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After a lifetime spent in public relations, the drinking and smoking one-woman dynamo that is Agatha Raisin struggles to adapt to life in a quiet Cotswold village. Penelope Keith stars as Agatha Raisin, Miss Marple with attitude, in two full-cast dramas based on the best-selling books by M. C. Beaton.
"The Quiche of Death": In her first extended radio appearance, Agatha Raisin determines to make her mark by winning the local baking competition. When the judge is poisoned by her efforts, she investigates and uncovers a web of extra-marital sex and pastry-based favours.
"The Vicious Vet": A handsome vet is found stabbed with a syringe full of tranquiliser. Was it an accident or did someone put him to sleep? Agatha sets off on a tale of beastly behaviour and animal passion.
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If you like hard-boiled, mean streets, police-procedurals, you'll hate this. If you just want a good, easy, comfortable read, you'll love it.
This is the first book in the Agatha Raisin series.
Descending on a Cotswold village in seach of some kind of idealised retirement, after selling off her London PR agency for a substantial sum, Agatha quite quickly finds that the scenario she has dreamed up is just that - a dream - and village life is far more prosaic and easy going than anything she had prepared herself for.
Right up to the moment when she unwittingly becomes the instrument of a murderer's malicious plans.
As previous reviewers have mentioned, quite a lot of the book is spent familiarising us with Agatha, her past history, the village and so on. Given that the series now runs to more than a dozen books, is looks like the author could have spent a little less time on the background details, and a little more on the plot. Still, this book is completely representative of the series, and if you like this one you'll almost certainly like the rest.
To be frank, this isn't great literature, in fact it isn't really even comparable with Agatha Christie's stories. The village setting is there, and a bunch of village "characters", but Agatha has little of the insight into how other people tick than does Miss Marple, and her successes usually owe a lot more to brute force than skilful sleuthing. Though Agatha (Raisin, that is) does have her moments.
I get the feeling that these books are more about providing an easy, entertaining read than trying to join the band of detective fiction "immortals". And as such they work very well, indeed better than most of the current crop of "cozys", in my opinion.
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