Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Young Adult
Publication Date: May 3, 2022
Rating: 4 “Mistress of Mystery” stars
Quote that sums up this book: “There are an awful lot of morally gray areas to being a detective.”
NetGalley Blurb:
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!
Last summer, Alice Ogilvie’s basketball-star boyfriend Steve dumped her. Then she disappeared for five days. She’s not talking, so where she went and what happened to her is the biggest mystery in Castle Cove. 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.
Review:
Growing up, I was a big fan of the Cam Jansen series, the documentary television show Forensic Files, and everything Zodiac Killer. This love of sleuthing and case cracking has followed me into adulthood with the likes of A Good Girls Guide to Murder, Snapped, Serial, and countless more morbid series that I can’t let my son catch me enjoying just yet…(yes, he watched Reservoir Dogs at 3 days old, but it’s kind of different now as he gets older, right?…Eh, he’s probably doomed anyways.)
The Agathas delivered an intriguing, mysterious series of events that definitely tickled my prefrontal cortex!
What I liked about the book:
1. For me, I can always tell a book is going to be good if it has a map! This one had a map and it was great, so for now the theory still stands.
I also really liked how the date and time were presented at the beginning of every chapter, as well as an updated suspects list any time there was a revelation. It gave the book a real CSI feel to it.
2. I loved that the town is definitely corrupt and social media played a large part in outing them. The cops in this town were giving me Making a Murderer vibes reeeeal bad…it was fun to see a hashtag constructed by “just dumb teenage girls” develop such a strong public outcry over the cops mishandling the investigation.
3. As far as characters go, I have some thoughts:
• I was really hoping for Alice and Iris to end up together. At no point is it mentioned that they could potentially be into each other, and we only knew them to have had feelings for men, but I was still hoping. There was just such a connection between the two women that I honestly thought that was where it was going to go. To me, it seemed to transcend a friendship level of care and compassion.
“Alice Ogilvie, what have you done to my life,” I say softly.
I mean, if a man said that to a woman in a romance novel, they would totally be endgame.
• If Iris is going to end up with anyone but Alice, please let it be Spike and not that “bad boy”. Spike is a good guy, while the bad boy is kinda a man-whore and is definitely going to be involved in shady shit if there is a sequel to this book.
• I loved that the guidance counselor was named Ms. Westmacott after Agatha Christie’s pseudonym Mary Westmacott. Such a perfect little Easter egg!
4. I appreciated that the ending was not what I saw coming. I pride myself on being pretty good at guessing whodunit, but I didn’t really figure out this one until the interview with all of Coach’s lady friends (almost at the end of the book).
5. The roller skating after school at the local rink was giving me total 90s vibes and I loved it! As a kid who hit up the rink after school with my super cool inline skates with the Lisa Frank stickers, I appreciated the vibe this created in the book.
What didn’t do it for me:
1. I have long attested to the fact that I can read a book about two characters just sitting at a bus stop as long as the characters are good. For me, characters are so much more important than the plot. However, the characters in this book were the weakest link for me. I felt we really only got surface-level information on even our main characters, and a lot of the side-characters were very similar.
With that said, obviously the plot was so good in this book that it still earned the rating it did from me even with fairly bland characters.
2. I love the potential for spin-offs I can see coming from this, but in the same vein, I feel there were quite a few things that didn’t receive resolution. Mostly about everyone’s home life, Remy Jackson’s murder, if Raf and Alice will be a thing, and if Iris will really date the bad boy. I really hope they do have follow-up books of more mysteries so we can explore these themes more.
Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Children’s, Delacorte Press, Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson for the opportunity to review this ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.
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