KATHLEEN GLASGOW, LIZ LAWSON
(Book 1 of The Agathas)
Synopsis:
Welcome to Castle Cove — a town cursed with missing girls, bad boyfriends, family secrets, and some very steep cliffs.
Last summer, Alice Ogilvie'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. Or at least it was. Because 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 family is offering. 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.
Luckily, Alice has exactly what they need to crack the case — the complete works of Agatha Christie. If there's anyone who 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 ...
Content:
Language: Infrequent use of "f" as well as other strong language and some more mild swearing.
Violence: Descriptions of a dead body, theorizing over how the murder might have occurred, investigation into motives and suspects, discussions and a brief display of domestic violence and abuse, car crashes, some minor descriptions of blood, but nothing gory. The book is very centered on the investigation part of the mystery, a bit in the vein of Agatha Christie's mysteries.
It's not violence, but there are also mentions of drugging and teen drinking, as well as mentions of smoking weed and being high.
Sex: There are several allusions and brief discussions of sex, mentions of casual "hooking up," a sex tape (though it is not gone into explicitly), mentions of having lost their virginity, and brief descriptions of pornography. One of the teachers at school and their habit to sleep around with the staff is discussed a little more in-depth, but there are still no explicit details.
LGBTQ: One female character is mentioned to date girls.
My Review: I enjoyed this far more than I thought I would. I had heard from someone else who read it that they found the end to be lackluster, but I actually thought it was great. I had some issues with the story overall—I think it would have been fun to have more suspects and have the girls less focused on one person, and the final confrontation with the culprit left lingering questions. Still, I loved the development of the characters and all of the Christie references. I'm excited to see what happens in the second one.