More YA mysteries like this one, please!

I keep seeing this book being compared to Karen McManus’ work, and while that’s true in terms of pacing and readability, this is much more akin to Maureen Johnson’s work relative to quality and humor.

It bothers me that so many YA mysteries—though well paced and often a fun ride—aren’t often actually *good* mysteries. Too many cop out solves, plot holes, and willing to sacrifice quality for pacing and twists.

Much like Johnson’s work, The Agathas is proof that YA mysteries can be catchy and compelling as well as driven by good quality writing and plot.

I loved the characters, the setting, and the can’t-stop-reading pace of this book, but I loved it sharp humor and clever plotting even more. We should demand well-crafted mysteries with plausible solves out of the YA in this genre just as we do with adult books of this type. There are plenty of YA authors capable of such writing (as evidenced here), and plenty of audience in the genre who can appreciate it.

This has a twisty, complicated premise and two lovely heroines, and it’s also funny, sweet, and smart. I loved the clever nods to Agatha Christie throughout the story. Let’s hope there’s a sequel in the works…I need more time with Alice, Iris, and the rest of the gang!

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

Very fun, easy to read, fast paced murder mystery!

Kathleen Glasgow is one of my favorite YA Authors and when I heard she was writing a murder mystery, I HAD to have it! Per usual - she does not disappoint!

What I loved:

-Character-Driven
-Unlikely friendship
-Amateur sleuthing
-Real world issues
-Funny, at times!

The only thing that I didn't really love was that, even though this is 'YA', it still felt as though some of the dialogue was really juvenile; would have me thinking "no teenager talks like this". But that is just my perspective ! It did not take away from overall enjoyment!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press for this eARC copy!

Crystal Cove, a beautiful seaside town where the rich live among those that serve them. Alice Ogilvie is one of the Mains (rich girls) and last summer after her basketball star boyfriend, Steve, broke up with her she disappeared. Everyone was looking for her and one day she just showed back up and never talked about it again. Fast forward and Alice’s ex-best friend, Brooke Donovan, who happens to be Steve’s new girlfriend goes missing.

Iris Adams wants nothing more to escape Crystal Cove but lacking the money she agrees to tutor Alice. Soon the two pair up to solve the mystery of what happened to Brooke Donovan. Alice knows all about solving mysteries from reading all of Agatha Christie’s books. Can the girls solve the mystery or will the secrets of Crystal Cove threaten to ruin it all?

Pairing these two authors together is *chef’s kiss*! I’m a huge Veronica Mars fan and the setting/characters, just the total feeling of this book gave me Veronica Mars vibes. I loved not only the main characters but the secondary characters and hope that there are many more sequels and mysteries to solve.

I absolutely loved The Agathas. I am a huge Christie fan. I think it was great how that was used. Alice and Iris were believable and many of the minor characters were really fun too.

Oh how much I loved Alice and Iris in this story! I recently read Death On The Nile with my book club and it was so fun seeing the Agatha Christie quotes in this book! I thoroughly enjoyed every minute in this story and loved the twists and turns. The nods to Agatha were perfect and made the entire story feel familiar but new and fun. Alice and Iris were perfect and I love their sleuthing antics. Every moment was wonderful and such a refreshingly fun murder mystery. I loved it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

✔️ loved both Iris and Alice - they were both awesome characters, and learned and grew so much through the course of the book ; and their budding friendships 🥰
✔️a mystery very much in the style of Agatha Christie , although we’ve got emails, texts and social media thrown in to the mix
✔️ all the references to Poirot and Miss Marple - #AgathaChristie fans will love this ; not to mention the quotes at the beginning of each chapter

not particularly memorable or enjoyable if i'm being honest. none of the characters really spoke to me, nor did i find most of the plot that engaging. i did like the killer reveal, but now that i think about it it was quite franky painfully obvious from the very beginning.

I have been a fan of Kathleen Glasgow for a while now, so when I saw that she was a co-author of The Agathas I was all in! The Agathas is a fun, fast-paced young adult mystery involving 2 girls from different walks of life forming an unlikely friendship to solve the death of a local teen. Glasgow and Lawson tell this story in alternating character perspectives, both perfectly encapsulating what makes these girls unique. The authors create a cast of diverse, ragtag characters and the alternating perspectives move the story along so quickly that you can't put it down. Glasgow and Lawson do a fabulous job of weaving storylines and producing enough red herrings to keep you guessing til the end. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a fun, fast paced YA mystery.

I enjoyed this character-driven mystery novel about an unlikely pair of amateur teen sleuths who decide to solve a murder when their small-town police department botches the investigation into the disappearance of their classmate. Told in alternating perspectives, each girl holds one piece of the puzzle, but they must overcome their mistrust of each other in order to solve the case. This book is an homage to Agatha Christie, and like a good Christie story, there's always another layer of mystery to uncover before the story is finished. Fans of Holly Jackson's book "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" and Maureen Johnson's "Truly Devious" series will appreciate this one.

Yet another book where someone from the "ruling" class at school has become an outcast and winds up realizing that the friendship they have with a "loser" is stronger and more meaningful. The mystery part itself reminded me of other YA mysteries I've read, while the "Agatha" connection was so shoehorned in it could easily have been excised with no loss. Given the description I'd hoped for more of a connection, more using the books and themes than there was.

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

Although this is YA, I would not recommend for my 7th grade readers HOWEVER, I very much enjoyed this whodunnit!! I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the tie in of Agatha Christie. As a huge fan, I appreciated the quotes and references! I didn’t enjoy the emphasis on teen drinking but understand the role it played in the novel. I wasn’t expecting the ending! The kids working too to solve the case and showing how all walks of
Life can be friends really did it for me! There were some big words used in the book that I had to look up, overall it was a fun read!

An excellent start to this phenomenal series...hands down!! It does appear as a YA mystery thriller, but you are caught up in the characters for a can't-put-down book, you will forget it is what it is!!!
The descriptions of the teenagers behavior are all too real for me and encountering what they call themselves "Mains" the popular kids.... then there are the "Zones" or "Emo" more transitional students trying to figure out where they identify. As unfortunate as labels are, the book gives you an aspect of both we know exist.

In the small town of Castle Cove, Alice, one of the "Mains" is dumped by Steve for her best friend, Brooke. Alice is heartbroken and disappears for a week without an explanation of where she was when she returns. When Brooke disappears and doesn't return, all eyes are on Steve. With a $50,000 reward offered by Brooke's grandmother, Alice and Iris, "Zones" are on an adventure to solve the case.
I laughed aloud at the incredible duo and Iris's resilience to overcome stigma and dreams of getting out of this town. The bond between the two shatters the lines between them for an unforgettable mystery thriller they are to solve with none other than the Agatha Christie series as their guide.
You can't go wrong there! I can't wait to read #2!
Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children's books for this title in exchange for my honest review!

This book was so fun! I couldn’t put it down and ended up reading until 4am. For a YA book, it’s better written with more realistic relationships and twists than most adult thriller/mysteries today. I loved the growing friendship between the two main characters, and hope there’s a sequel or series in the works!

I was ecstatic to see that this is the first book in a new series!

I loved it. You all know I adore Agatha Christie, and this YA mystery is a fitting homage to her legacy. There were quotes from her works at the beginning of each chapter, and the characters referenced her books (and Hercule Poirot) frequently.

Aside from the Agatha connection, I enjoyed the multilayered characters and the twists and turns of the mystery. This book is more lightheaded than A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, but it's more emotional than Truly Devious. Fans of either series will enjoy this one, for sure!

I am an avid fan of Kathleen Glasgow and was beyond excited to receive the eARC of her newest book, The Agathas. This was an excellent mystery that is perfect to hand to fans of Karen M. McManus! I read so many mysteries and thrillers, and it is unusual for one to have be guessing all the way to the end, but Glasgow and Lawson did it!

I absolutely love Glasgow as an author, so this was on my TBR for the longest time. The characters were so interesting and funny. I loved the dual perspectives. The characters' internal dialogue was thoughtful and hilarious.

Thank you @delacortepress and @netgalley for the #gifted eARC of THE AGATHAS!

Calling all GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER and TRULY DEVIOUS fans! I have a new teen sleuthing duo that you will love!

Last summer, Alice Ogilvie disappeared for 5 days after her boyfriend Steve dumped her. No one knows where she went. Fast forward to Halloween, and Alice’s former BFF Brooke Donovan (who is now dating Steve) disappears from a party. Alice and her tutor, Iris Adams, think it's very sus that Brooke’s stepdad doesn’t seem worried that Brooke is missing. And that police don’t seem to care at all.

Alice has read every Agatha Christie book so she is convinced that with Iris’s help, they can find Brooke and figure out what happened. They just need to use their little gray cells.

As a teen detective fan and an Agatha Christie fan, I loved this book. The quotes that the authors included at the beginning of Alice’s chapters had me smirking with glee. There’s a scene where the girls decide to channel their inner Hercule Poirot and pretend to be French foreign exchange students in order to gain information from someone that was hilarious.

It sounds like this is being set up to be a series which I would absolutely love! Fingers crossed!

THE AGATHAS is out 5/3/22.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4654004423?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc56bF6v81y/

My last few reads have been 'heavier', so I was ready for a fun escapist YA read. And The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson was beckoning to me!
From the publisher: "Who killed Brooke Donovan? It’s the biggest mystery of the summer, and everyone in Castle Cove thinks it’s the wrong guy. Fans of One of Us Is Lying and Riverdale can’t miss this page-turning who-done-it that’s sure to be the next must read Young Adult thriller!"

Yup, you caught my attention with that description. But what clinched it for me was the fun premise. WWAC do? What would Agatha Christie do! Yes, our intrepid teenaged sleuths take their inspiration (and lots of tips) from Christie's mystery novels. Each chapter opens with a Christie quote that is perfect for what's going on in the chapter.

What about the cast of characters? Oh, Glasgow and Lawson capture high school life perfectly. Our lead pair of investigators come from very different backgrounds and school social cliques. Alice is wealthy and a member of the 'Mains.' You know - the popular 'it' crew with money to burn and lots of attitude. And for her, school is really just a place to socialize. Iris is from the wrong side of the tracks and is one of the 'Zoners' - the kids that are smart, the nerds, and kinda the bottom of the social strata. This unlikely pair find common (but a bit rocky) ground in their pursuit of a murderer. There's a large cast of supporting players that provide lots of sub plots - and many, many choices for the 'whodunit'.

My guess for whodunit changed many times as the book progressed. Glasgow and Lawson lead the reader down the garden path many times on the way to the final pages. The mystery is well done. But, the other bits that's also well done are the situations, emotions, stressors, highs and lows of being a teenager. Of that hard bit of finding yourself and what you want.

I could easily picture the settings of The Agathas. The school, the roller rink, the country club and more.(Maybe more than a little bit of Riverdale in my mind as well)

The Agathas was the perfect, fun, escapist read. And it looks like the door might be open to another 'Agatha' tale? I'd be happy to visit Castle Cove again. Fingers crossed!

This book totally wowed me.

I have never been a huge Agatha Christie fan, but this book had me totally hankering for her books. And I thought the play out of this book was perfectly done and a great homage to her greatness.

If you love a good mystery that is going to turn you in directions that you never expected, this is a book for you. I will admit, I knew who was responsible from earlier than the halfway mark, but let me tell you, that DID NOT deter from my enjoyment of this book.

Two unlikely friends join forces when one of their peers goes missing… The disappearance of Brooke Donovan means something different to both of these girls. Iris was the last person to see her and Alice was her best friend, though they weren’t on speaking terms before her disappearance. But they stop at nothing to figure out what happened to her.

This book has a wonderfully colorful cast of characters and gasp moments to keep you on the edge of your seat. I loved Alice, even though her motives didn’t always seem pure. She was a girl that had it all, until things started to crash down around her. One single move had her losing all of her friends, leaving her alone in a world she used to be on top of. And Iris is a girl from the other side of the tracks, so to speak, who wants nothing more than to earn enough money to get her and her mother OUT of town. So, the reward money for solving this is a huge motivator.

No matter what the motives are for their investigation, these girls show a hell of a lot of heart and determination to discover what happened and to keep innocent people out of trouble.

This was juicy and extra and I just LOVED it!

#TheAgathas⁣
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“But anyone who knows anything about solving mysteries knows that understanding psychology and character are the keys to solving a crime.” ⁣
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When you start off with saying Dame Agatha Christie is one bad bitch, you have my attention and respect. I’m down like Jay Sean in 2009. Every chapter starts off with a different AC book quote, and this felt like it was literally written for me, as a teen. ⁣
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When I say I tore through this book I mean it. The pacing was great, I loved the drama outside the mystery, and the mystery itself was well thought out. There’s a bombshell that had me floored halfway through and was such a good and different twist.⁣
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I love a good murder board, and I love when a group of friends get together to assemble one. This has both. This a true YA book and had the YA drama you can expect. I personally loved it even as someone that’s not a young adult. I loved the different dynamic characters from Iris and Alice to Ricky to to Lilian to Cole. Everyone was perfectly imperfect. If you’re a fan of anything Agatha Christie, Veronica Mars, or Nancy Drew, check out The Agathas! ⁣
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Thank you so much @delacortepress for the gifted copy. The Agathas is out today, May 3rd! ⁣
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“It’s like all those quiet people, when they do lose their tempers, they lose them with a vengeance.” —Agatha Christie, The ABC Murders⁣
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QOTD: We all know I grew up reading Agatha Christie. What books do you remember vividly from your childhood?