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Summary: Be Prepared To Laugh Out Loud .
Review: In this Agatha Raisin novel, Agatha has decided to retire and sell her business in London to move to a charming cottage in the Cotswolds. This particular village has no idea what kind of person has moved into their village. Agatha begins to cause trouble before she fully settles into her new life. I enjoyed this book very much just as I have enjoyed reading the rest of this series. Everyone has kept me laughing and wanting to read more.
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Summary: I LOVE THIS BOOK !
Review: It's a comparatively long time for me to get a great affection for another mystery series. Agatha, though reminding me and many readers of Agatha Christie and making us assume Agatha must be like Miss. Marple, has a really interesting character. Considering getting a taxi pushing a guy, she's tough, but from her past history, she is pathetic. Aside from her strong character and career, she needs an affection and concerns from the others. I laughed when her attitude reversed when getting a hope on James Lacey after hearing Bill Wong's tip on his sister. Anyway..the thing I like to comment is that the crown jewel of this series is Agatha Raisin. I ordered the sequal series already, and I am looking forward to getting a free time to absorb myself in Agatha's adventures.
I read the other series of Hamish, and it seems to be really interesting. M.C. Beaton's writing is really smooth and easy to read. Reading this, I thought I watched another TV series of Jessica Fletcher hearing some rhythmical and bright music.
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Summary: A Great New Heroine and a Great New Series for Me
Review: It's not often that I get really excited about a new series and a new author. Although I'd read one or two Hamish McBeth books, I had never cracked an Agatha Rasin before. I wonder what I was waiting for. This was a great book, and a wonderful heroine. Really nobody can write an English cozy like M.C. Beaton! Agatha is wonderful. A tough, but vulnerable heroine, trying to make a place for herself in a clicky English village. The characters in the book are as quirky as you can get, but very endearing. Agatha is suitably eccentric, and a real treasure! I can hardly wait to read more in this series.
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Summary: A Great New Heroine and a Great New Series for Me
Review: It's not often that I get really excited about a new series and a new author. Although I'd read one or two Hamish McBeth books, I had never cracked an Agatha Rasin before. I wonder what I was waiting for. This was a great book, and a wonderful heroine. Really nobody can write an English cozy like M.C. Beaton! Agatha is wonderful. A tough, but vulnerable heroine, trying to make a place for herself in a clicky English village. The characters in the book are as quirky as you can get, but very endearing. Agatha is suitably eccentric, and a real treasure! I can hardly wait to read more in this series.
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Summary: GOOD---GOOD---GOOD!!!!!
Review: This book is the first in the series and the first one I have read. I really enjoyed it. I had read several of the Hamish Macbeth series, like them and thought I would try this. I am so glad I did. Agatha Raisin sells her business and moves to a small village. She is determined to become a part of the town so she enters the quiche contest, but she can't cook so she buys a quiche and enters it. She does not win but supposedly her quiche ends up at the home of Mr. Cummings-Brown. He dies from being poisoned and all fingers point to Agatha's quiche. Thery was a plant it it that caused his death. The police say it was a accident, after their investigation but Agatha thinks it was murder. She sets out ot prove it. Along the way are many, many interesting characters. Her good friend Roy, the people at the Red Lion Inn, so many good examples of everyday people. I could just see them and the houses they lived in and the country side. An excellent book. I could just feel like I was there and I think it would be great to live in a place like this.
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Summary: A Tasty Pie!
Review: This book was the first in the Agatha Raisin series from Ms. Beaton. I found it browsing back in the mid-90's. I've always been a fan of British mystery, but this is something else. There have been some many Marple knock-offs, but early on the reader learns Ms. Raisin has little in common with Christie's heroine. Writing with omniscience, we learn that Agatha Raisin has hidden a lifetime of hurt with a tough exterior and a razor-sharp tongue. She has been able to submerge that inner pain under a hard-won career. However, when she decides to sell her business and retire to 'the country', her sense of being an outsider comes back to haunt her. She learns she wants to belong to the community of villagers among whom she lives, and learns she can't retreat to London. Her efforts to assimilate into village life are the most humorous and touching parts of the book. Of course, there is a murder woven into the book, along with a frustrated romance. The plot is logical and the dialogue believable. I've loaned this book to several non-mystery-readers over the years, and they've all loved it. The inner vulnerability and self-criticism from which Agatha suffers is a universal theme. I've read the rest of the Raisin books and have enjoyed them all, but none as much as this first effort. For those who read this and like it, check out Beaton's other mysteries not featuring Ms. Raisin. You'll like them, too!
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Summary: Hilarious but Tense
Review: This first book in the Agatha Raisin series just proves once again that MC Beaton can write. I love the character of Agatha Raisin and can see my middle=aged friends in her. I'm beginning on the rest of the series and finding them enjoyable as well. Don't expect a female Hamish MacBeth, Agatha stands alone.
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Summary: An excellent read!
Review: This is an outstanding mystery, full of everything required to make it thoroughly enjoyable. This is the first of the Agatha Raisin books -- and DO read it first! How I wish I'd read it before the others in the series. It explains so much. It sets up Agatha's character as a complete persona and sets up the entire village, its life, geographic structure, characters and their livelihoods. If you are a fan of lighter mysteries -- especially with female detectives, be sure to check this out. Wow!!
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Summary: This first in the Agatha Raisin series is a hilarious hit!
Review: This is the first book in M.C. Beaton's series of cozies featuring Agatha Raisin. Agatha is a laugh-out-loud mix of vulnerability and tough-as-nails self-made business woman, who sells her London public relations business and fulfills a life-long dream by buying a cottage in the Cotswolds village of Carsely and taking early retirement. Eager to make an impact on her fellow villagers, she enters the village quiche competition, after wining and dining the judge. Agatha's detective adventures begin when she loses the competition and the judge dies the next day of cowbane poisoning from eating her quiche. Of course, it wasn't really Agatha's quiche. She can't cook at all, and bought the quiche from a famous London quiche maker, and entered it in the competition as her own. Naturally, our Agatha's cheating is exposed almost immediately, and she is no longer a suspect. She is, however, bored to tears by retirement, and sets out to find the murderer. Readers are introduced to series regulars detective Bill Wong, former employee Roy Silver, the vicar's wife Mrs. Bloxby. We are also introduced to handsome retired colonel James Lacey, who moves next door to Agatha towards the end of this story. James's early impressions of Agatha walking by mumbling to herself and her reaction to this good-looking new neighbor are terrifically funny. This fifty-something heroine is a hoot! The mystery is well-written, with a solid, traditional resolution. If you love Agatha Christie, you'll love Beaton's Agatha Raisin! I suggest you collect the entire series all at once and read them in order....because you won't be able to wait to get to the next book!
Rating:
Summary: This first in the Agatha Raisin series is a hilarious hit!
Review: This is the first book in M.C. Beaton's series of cozies featuring Agatha Raisin. Agatha is a laugh-out-loud mix of vulnerability and tough-as-nails self-made business woman, who sells her London public relations business and fulfills a life-long dream by buying a cottage in the Cotswolds village of Carsely and taking early retirement. Eager to make an impact on her fellow villagers, she enters the village quiche competition, after wining and dining the judge. Agatha's detective adventures begin when she loses the competition and the judge dies the next day of cowbane poisoning from eating her quiche. Of course, it wasn't really Agatha's quiche. She can't cook at all, and bought the quiche from a famous London quiche maker, and entered it in the competition as her own. Naturally, our Agatha's cheating is exposed almost immediately, and she is no longer a suspect. She is, however, bored to tears by retirement, and sets out to find the murderer. Readers are introduced to series regulars detective Bill Wong, former employee Roy Silver, the vicar's wife Mrs. Bloxby. We are also introduced to handsome retired colonel James Lacey, who moves next door to Agatha towards the end of this story. James's early impressions of Agatha walking by mumbling to herself and her reaction to this good-looking new neighbor are terrifically funny. This fifty-something heroine is a hoot! The mystery is well-written, with a solid, traditional resolution. If you love Agatha Christie, you'll love Beaton's Agatha Raisin! I suggest you collect the entire series all at once and read them in order....because you won't be able to wait to get to the next book!
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