The Agathas
Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson
Delacorte Press
Published May 3, 2022

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About The Agathas

Last summer, Alice Ogilve’s basketball-star boyfriend Steve dumped her. Then she disappeared for five days. Where she went and what happened to her is the biggest mystery in Castle Cove, because she’s not talking. Or it was, at least. But now, another one of Steve’s girlfriends has vanished: Brooke Donovan, Alice’s ex–best friend. And it doesn’t look like Brooke will be coming back. . .

Enter Iris Adams, Alice’s tutor. Iris has her own reasons for wanting to disappear, though unlike Alice, she doesn’t have the money or the means. That could be changed by the hefty reward Brooke’s grandmother is offering to anyone who can share information about her granddaughter’s whereabouts. The police are convinced Steve is the culprit, but Alice isn’t so sure, and with Iris on her side, she just might be able to prove her theory.

In order to get the reward and prove Steve’s innocence, they need to figure out who killed Brooke Donovan. And luckily Alice has exactly what they need—the complete works of Agatha Christie. If there’s anyone that can teach the girls how to solve a mystery it’s the master herself. But the town of Castle Cove holds many secrets, and Alice and Iris have no idea how much danger they’re about to walk into.

My Review

I really enjoyed that this book celebrated Agatha Christie as an author and celebrated her books in a very accessible way. I’m not very familiar with the books, though I’ve seen a movie version of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. I also watched this Drunk History video on The Mysterious Disappearance of Agatha Christie. That’s about the whole of my knowledge of Agatha Christie.

The book includes a lot of quotes from Christie’s books. I thought those were really well-placed, and they added a lot to my expectations of each chapter where they were used.

In terms of the characters, THE AGATHAS is told from Alice and Iris’s points of view. I liked both girls right away. I felt like it was a little harder to get to know Alice, since she keeps everyone at arm’s length. It was hard to tell how she truly felt about her ex-boyfriend, Steve, and Brooke, her former best friend. I liked how she always had a plan and was clever.

The plot kept a good pace, and I really enjoyed the read. Sometimes mysteries are so serious that reading them is kind of intense, but I didn’t get that feeling here. It was like reading a mystery that also celebrated the genre, if that makes sense? So there were lots of elements of fun.

At the end of the book, the girls talk about the other unsolved mysteries in their town. Could they solve them? It made me wonder if there’s the possibility that this book could become a series? I haven’t seen anything about that anywhere, but I’ll be watching for news just in case.

Content Notes for The Agathas

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Both main characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief references to sex. No graphic descriptions. No sexual contact on scene.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content – Content Warning for domestic violence and murder.
Brief, graphic descriptions of murder. Some brief descriptions of a girl who was found after being in water for two days. Descriptions of and references to domestic violence.

Drug Content
In some scenes, teens drink alcohol. Twice, someone is drugged by a prescription pill in their beer.

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