Cute ( )

The Agatha's' was one of my best reads of 2023 so I pre-ordered the sequel, 'The Night In Question' in the hopes of continuing the experience that I got from reading the first book.

By the time I was twenty-five per cent through the book, I realised that I wasn't going to get the exceptional read that I was looking for.

The writing and the narration are still good. As before, the carefully crafted differentiation between the voices, thought processes and expectations of Iris and Alice make the book richer.

So why did I set it aside?

The basic premise of the book didn't grab me. Maybe it's just me but the whole spooky castle from which a 1940s movie star fell to her death felt too contrived. It put me at a distance from the young people in the present-day timeline.

I also bumped into the typical second-book problems: not enough was new and what was familiar had changed into something less exciting. In the first book, the relationship between Alice and Iris was emerging and was often at risk. In this book they're friends, (well mostly) and that took the edge off things.

I also didn't like that the idiot detective from the first book remains as stupid and intractable as ever. For me, this turned him into a comic book character.

Perhaps I've become a less patient reader this year, standing as I am in the shadow of a mountain of books that I want to read but while I'm sure that if I'd finished the book I'd have been giving it a 'perfectly satisfactory' three-star rating, I didn't want to spend the hours it was going to take to get there.

Seamless continuation of the uneven alliance between Iris and Alice as they try to figure out not only their friendship, but two more crimes. One is the possibility that a young starlet's death in 1949 wasn't accidental, the other a near fatal attack on one of what Alice calls the Mains-rich and privileged teens at their school. Even though it looks at first like an open and shut case, the more the two dig, the murkier things become. The eventual solution of both crimes involves more Agatha Christie inspired detective work, deception, and numerous tight situations. This is another dandy YA mystery. With one other unsolved murder mentioned in both books, there's room for another book and I'd love to have that happen. ( )

A solid sequel, enjoyed it ( )

I think i choose the wrong time to listen to this book but i did really like it!! I enjoyed the mystery and the story but i felt at times the story was harder to follow. I thought the mystery elements had more stakes to them for sure and this book had more consequences and i really liked seeing all the side characters again, def exicted to read more in this series soon!! ( )