a reporter covering it, is that you really got an inside look at how local politics work, how small-town communities operate, how—for lack of a better word—incestuous things can be. It’s interesting to explore it, and I learned a lot of things that at the time I didn’t know would influence my writing. I really got a front row seat to crime and how police do their jobs and the issues within police departments.

There’s a lot to unpack with the new book “Wander in the Dark.” It never gets light.

The thing about it is, I know that I don’t want to write about Black trauma all the time, because I have to live in it for so long writing these books. It takes a year to produce a book. I don’t want to live in this all the time. However, I do think these are important conversations to have. “Wander in the Dark” was really the book I really wanted to write before “The Black Queen.” You know, it is the book of my heart. It’s so personal.

There are two brothers who are the main characters in this book, Amir and Marcel. Is there one or the other who you connect with more, or is there a little bit of you in both of them?

A little bit of me in both. Marcel is a queer Black kid that I wish I was or could have been in high school at his age. That’s who I wish I could be. Amir has a lot of fragments of the anger and the frustrations that I used to have with my father growing up. So I kind of split myself into two and put pieces of me in both of them.

I would love for you to talk about the title of the book. This comes up about a third of the way through the book: “Brothers don’t let each other wander in the dark alone.”

I came across this quote and it kind of just stuck with me. I felt it was very, very profound. For me, I interpreted it as being: It doesn’t matter what you’re going through with your brother. … And this could be friendship or whatever. It doesn’t matter what’s happening. When times are dark, you band together, you pull together and you help each other out of that darkness. That’s how I interpreted it. I let that be the guiding principle of how I outlined the novel when I knew I wanted to explore this with two brothers.

Why do you write for young adults?

This stems from me being a teenager and not having books that featured kids that looked like me in them. I loved Nancy Drew. I loved the Hardy Boys. I used to read this book called Encyclopedia Brown. I loved them. But I always wanted — where are the books like that for the kids like me? Why can’t I see Black kids who are the quote unquote smartest kids in the room?

At the same time, I also want to have books in the world that white kids can read and really understand the nuances of race and walk in someone else’s shoes, and not have to rely on their Black friends to teach them these things. These are things that they can see and learn for themselves and learn how to be a better person.

Emily Liner is the owner of Friendly City Books, an independent bookstore and press in Columbus.