Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death – M C Beaton

This is a book recommended to me by fellow bookbloggers Bina of If You Can Read This and Simon of SavidgeReads as well as my friend Hayley. I’ve been waiting to read it for some time as I found that my library has several copies of various Agatha Raisin adventures but not the first one, and I’m afraid I’m one of those people who just has to start at the beginning of a series! So I put in a request for a copy from another library. Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death is the debut for Beaton’s infamous amateur detective Agatha which was published in 1992 since then twenty more instalments have been added to the series (so if I like this book I’ve got plenty more to go). Agatha isn’t Beaton’s only crime creation she also the Hamish Macbeth series but crime isn’t where Beaton stops either oh no, M C Beaton is merely a pseudonym for Marion Chesney who is best known for having written over a hundred historical romance novels under her own name and many other pseudonyms. It appears that our Marion Chesney have been a rather busy bee indeed having been born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1936 her first job was in a bookshop since then she has been a theatre critic, newspaper reporter, editor, waitress, mother and eventually author. I can see our M C Beaton/Marion Chesney becoming somewhat of a role model for me.

Agatha Raisin a stylish, successful and independent fifty something woman has decided to throw in the cut throat business world to live her childhood dream of dwelling in a little stone cottage in the blissful Cotswold’s countryside. However the transition from PR manager of her own company in London to retirement in a country village is anything but blissful for our Agatha. She doesn’t clean, or garden, or cook actually Agatha doesn’t have any hobbies to speak of. Her retirement starts off with endless long walks, microwave meals and crime novels the latter of which Agatha becomes an avid reader of in her loneliness, but staying at home reading won’t help ingratiate Agatha with the locals. At the village feté Agatha seizes her chance to impress the locals by entering the quiche making competition, of course Agatha has no idea how to make a quiche, instead she buys one from a delicatessen in London clearly they know what they’re doing and so Agatha is bound to win. After tasting Agatha’s superior quiche the village judge doesn’t pronounce her the winner instead he is found dead…cause of death poison in the quiche…not the impression Agatha wished to make. Now Agatha must turn amateur detective to track down the real killer!

This book was pretty much everything I wanted it to be funny, sassy, intriguing and a bit tongue in cheek. I think Beaton’s Agatha Raisin books fall best into the category which is referred to as cosy crime bit like watching Jonathan Creek This kind of cosy crime is a great escape from everyday life but also from the normal genre of crime which is great but I can get worn down by actual full on violence and gore. Agatha on the other hand is a feisty, interesting and certainly not perfect character who you can’t help but like, she doesn’t potter through life she ploughs, and this investigation is no different for her. I found the moments when Agatha should be sneaking secretly round finding clues like the professionals would in other crime novels no instead she stomped, barged and made a huge nuisance of herself. Which didn’t just add humour it also added tension as she got closer to the real killer threats and actual physical harm came to Agatha much to the exasperation of the real police detectives.

I don’t think I need say more. Anyone who loves to read about a disturbance (and I mean the murder even though Agatha could be called a disturbance too) into the picture perfect world of the English countryside with the added bonus of a good dollop of humour, than this is a book for you. Has anyone read this? What did you think if you have?

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