29 August 2002.
ISBN: 978-1-84119539-1(HB)
The ladies of Carsely are a futter as a new vet has moved into the village, and Agatha Raisin, recently retired high-flying based London PR executive is fluttering more than most. Having returned from a holiday in the Bahamas in pursuit of her neighbour James Lacey, who apparently changed his plans at the last minute, presumably because some kind soul tipped him off that Agatha was planning to join him. So, Agatha is in need of a sop to her self-esteem. But before she has swung her lasso, Dr Paul Bladen, the new vet is accidently killed while attending Lord Pendlebury’s horse.
I am not quite sure why I read these adventures of Agatha Raisin, she is a remarkably shallow woman, whose only goal in life seems to be the ensnarement of her neighbour James Lacey. He on the other hand seems to be a very pleasant chap, with one suspects a sense of humour. So, his constant avoirdance of Agatha is refreshing, perhaps that is why I read them, in the hope that Agatha will never get him.
The mystery, however, is good fun, with James showing an interesting disregard for the law, and Agatha being somewhat apprehensive about such matters.
We meet again the delightful Bill Wong of the local constabulary and Mrs Bloxby, the vicar’s wife, whom I suspect has Agatha’s measure.
It’s
a bit like a soap opera, sort of compulsive. I suspect I may read the next one
in the series.
------
Reviewer: Lizzie
Hayes
M C Beaton is also the author of the highly acclaimed
Hamish MacBeth series.
M.C. Beaton (1936-2019) was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and started her first job as a bookseller in charge of the fiction department in John Smith & Sons Ltd. While bookselling, by chance, she got an offer from the Scottish Daily Mail to review variety shows and quickly rose to be their theatre critic. She left Smith’s to join Scottish Field magazine as a secretary in the advertising department, without any shorthand or typing, but quickly got the job of fashion editor instead. She then moved to the Scottish Daily Express where she reported mostly on crime. This was followed by a move to Fleet Street to the Daily Express where she became chief woman reporter. After marrying Harry Scott Gibbons and having a son, Charles, Marion went to the United States where Harry had been offered the job of editor of the Oyster Bay Guardian. When that didn’t work out, they went to Virginia and Marion worked as a waitress in a greasy spoon on the Jefferson Davies in Alexandria while Harry washed the dishes. Both then got jobs on Rupert Murdoch’s new tabloid, The Star, and moved to New York. Anxious to spend more time at home with her small son, Marion, urged by her husband, started to write Regency romances. After she had written over 100 of them under her maiden name of Marion Chesney and getting fed up with 1811 to 1820, she began to write detectives stories. On a trip from the States to Sutherland on holiday, a course at a fishing school inspired the first Hamish Macbeth story. They returned to Britain and bought a house and croft in Sutherland where Harry reared a flock of black sheep. But Charles was at school, in London so when he finished and both were ired of the long commute to the north of Scotland, they moved to the Cotswolds where Agatha Raisin was created.
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