The Night in Question by Kathleen Glasgow & Liz Lawson
An Agathas Novel
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Action/Adventure, YA (15+ yrs)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by NymphaeaLast October, Alice Ogilvie’s ex-best friend, Brooke Donovan, was killed—and if it weren’t for Alice’s unlikely alliance with her tutor, Iris Adams, and her library of the complete works of Agatha Christie, the wrong person would almost certainly be sitting in prison for the crime. The Castle Cove police aren’t exactly great at solving crimes. In fact, they’re notorious for not solving crimes.
Which is why, on the night of Castle Cove High’s annual Sadie Hawkins dance, Alice takes the opportunity to explore Levy Castle—the site of one of Castle Cove’s most infamous deaths. Mona Moody—the classic film star—died there almost a century ago, and Alice is pretty sure the police got that investigation wrong, too. But before she can even think about digging deeper, she walks right into the scene of a new crime. Rebecca Kennedy, on the ground in a pool of blood. And standing over Kennedy? Another one of Alice’s ex-friends—Helen Park.
The Castle Cove Police Department thinks it’s an open-and-shut case, but Alice and Iris are sure it can’t be that simple. Park isn’t a murderer—and the girls know all too well that in life, and in mysteries, things are rarely what they appear to be. To understand the present, sometimes you need to look to the past.
Castle Cove is full of secrets, and Alice and Iris are about to uncover one of its biggest—and most dangerous—secrets of all.
There’s something going down and it’s up to the Agathas to figure out what.
I loved the first book in this mystery series, The Agathas. I liked the inventiveness of two teen girls, totally opposites, being brought together by their love of Agatha Christie and solving mysteries. The first book had all the hallmarks of a great mystery–twists, turns and I couldn’t figure out the ending.
This book has many of the same hallmarks–there’s a mystery and intrigue, but I had a few issues with it. The characters seemed to sound a bit the same after a while. I liked that it’s told from Iris and Alice’s POVs, but they tended to sound the same. Now that’s not totally bad because best friends tend to talk alike after a while, but it made it hard to keep straight who’s POV I was in. I also had an issue with the sheer volume of characters. It took some work to keep them straight (Like it would in an Agatha Christie book).
The characters are good. Iris has some issues and Alice is a bit snobbish. I’d hoped Alice would help Iris a bit as Iris has been abused and needs someone to be there for her. I didn’t like that the issue of child abuse and the after-effects weren’t really handled. Iris just sort of bucked it up, but not very well. I also thought Alice regressed a bit and got snobbier through the book. I liked Iris, but I wanted to root for her and Alice, but it wasn’t always easy with Alice.
The mystery is good, but almost comes second to the bumbling of the police department. It’s like the girls should be the ones in charge and the PD should go back to school. I don’t know if that was intentional, but I wanted to see the cops respect the girls a bit more and for them to work a bit harder.
Still, this was a good book and those who like mysteries, it’ll satisfy. There are enough twists and turns to keep things interesting. Give this book a try.
