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.
“The insides of things are so much different than the outsides. Most people don't care to find that out.”
It took me 10 days to finish this...
It was decent, but it didn't grab my attention till around 60% but by then it was too late. The story doesn't immediately take off, there are several chapters before the actual disappearance happens. I'm guessing they're there to introduce us to the characters, but I was bored.
Then after it happens, there's not much to go with. No crazy theories I could come up with. Steve is framed and everything points to him and that's that. Nothing major happens after his imprisonment until much later in the book. Not only that, but I think most of the things that helped with the investigation were obtained accidentally, or in VERY illegal ways. I was slightly disappointed with this. There's also this "anonymous" helper that basically gave them the most important evidence needed to prove who did what and why.
Not only that, but the book is called The Agathas because the two MC love Agatha Christie right? But Iris has no idea who Hercule Poirot is...
And there's also this very cringe moment for me at the end of the book where Alice, Iris and other who participated in the investigation explain to everyone what happened. We, the readers, already got a detailed play-by-play of everything in "real-time" so reading this chapter felt really awkward. Most of the authors would choose the "..and that's how it happened" or "after I explained to everyone what happened we..." route, but not K.Glasgow I guess.
I will admit I was surprised by what truly happened and who the perpetrator was. I found it to be very well executed and believable. I also found Alice and Iris to be interesting characters that could hold their own. They had unique voices and were as human as it gets. They were flawed, they had their good sides as well as bad ones, but you could still root for them and want them to succeed in their endeavors.
And the absolute best part of the book - the friendship that blooms between Alice and Iris. The girls couldn't be any more different, but that's why it works so well. One of the most realistic things about this is that it takes them the whole book to realize they like each other - because they are both stubborn and because natural friendships take some time to form. I loved seeing how much they changed, and how they were both willing to apologize/ admit their mistakes just to mend things. True friendship doesn't mean you never disagree - true friendship is working your way through it and accepting your differences.
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