THE NIGHT IN QUESTION By Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson
I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Night in Question by Kathleen Glasgow, Liz LawsonSeries: The Agathas #2
Published by Delacorte Press on 5/30/23
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 415
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Last 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.
Short and Sweet Review
Alice and Iris are back to solve another mystery in The Night In Question. Castle Cove High School’s annual Sadie Hawkins dance is being held at Levy Castle, and Alice thinks this is the perfect time to do some exploring. Levy Castle is where the famous actress Mona Moody died almost a century ago, and knowing Castle Cove police Alice thinks that investigation wrong, but she doesn’t have much time to think about that because she just walked in on Kennedy laying on the ground in a pool of her own blood and Park standing over her. Castle Cove police believe this is an open and shut case, and Park is about to face some serious charges, but Alice and Iris believe they can help her. This case involves more than meets the eye and this time the girls are about to look into the past to help them in the present.
After solving Brooke Donovan’s case, Alice and Iris have learned that the Castle Cove Police aren’t always reliable or competent when it comes to these matters so they decide to offer their new found expertise to try to prove Park’s innocence. Alice and Iris find themselves in dangerous situations that always put me on edge because they’re usually on the right trail but some people don’t want them to be and they end up in more trouble just for thwarting the police. I love how Alice still uses what she has learned from Agatha Christie novels and applies it to solve mysteries. I will say that I do love the friendship between Iris and Alice, they’re an unlikely pair and I think they still have a lot to learn about each other. They do get on each others nerves and still may say things to trigger or set the other one off but they do genuinely care for each other, and we see their friendship grow and evolve. We also get to see our other friends who help with the mystery solving: Raf, Neil, Spike, Zora, and Angelik. All of the characters add something to this book that truly makes it special. I will say this mystery is pretty complex and it not only involves what happened to Kennedy but also Mona Moody. I love the direction that this book took and we see Iris and Alice become better detectives but also learn that this is a dangerous job especially when others don’t want you to succeed. We also get to see a bit more of Alice’s parents in this book and see their relationship and how much their absence has actually affected Alice.
Everything about this book was amazing to me. I did end up figuring out who the culprit was but that didn’t ruin anything for me mainly because trying to figure out what their motive was and learning about it was crazy. I love this series, it’s actually one of my favorites and I just can’t get enough of Alice and Iris and their crew of mystery solvers. I’m excited to see what book 3 has in store!