When heiress Brooke Donovan disappears, the town of Castle Cove is left wondering if she's copying her ex-best friend Alice (who just needed to get away for a few days after a bad breakup), or if there's something more sinister at hand.

Even though their friendship is long over, Alice can't quite believe that Brooke would try to pull a stunt like she did. There has to be another explanation. But before she can spend too much time trying to solve the case, she has to pass history class... Thankfully, Iris Adams needs some extra cash, so she agrees to tutor Alice. But who can focus on homework when there's a mystery to be solved! When Brooke's body is found, Alice and Iris team up to make sure that the wrong person doesn't go away for a crime they didn't commit.

This YA murder mystery was so fun and such a page turner. I flew through it in one sitting! If you're a fan of One of Us is Lying or A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, you'll absolutely want to get your hands on this book as soon as possible!

Beyond the story, one thing I really appreciated were the notes at the end of the book with a few crisis websites/hotlines. There are a few topics covered in this book (domestic violence, dating violence) that the mostly teen audience of this book may need some help navigating, and adding these resources is a really great lifeline for readers.

4.5/5 rounded up. I hope to see more of these characters in the future! Thanks to Random House Children's, Delacorte Press, and NetGalley for an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Content warning: domestic violence

“What would Agatha Christie do?”

Alice Ogilvie was on top of the world until her boyfriend, Steve, broke up with her…then started dating her best friend. Heartbroken and embarrassed, Alice takes a page from her favorite author, Agatha Christie, and disappears for five days. The community of Castle Cove went into a frenzy, only for Alice to reappear unharmed. No one knows what happened or where Alice was.

Iris Adams just wants to be invisible. She wants to go to school, save money, and get out of Castle Cove with her mom as soon as possible. When she’s given the opportunity to tutor Alice, she agrees. The Ogilvie family has money and is willing to pay for Iris’s services. How could she say no?

But then Steve’s current girlfriend (and Alice’s former best friend) goes missing. People assume Brooke is copying Alice and will return safely. But Alice knows Brooke and she wouldn’t just disappear like this. There’s also a hefty reward for any information regarding Brooke’s whereabouts or if anyone can solve the case, which would help Iris and her mom get out of town.

Soon, Alice and Iris go from tutoring sessions to stakeouts, as they try to solve the case. But searching for the truth can be dangerous.

Y’all. I LOVED THIS BOOK.

I am a huge Agatha Christie fan, so the synopsis of this book had me so excited– and it did not disappoint! It’s a fast-paced, thrilling, funny, twisty mystery.

I read a lot of twisty mysteries, so I always say that it’s hard to surprise me. While I had my suspicions about certain twists, I definitely didn’t catch everything coming and I still thoroughly enjoyed each twist.

I loved all of the different layers to the story. We had the central mystery of what happened to Brooke, but also where did Alice go for the five days she was missing? And why does Iris want to leave town so badly?

I also enjoyed Spike, Zora, and Neil. They were great side characters and I wanted to see more of them. And I appreciated that these characters (plus others, including adults) believed Alice and Iris and trusted in their investigative abilities. In most books, characters are dismissed as teenage girls who don’t know what they’re doing. But they were actually respected and I loved seeing that.

Overall, I just really loved this book. I had hyped it up so much in my head and I wasn’t disappointed.

Plot: This was a great mystery, that took several twists and turns!

Characters: Alice and Iris were great main characters, and I liked the supporting cast.

The Cover: I like it!

Overall: I thought this was a great YA mystery, that I would definitely recommend to anyone who thinks it sounds interesting!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

The Agathas is a young adult whodunit that will entertain you as you try to follow the clues to who murdered a popular girl in a small affluent town. The story is told through the alternating perspectives of Alice and Iris. Alice comes from affluent parents who are almost completely absent in her life, other than providing monetary support and paying for a caretaker who actually cares for her. Iris comes from a single working parent household, a household she's determined to protect and support. So obviously, these two are completely opposite in many ways...most ways, really, but they unite to try to solve this murder and go from frenemies to true friends. As Alice uses Agatha Christie's methodology and Iris uses her friends and their broad knowledge base, they go step by step through the events leading up to the death, relentlessly trying to get to the bottom of what happened. There's humor and emotion and twists and The Agathas left me with hope that we'll see these characters team up again.

I loved this book! Fun, intriguing and spot on with the writing of teenage girls. I was invested in finding out how this would all end up and if the characters that I was most interested in would survive. I felt like I was right back in high school with how vivid the writing was (I enjoyed it much more this time). I highly recommend The Agathas.

Have you pre-ordered a copy? You should. You really should.
A fast, propulsive read, this book is so much fun. With just enough tropes (mean girls, zoners, poor little rich girl and a missing heiress) to get readers hooked, the Agathas plants well timed twists to keep readers off balance enough that they won’t see the end coming but will enjoy the satisfying conclusion. Full of secrets and drama while also light enough to comfortably hand to middle school students. All the characters are hiding secrets, but Alice and Iris are complex, making sometimes bad but understandable choices. I enjoyed the reading ride but it was the developing friendships that helped this book resonate. Dual narration trades between Iris and Alice sprinkled with text conversations and tv reporting. I can’t wait to read more of Iris and Alice’s adventures. I love that they are collecting a team around them and know other readers will also hope you are already considering the next volume.

For libraries where Karen McManus’s books and GGGTM series are popular be sure to purchase multiple copies. This is the book all those readers are going to DEVOUR this summer.

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to preview this title that publishes 5/3/22.

Privileged but ignored at home and outcast at school, Alice pairs up with Iris, her tutor, to find her former best friend who went missing at a Halloween party. Secrets, clues, and plenty of suspects keep them on a twisty path throughout the story. While some slang is quite outdated, and some incidents are pretty unrealistic (it IS fiction, though, right?), I really liked the characters and how they worked together. I’m hoping this is the start of a series that will be refined in the next installment.

Thank you to Random House Children's, Delacorte Press, Netgalley, and the authors for early access to this engaging mystery.

Is it me or was this book was awesome!! We meet two teens, Alice who is a rich popular girl, ran away from home the town was on a frenzy and then she came back, not saying where she went or what really happened to her. Then we meet Iris, she is not popular, but she is a smart girl, and likes to stay under the radar, they both have a lot in common, they don't realize it until something happens to Alice's ex bestfriend, who stole her boyfriend by the way.

Lets not get into the whole "she stole my boyfriend" there is so much going on this book that I really did not care for any of that crap, the mystery of what happened to Brooke was more of an interest, there so much mystery with her disappearance, HUGE who done it scenarios, and also what the characters are going through in their individual lives.

I am a huge true crime fan, that when Alice references Agatha Christie for practically everything when it comes to getting evidence to get the right person in jail, I was in LOVE! The twists and turns were worth it and I couldn't put the book down.

Thanks Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

The Agathas is the best of both worlds: a charmingly classic mystery with a modern twist. I seriously had so much fun with this book, it reminded me of the first book in the A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder series. It’s the perfect summer beach read.

This mystery follows a girl named Alice Ogilvie, a rich girl who disappeared for five days after her boyfriend Steve dumped her, and she won’t tell anyone what happened. After Steve’s new girlfriend (and Alice’s former best friend) Brooke Donovan goes missing and Steve is arrested, Alice takes it upon herself to prove his innocence. With the help of Iris Adams, Alice’s fellow classmate and tutor, the two girls try to figure out the mystery of Brooke Donovan with the knowledge of Agatha Christie’s works.

SEE. It’s books like these that make me wish that I’ve read all of Agatha Christie’s books! I mean, sure, there’s like 76 of them but still. Every chapter of this book began with a relevant Agatha Christie quote! It adds to the charm of the entire story, especially if you know Agatha Christie’s books.
Alice and Iris are very much modern teenagers worrying about modern things. I actually liked that aspect, because it kept the story from being too “cozy-mystery-esque”. The entire story takes place in a little beach-side town, so you’d think it would be very calm right? NOPE! I love how both of our main characters kept secrets, and while they took inspiration from Agatha Christie’s works, they always did their own thing.

The PLOT. YES. I have several major complaints with the majority of YA mystery-thrillers but one of the biggest ones is the lack of complexity which leads to predictability. Luckily, The Agathas doesn’t have that problem. Even if I predicted something, it would be close to when it was revealed. The entire story is well-plotted, with plenty of twists and turns that keep it constantly exciting. It also rarely feels contrived. And most of the characters aren’t obnoxious and surrounded by useless drama that’s supposed to make it feel like a “thriller”.

I seriously wish that this were a series because Alice and Iris have great friendship chemistry. They’re willing to do a lot of things to get the truth, and they have solid deduction skills! Plus, the side characters (particularly Iris’s friend group) are a ton of fun. I just genuinely had a great time reading this for countless reasons.

So that’s it! Tell me: do you enjoy YA mysteries? This is by far one of my favorites that I’ve ever read. This comes out May 3rd! A huge thank you to the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review :)

Alice is trying to blend into the crowd after her "disappearance," but when her former best friend is missing, she enlists the help of her new tutor, Iris, to find out what happened.

What an amazing, twisty journey this was! The characters are so fleshed out (except for maybe the Zoners, but they weren't in it enough to really make a difference). Alice is the "poor little rich girl" trope, but her passion for mystery and Christie make her stand out. I really enjoyed her perspective. Iris is poor, and her and her mother are in a domestic violence situation. Her drive to save her mother pushes her into the story for the reward money, and you get to see a genuine friendship between the girls blossom.

The mystery is so good, too! There were twists, turns, and red herrings! There were so many layers to this story that I just blew through the second half. You don't just get a mystery, but you also follow Alice and Iris as they try to work through their own personal lives and it worked to well together.

Name of Book: The Agathas
Author: Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson
Genre: YA/Teen Mystery
Publisher: Random House Children’s ~ Delacorte Press
Pub Date: May 3, 2022
My Rating: 3.5 + ~ Rounded up

I know I am not the target audience but I do enjoy a good YA story (as a high school guidance counselor I always like to know what my students are reading and also to make suggestions.)

This title got my attention and yes as indicates ~ this story has an Agatha Christie vibe to it.

Castle Cove residences were more than concerned when Alice Ogilive disappeared for five day right after her boyfriend breaks off their relationship so that he can date Alice’s best friend Brooke.
Now it is late October, Alice is back at school and is assigned Iris Adams as a tutor.
I just love Iris ~ my experience has been there are far more Iris type students in High School but the Alice type students or the really bad students get all the attention.

Okay back to Alice and Iris~
They are an interesting pair as they stand up for Brooke. Alice is an Agatha Christie fan and decides the two of them are solve this!
What would Agatha do?
I enjoyed this sooo much ~ not the typical formula driven YA ~ e.g. drugs, sex, profanity, bulling and all the other nasty teen stuff  Ture this happens but I get upset when the authors don’t offer a section on resources for help.
I totally did a fist bump when I saw that these two authors have a ~ “Where to get Help” ~ section and mentions situations in the story that teens might relate and want to know who they can talk to for help for themselves or for a someone they know.
Story kept me curious.
Love Iris!
In fact, I look forwards to the next Ogilive/Adams adventure ~
BTW: I don’t remember that the female last name thing being popular but I am okay with it!

Want to thank NetGalley and Random House Children’s ~ Delacorte Press for this eGalley. This file has been made available to me before publication in an early form for an honest professional review.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for May 3, 2022.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the authors for an eARC of this title!

4.5/5 stars

What a fun book/start of a series! I love the Agathas!

Alice and Iris are an unlikely duo, two teens who think they are as opposite as can be but find out they have more in common as their relationship grows. Alice is the formerly popular girl and an Agatha Christie aficionado, drawn to the books as a talisman in her lonely life. Iris is the smart girl who blends into the background, with a secret to hide. Together, they are determined to find out what happened to classmate/former friend Brooke Donovan, who disappears on Halloween night. They are grossly underestimated, as teen girls often are. They aren't buying the explanation given for the events of that night, and along with a supporting crew of misfits, work to find the truth through a twisty series of discoveries and realizations.

I really liked the Agatha quotes at the beginning of Alice's chapters, foreshadowing the content of the chapter. There was a delightful blending of Agatha's books in the mystery tropes used throughout.

I also really appreciated the summary of the big reveal in the epilogue of the book, under the guise of explaining everything to one of the side characters. Too often, I get to the end of a YA suspense, thriller, or mystery book (or any book, really), and struggle to put everything together. The summary is an underutilized tool!

I loved the book and can't wait to see what the Agathas have in store in the future!

this book was so much fun! i was flying through it, even from the beginning, but once i got to the fifty percent mark, i couldn't stop and read the whole second half in one sitting. it was such an easy to read, fast-paced mystery, and i had such a great time with it.

Thank you NetGalley for this copy of the Agathas! I actually already preordered this book so it’s so exciting to read it before it arrives!

Alice disappeared for 11 days last summer, ya know like her idol Agatha Christie. So much has changed since then like mostly all of her popular friends have abandoned her. Iris, not one of the mains, takes an evening walk. While on her walk, she sees popular girl Brooke run past her clearly upset. The next day Brooke is missing.

What I enjoyed about this the most was the unlikely friendship. Alice and iris are randomly paired up to study, but instead use this time to try and figure out what happened to Brooke, aka Alice’s former best friend. There investigation is complete with a full notebook, a murder board, and of course there’s a mysterious texter (bc why wouldn’t there be?!)

This book was equal parts fun snd ridiculous (in a good way) and I would totally love to see this as a series! I mean it was hinted at at the end right?? Right?!?

This book was amazing! and I want so bad for this to be a series and see Iris, Alice and the gang solve another mystery..

The Agathas has ups and down, twists and turns, and new friendships that neither party expect to develop.
Alice was one of the Mains.. the rich kids that run the school.. that is until she disappeared for days and came back refusing to tell anyone what happened. Now shes a social pariah in her old group..

When her ex-best friend Brooke goes missing, the only suspect in the case seems to be her ex-boyfriend.. However Alice doesn't believe he had anything to do with it.. WIth the help of her tutor Iris, and her favorite mystery author Agatha Christy, Alice and Iris make quite the crime solving duo! Alice will dig deep through the town secrets to figure out what happened to Brooke. With Alice's certainty that Steve couldn't have done anything to Brooke, they begin to look for other suspects and BOY do they find some good ones. As soon as you think you know who did it, we get another twist and things go off in a new direction..

Its too bad that the police seem to have tunnel vision when it comes to suspects and are only considering Steve.. Now with the help from the Zoners, Iris' group of friends from school and a mysterious CI, they have to find the evidence to back up their theories..

This story was so good, and has actually made me want to read some Miss Marple and Poirot..

This was a fun mystery. I loved the concept of the girls being inspired by Agatha Christie and using her stories as knowledge to help them. The mystery wasn’t very difficult to solve and I guessed it very early on although it was still enjoyable. I didn’t enjoy some of the characters, but I really just think that YA books aren’t for me. If you’re a fan of YA mysteries then I think you would really like this!

This was a super fun murder mystery! I loved the Agatha Christie references everywhere! Alice and Iris turned out to be quite the duo and I enjoyed reading their story! I would have liked a little more focus on Alice's disappearance, but overall, it was a solid story!

The Agathas is a really fun read that also drives home in a realistic, yet engaging way the true meaning of friendship, the harm that exclusion and jumping to conclusions and thoughtless remarks and snobbishness can do.

Meet Alice, a not-so-typical poor little rick kid, and Iris, a not-so-typical brilliant student who isn’t rich. Alice’s parents are paying Iris to tutor their daughter because…last summer she disappeared for five days and the town turned upside down looking for her. She missed school as she was confined to her home over what some considered a prank.

And then things get interesting. Alice’s former best friend, who stole her boyfriend, disappears. And neither her father nor the police seem that concerned. So Alice, who whittled away her confinement reading Agatha Christie novels, and Iris decide to go looking, notebook and all. Joined by Iris’s friends who have been studying forensics, yep, a body is found, and then things get interesting.

Good book on relationships delivered via a gripping story. Thanks, Netgalley, for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

This was a great murder mystery, and I enjoyed reading it. The Agathas is about Alice Ogilve, the rich girl who before this had disappeared for five days this summer and suddenly appeared back in town and became an outcast from her circle and is obsessed with Agatha Christie's novels, and Iris Adams, the "invisible" girl who was assigned to tutor Alice. This unlikely pairing then decide to uncover the truth of Brooke Donovan's mysterious disappearance that led to murder.

I enjoyed this. I've always love YA murder mysteries, and I love when the setting is in a rich town such as this. I liked the main characters well enough (although I had doubts 10% in because as much as I liked Iris, Alice was too dislikeable for me in the beginning), and I liked the Agatha Christie references and the way they help Alice and Iris create this investigation. I also really liked how Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson wrote how the mystery unravels, and I thought it was well-paced at best.

However, as much as it was an enjoyable read and a page turner, that was it. It didn't kept me engrossed and I didn't feel attached to the characters, like they were just there to solve this and that's it. I also didn't really like how there are new characters involved in the last 20% of pages and how the disappearance of Alice is only minimally discussed with this new character coming in at last minute. There are also side characters that I feel like could have had a bigger part in the mystery but I didn't feel personality from any of them at all.

That being said, I would totally recommend this for anyone who wants a short and quick mystery read that will kept you guessing. Definitely something I'd recommend for fans of murder mysteries.

This book had teenagers becoming investigators!!! Alice and Iris were determined to solve a crime, and what they uncovered was shocking. There were points where I thought I figured it out. NOPE! This was a page turner I enjoyed this read.