Agatha Christie, Teen Detective(s)

Back in the YA section, back on the mystery train

Hi, friends,

I was going to save this for Tuesday because I haven’t sent a Tuesday newsletter out in a bit, but I loved this book so much that WHAT THE HECK, I’m sending it now.

We’re about to get some monster thundershowers in the next few minutes, so here’s hoping that the power in the library stays on.

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Book cover: The Agathas, by Kathleen Glasgow & Liz Lawson

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The Agathas, by Katheen Glasgow & Liz Lawson

Alice Ogilvie: Formerly popular rich kid. Disappeared for five days last year. Huge Agatha Christie fan. Has secrets.

Iris Adams: Social nobody. Poor. Assigned to be Alice’s tutor. Roller skater. Has secrets.

When Alice’s former best friend Brooke—who is now dating Alice’s ex-boyfriend Steve—disappears, the police dismiss the disappearance as a copycatting of Alice’s disappearance. They assume that Brooke just wants attention, because she’s a teenage girl and OBVIOUSLY that’s what ALL teenage girls want.

But Alice knows that Brooke wouldn’t have done something like that. Because even though they’re not still friends, she still knows Brooke as well as she knows herself.

And so, almost before Iris knows what’s happening, the two of them have ditched their books and picked up their magnifying glasses: Sidekicks to each other, they’re on the case.

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“Iris,” Alice says wearily. “You seem like such a nice person and yet your brain is full of horrible things.”

“The world is full of horrible things,” I say, getting out of her car.

—The Agathas

I think it’s safe to say that I’m an Iris.

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Good lord, it’s been a while since I read something so entirely FUN.

It’s been marketed as a thriller, but it didn’t quite slot into that category for me. Tonally, it’s somehow—and I never would have really thought this was even possible—both hardboiled AND cozy?? And now that I’ve gotten a taste, I want like fifteen more?? Sorrynotsorry, Glasgow & Lawson, but you may have created a monster?

(...and that monster is ME.)

(Also, based on the epilogue, I’m PRETTY sure there might be at least two more in the works? I HOPE????)

It’s got Veronica Mars and Riverdale vibes for SURE—Veronica in terms of setting and voice, Riverdale in terms of soapy fun and adults that are just as Extra as the teens—and one of the choices I particularly loved was that the authors namecheck both properties (as well as a bunch of others) throughout. So not only are our authors telling us that they’re ABSOLUTELY in on the joke and that they WANT us to see the similarities, they’re also showing us that their characters live in a world with media and they have LEARNED from said media, unlike so many characters in horror movies that have never seen a horror movie. 

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My family has long been a tangled mess. Misfortune is an unnatural air I’m forced to breathe.

—The Agathas

I can only hope that they take on V.C. Andrews next.

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We get lots of Agatha Christie content via the epigraphs—each chapter starts with a quote from one of her books—and some from Alice talking about and using the investigatory techniques she’s learned from Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple. And of course, Alice’s five-day disappearance echoes Christie as well. But bonus, very early on, when Iris is assigned Alice for tutoring duty, we meet the Castle Cove guidance counselor, Ms. Westmacott—which just so happens to be Agatha Christie’s penname. No matter how far away we live from one another, when I hit that detail, you probably heard my delighted whoop from there.

The secondary characters—adults and other teens—are delightful across-the-board, some delightful-delightful (like Ricky the public defender and the roller-skating forensics club) and some horrible-delightful (like Detective Thompson, who is so awful that my first note on him reads: “The cop is so over-the-top awful that... you know what, strike that, it’s entirely believable.”) 

The dialogue and situations tickled me again and again—everything about this book would make a fantastic teen soap, and I would absolutely watch 900 seasons of it, ESPECIALLY if the actors continued playing high schoolers into their 40s. Everything is a little heightened and over the top in that teen soap way, but still grounded in realistic emotion and character beats. And the authors use tropes and in some cases, dialogue, that we’ve seen a million times, but they use them in a way that, due to the strength of the narrators’ voices, breathes more life into them:

I purse my lips. Just because I’m not some fancy lawyer doesn’t mean I can’t help. “Steve, I know we haven’t been talking over the past few months, but I want you to know that I’m something of an expert on mysteries these days; I’ve spent a lot of time reading Agatha Christie novels and—” 

He heaves a heavy sigh, interrupting me. “This is real life, Alice. My life. Not some stupid book.”

Reading back over this, I think it particularly killed for me because there’s something hilariously tragic in Alice’s confidence in her detective prowess… except at the same time, because genre is genre, you know that she’s going to eventually solve the mystery?

Once I hit the last third of the book, I entirely stopped pretending to do any work and just read straight through while sitting at the circulation desk, taking brief pauses to BELLOW updates across the library:

CURSES I WAS WRONG ABOUT THE IDENTITY OF THE MOLE

THESE KIDS JUST LEFT THE ROLLER RINK SO FAST THEY’RE STILL WEARING THEIR SKATES, I LOVE THIS

BUT I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE KILLER HAAAAAAAA I AM THE BEST! DETECTIVE! EVER!!!!! HAAAAAAAAAA

I’m sure my patrons were very impressed.

In addition to all of the fun, it touches on economic class, unresolved trauma and shame around domestic abuse, and on the emotional toll that the true crime media juggernaut can have on the families involved. It’s about friendship and trust and loneliness, there was something on almost every single page that made me smile, snicker, or laugh, and it’s a blast of a mystery. 

I am really, really, REALLY itching for another one. So here’s hoping.

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Amazon.

Bookshop.

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More Agatha Christie:

Two girl sleuths named Agatha and an endlessly shirtless punching detective

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Talk to you next Thursday at the latest,

Leila