I've read most of the series in order but missed out the book prior to this where James and Agatha tie the knot. So far I have enjoyed them for what they are. Just simple stories with a mystery so easy to solve it doesn't wear anyone out. A peek into fantasy village life for the city dweller.
I have to say how disappointed I am with this book. The plot could have been developed so much more but it is the characters that disappoint most.
Agatha is rude to everyone and flies off the handle for apparently no real reason. She chats away to someone, they say something she doesn't like and so she turns on them snarling like a tiger. If you met this woman, you'd think she was a lunatic! She is feisty, domineering and apparently held down a high powered job for many years. Yet she dissolves into floods of tears, usually at the end of a chapter, Someone says 'there, there' and she's off again being downright rude.
The standard of writing would shame a GSCE English student. I've seen better writing from 11 year olds. Apart from the first couple of chapters, the rest of the text reads like a synopsis of a book yet to be written. Each chapter could be so much more. If you took out the sex they'd be great for 8 year old girls.
I can't imagine Penelope Keith playing this character. Or rather, she'd be perfect for Agatha as long as the scripts are written by someone else. In the book Agatha swings between dowdy 'house dresses' (who on Earth wears a house dress these days, I'm surprised you can even buy them) and skirts that are too tight and too short, teetering about a field in high heels. This is supposed to be a wealthy savvy business woman, not some dumb trailer trash bimbo who has won the lottery.
We learn something of Sir Charles's past and the reason he is so tight with money. That's the sum of character development and to be honest I'd rather the books be about him. He has his flaws but I'd be quite happy if one of the murder attempts on Agatha that inevitably happens near the end of every book actually succeded. Put this intolerable old bat out of her misery.
This series should have ended three books ago. The author is now churning out rubbish to compete in the easy reading serial market done so much better by McCall Smith.
