The Agathas

"This story is told from two points of view written by two different authors. This brings something really interesting to the book and I enjoyed the chemistry between the two main characters. Agatha Christie features heavily in the book and I really liked how one of the main characters has this whole storyline where she once disappeared for five days. This is a nod to Agatha Christie who disappeared for 11 days in real life, and nobody ever found out exactly what happened. The book is about two teenage girls who team up to investigate the disappearance of a girl from their school. The first main character, Alice, used to be best friends with the missing girl, whereas the second point of view character, Iris, is motivated by wanting to use the reward money to escape town and start a new life. They want to solve the disappearance for different reasons, and they’re also very different people. Alice is from the top end of the socioeconomic spectrum. On paper she has everything, but she’s actually really lonely because her parents are never around. Iris is from a much poorer background, and she has some dark reasons for wanting to leave the town. I liked that everyone has their secrets in this book. At first the girls aren’t fully honest about who they are, but then they gradually open up to each other as the book goes along. It’s one of the easier reads of the books that I’ve chosen, the reading equivalent of wrapping yourself in a big warm blanket and drinking a cup of hot chocolate. It feels familiar — not in the sense that it feels like it’s been done lots of times before, but that it was what I hoped it would be when I picked the book up. It’s clever and interesting and I really enjoyed it. Yes, that’s a very Agatha Christie thing, to have amateur detectives solving crimes while the police force does nothing useful. In this book, a pair of teenage girls do a better job of investigating a disappearance than the police, because they don’t get tied up with all kinds of prejudices. There is a sequel out now, The Night in Question , which I really want to read."