They'll Never Catch Us meets I Kissed Shara Wheeler in this new YA mystery and seeming series starter. When Alice Ogilvie disappeared after her boyfriend dumped her, her friends and town feared the worst, surprised to see her turn up without a scratch five days later. When, a year later, Brooke (Alice's ex-BFF) and Alice's ex-boyfriend get into an argument, and Brooke disappears, everyone thinks she's pulling an Ogilvie. Until Brooke's body is discovered. Disgraced former popular girl Alive and her wallflower tutor Iris team up to solve the mystery of what really happened to Brooke.

With some dark themes mixed with sprinkles of humor, this book a classic teen mystery/thriller. I enjoyed it, but can't say it feels exponentially different from others in this genre, and may have been better as a standalone than a series starter. But alas, I'll keep reading the series, because I did have a good time and it did take me a while to figure out the ending!

Thanks to Delacorte Press for my eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5 stars- 8/10

2 stars. *

I"m just solidly Meh on this one.

I really wanted to like it. I was buzzed in numerous publications, and the blurb appealed to me.

The Agathas is a YA mystery that follows Alice Ogilvie (a comically stereotypical rich girl obsessed with Agatha Christie novels) as she attempts to solve the mystery of her former best friend, Brooke's disappearance/murder. I am good with YA. I love great YA storylines. The Agathas has all of the ingredients. However the writing was just juvenile. I predicted every twist and turn and the characters had zero nuance.

The cover is great. I'll give it that.

*with thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Social outcast Alice Ogilvie disappeared for five days after a breakup with her boyfriend Steve. No one knows why. As she is trying to adapt to being back at school and put the disappearance behind her another one of Steve's girlfriends, Brooke, disappears but this time permanently. Iris, who is Alice's tutor, joins with Alice in order to solve the mystery, collect the money, and get out of town. Steve is suspect number one but the girls are not convinced. Inspired by the works of Agatha Christie they take on the task to free Steve.

This was a fun mystery that had an ending I personally couldn't predict. I will be recommending this to readers as a great Fall read.

Thank you Netgalley for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm on a mystery/suspense kick, and I loved the premise of this YA one. Iris and Alice are complete opposites, yet they find common ground and team up to investigate the disappearance of one of their classmates.

The chapters open with a relevant quote from an Agatha Christie novel, which was a lot of fun, and I felt like the slow-developing mystery worked overall—there were some interesting reveals along the way. But this story lacked any real depth in character development other than Iris. Don't get me started on the big mystery about what happened with Alice the summer before the story opens. There was so much potential there, as well as for the supporting cast. I wanted *more*, but the ending left open the possibility this could be the start of a series, so maybe I just have to wait.

I flip-flopped between listening to this one on audio and reading a digital eARC. The audiobook had three different female narrators: one for Alice's chapters, one for Iris's, and one who voiced the news segment sections. I enjoyed all of them, especially the narrator for Iris's POV. Her voice was a little gritty, which went well with Iris's characterization. I also really appreciated that both Alice and Iris sounded like young adults, especially in comparison to the more mature-sounding voice for the news narration. The only parts of the story that were difficult to follow on audio were the text message sections between the Mains (the popular girls).

Overall, this was a solid YA mystery and easy read. I'm hoping there are future installments and this was just the beginning of Iris and Alice's adventures.

(CW: domestic abuse)

RATING: B- (3½ stars)

I was surprised by this one! I have had a bad streak of YA mystery/suspense books lately, all of them felt super caricature ish and the mystery was just not engaging. But this one thankfully didn't fall into either of those camps. The resolution of the plot was satisfying and all and all a good read! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Ok, this is a great mystery read. My issue is that I don't read enough in this genre to understand how twists and turns can help the story move forward. I did love all of the connections to Ms. Christie but other than that this books reads on the same expectant level of Karen M McManus.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a mystery with enough characters, twists and turns, and interesting clues to keep the story moving. The connection to Agatha Christy was fun and I could see it inspiring readers to get into her books. Definitley one of my top YA mystery reads of this year.

As a bona fide Agatha Christie fangirl, I knew I had to read this book the second I discovered it existed. I was so convinced that this would be a 5 star read for me. Alas, it fell short for me. A large portion of this book feels extremely juvenile to me, and maybe that's because I'm a thirty-something year old woman reading this and I really need to get away from the YA genre as I've been feeling like this about many of the YA books I've read. Now that isn't to say this is a bad novel. I do love the idea and concept behind it. While it didn't end up being quite what I expected, I'm glad I read it, and maybe teens on the younger end of the YA spectrum will enjoy this one more than older ones. I'm still not certain if this is the first in a new series, or if the authors decided to set up for sequels and see how this book is received before taking the leap of continuing, but I'm very interested in the subsequent mysteries that were introduced in this first book as secondary themes.

YA is usually not my favorite type of read, but these two authors did an excellent job with The Agatha's! Little homages to Agatha Christie made the book even more fun! This is a story of a missing girl, who the police believe "just ran away," but this was obviously more than that. The nerdy-girl team of detectives and all the fun little clues and mysteries made this story so enjoyable! The writing was a tad more juvenile than my usual read, but this book was written for a younger audience, and it's pretty obvious that's what the writers were doing here.

I'd say give it shot if you like whodunnits, Agatha Christie - the OG, and nerdy girl detetive duos! Looks like this one is going to be series! Fun!

4 out of 5 on Goodreads.

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for an advanced e-book copy for an honest review!

5 Stars!!

This was so much fun!!!! I could not put it down!!!

Two unlikely friends, team up to solve another friend's murder....it was delicious. The girls were modern day Nancy Drews. I loved seeing their friendship blossom throughout and to see them develop. Alice - gorgeous, rich, popular girl, that's suddenly fallen from grace is being tutored by the poor, not so popular girl, Iris. I loved the pacing and how the story unfolded told from both Iris and Alice's perspectives. I would also like to move to Castle Cove.....the setting was so vivid and picturesque.

I saw that there's a sequel and I squealed with delight!!! Please, please, hurry! I need more Alice and Iris and the rest of the Castle Cove gang in my life!!

A special thank you to NetGalley, Random House Children's, Kathleen Glasgow, and Liz Lawson for providing me with an ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley & Delacourt for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a longtime Agatha Christie fan, so I was intrigued by the premise of this YA novel: two teens on very different social strata combine forces to solve the murder of their classmate. I just got done watching "One of Us is Lying," so I was definitely in the mood for more teen sleuthing. In that regard, this book totally delivers. I've seen some reviews that suggest that the plot is too contrived, the location too chi-chi, the characters too trope-y ... and all of that is true.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed it as a frothy summer read. Poor little rich girl Alice? Definitely a trope. Geeky Iris harboring a dark secret (that her entire friend group knows but she is unaware)? Trope City. But for a beach read, I don't need Shakespeare. The plot is a bit pat and trite and requires some suspension of disbelief, but it propels very nicely. The Agatha Christie quotes that open each chapter are a bit much (if you've read a lot of Christie, you know that some books are banging and some, uh, less so), and only one girl is a big Agatha fan, so the title is a bit off to me, but whatever. Hat tip for giving the guidance counselor the same last name as Christie's early pen name. Red herrings abound, and I didn't guess the end (although I rarely try to, so YMMV).

I sure wouldn't mind seeing it as a limited series on Hulu, LOL

What a fun read! Perfect for mystery lovers, and the perfect introduction to Agatha Christie. The characters are so much like high schoolers you’d encounter in the real world, that you can’t help but be invested in them. This mystery will keep you guessing and leave you wanting Alice and Iris to continue solving mysteries together.

I really enjoyed this adaptation of Agatha Christie's Then There Were None. I read two different adaptations back to back and have to say I far preferred this one. Making it a YA novel, with the high school setting really worked for the story.

A fantastic series opener. Alice and Iris live in two incredibly different worlds. Yet their voices on the page were incredibly similar. This made distinguishing between the two a bit confusing at times but I was still fully invested in finding out how this mystery ended. I guessed who the culprit was pretty early but still enjoyed the journey to get there. A fun summer read that I can't wait to recommend to teens.

This was a refreshing spun for the YA set...and I imagine some of them would visit with Ms. Christie afterward!

Excellent book! Great premise. I loved the parallels and references to Agatha Christie. The book was engaging. I did find it hard to kind of keep up with the characters as they were often called by their last names. Other than that, it was an entertaining, fast paced read.

Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson have created a modern day Nancy Drew murder mystery with The Agatha’s. This first book in An Agatha’s Mystery series introduces us to teens Alice Ogilvie and Iris Adams, two very unlikely sleuthing partners whose worlds don’t even exist in the same orbit. Alice has been a member of the Mains, the high school clique with money and influence, while Iris runs with the kids from the other side of the tracks. A series of unlikely circumstances result in their pairing up for school but when Alice’s former best friend suspiciously dies and the local police charge the easy suspect the girls are compelled to find out what really happened. Luckily for them, Alice has read almost every Agatha Christie mystery and she uses that information for inspiration.

“We have to use what works best for stirring people up,” I tell her. “where do people enjoy giving opinions they know nothing about? Where do they enjoy taking part in a big old conspiracy-driven pile-on?’

Alice laughs. “On the internet, of course!”

I nod. “Exactly,” I say. “We have to hit adults and our esteemed peers where they hang out the most. Adults equal Facebook; our peers are dancing it out and weeping over on TikTok and Instagram.”


The premise of a murder mystery is the backdrop to also address other social issues. On a light note the view of social media and its impact is spot on and brings a quirky twist to an otherwise suspenseful topic. Alice and Iris are also struggling characters, with personal issues they try to hide from the rest of the world, but which color the way they see themselves. The difficult topics of abandonment, domestic violence, and dating violence are not sugar coated but incorporated in an impactful yet age appropriate manner. The budding friendship of two girls, whose lives are polar opposites, is truly the highlight of the book and the source of some witty and comical interactions.

“These blondes, sir, they’re responsible for a lot of trouble.” -Agatha Christie, The Labours of Hercules


The Agatha’s is a high tempo murder mystery that is quite complex and intriguing. With a cast of diverse characters and the beautiful but rugged California coastal town of Castle Cove as its setting, there are ample opportunities for the trail of the murderer to veer off in unexpected directions. Glasgow and Lawson use every opportunity to keep you on your toes as you watch them weave all the elements of a great mystery into this story. The fact that Alice is such a huge Agatha Christie fan, which I am one too, and incorporates her quotes and methods in their sleuthing is also a great touch and salute to one of the all-time great murder mystery writers. While Alice and Iris, as well as the content, was meant for a teen/YA audience the way that this great plotline was written makes for a clean adult story and the start to super new series!

If you are a fan of Agatha Christie, you HAVE to read this. Even if you don't really like YA. It is a fun ride all the way through and can be devoured in 1-2 sittings.

This was a super fun book! I will totally read more from Kathleen Glasgow. I really enjoyed the different perspectives between rich girl Alice and working-class Iris. Alice's Agatha Christie obsession is also pretty comical. I really like how they were so different, but came together to solve the mystery. It definitely had me guessing who the killer was and where is this going.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. The Agathas is a murder mystery that is fast paced and super engaging. The cheerleader that most people like goes missing then turns up dead. The police blame the wrong guy. Twists and turns and great characters stock this Agatha Christie meets Veronica Mars teenage mystery.