SERIES: Agatha Raisin, Book #22
AUTHOR: M.C. Beaton
AUTHOR: M.C. Beaton
FORMAT: Unabridged audiobook
LENGTH: 6 hrs and 36 mins
GENRE: Mystery/Cozy Mystery
LENGTH: 6 hrs and 36 mins
GENRE: Mystery/Cozy Mystery
The picturesque Cotwsold village of Winter Parva has decided to warm the post-Christmas season by roasting a pig in the town square. Agatha, always one for a good roasting, organizes an outing to enjoy the merriment. But as the rotary spit is placed over a bed of fiery charcoals and the pig is carried toward its final resting place, Agatha realizes that things are not as they seem...
"Stop!" she screams suddenly. The "pig," in fact, is Gary Beech, a policeman not exactly beloved by the good people of the village. Although Agatha has every intention of leaving matters to the police, everything changes when Gary's ex-wife hires Agatha's detective agency to investigate - and then is murdered too. With that provocation, how could any sleuth as vain and competitive (and secretly insecure) as Agatha do anything other than solve the case herself?
MY REVIEW:
When Roy Silver heads to the Cotswolds to visit Agatha for the weekend, she decides to take him to a nearly village which is holding a winter festival complete with pig roast. Agatha invites Toni Gilmour and her new boyfriend, Paul Finlay who is twice her age, to come along with them. While the group is enjoying drinks at Agatha’s before leaving for the festival, Charles Fraith shows up and joins the crew. They make their way to Winter Parva for the festival and while they are watching the pig being basted on the spit, Agatha spots a tattoo of a heart with an arrow through it on the pig’s leg and realizes that something is amiss. The pig turns out not to be the four-legged kind but the two-legged kind: A police officer named Gary Beech. Someone stitched the head of a pig onto Beech’s body. A pig’s legs and a man’s legs are quite different, so I’m not sure why it was only the tattoo that gave it away! Did the men basting the pig not realize the legs were awfully long? And what about the feet?? But I digress. With his penchant for liberally writing tickets to meet certain targets to receive a promotion, Beech has made a lot of enemies. Beech’s ex-wife, Amy, hires Agatha to find the murderer.
Elsewhere in the Cotswolds, Mrs. Bloxby is worried that her husband is cheating on her. It turns out the vicar is not stepping out on his wife but seeking his own spiritual guidance from a local priest because he is conflicted with the orders given to him by the bishop to change to more modern translations of both the Book of Common Prayer and the King James Version of the Bible. Agatha actually promises to help him, by getting the parishioners to sign a petition to keep things as they are, which very much pleases the vicar!
This wasn’t my favourite in the series, but I still enjoyed it. I haven’t tired yet of the love triangle between Charles, Agatha and James. Both men clearly have feelings for Agatha and vice versa, but Agatha never seems to be on the same page with either one of them! It was nice to see a bit of role-reversal, with Agatha comforting Mrs. Bloxby instead of the usual other way around! As much as Toni is annoyed that Agatha meddles too much in her love life, I do think that Agatha genuinely cares for the girl. I enjoy the series for what it is, which is a quick escape with a light-hearted mystery and some humour thrown in the mix.
One of the reasons why it’s such a pleasure to get back to Agatha Raisin is because of the narrator, Penelope Keith! When I hear her voice, it’s like sinking into a favourite chair: It’s so comforting and cozy!
MY RATING:
#37 for my 2016 You Read How Many Books? Challenge
#37 for my 2016 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge
#32 for my 2016 Women Challenge
#30 for my 2016 Prequels & Sequels Challenge
#35 for my Backlist Books Reading Challenge
#31 for my 2016 Audiobook Challenge
#15 for my 2016 I Love Libraries Reading Challenge
#13 for my What an Animal IX Reading Challenge
#17 for my 2016 Lady Detectives Reading Challenge
#16 for my Cruisin' thru the Cozies Reading Challenge 2016
#16 for my Craving for Cozies Challenge 2016
#8 for my R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril Reading Challenge
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I am only on book six in this series. I adore Agatha's honesty and spunk, and I love that she is an older character. It's nice that you enjoyed this one, albeit not as well as some of the others. I should give one of the books a go in audio.
ReplyDeletePenelope Keith really is a wonderful narrator, and she does the character of Agatha Raisin so well! I'm glad that you enjoy the series as well and, yes, I like that she's an older woman!
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