Customer Reviews

Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This most recent of M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series (all complete delights for cozy-holics like me) finds our Agatha at long last rid of her handsome ex-neighbor and ex-husband James Lacey, who has sold his cottage and joined a French monastery. And good enough for him, too, after the way he treated our Agatha. Regular readers will be delighted to see Agatha recovering surely if slowly from the wounds inflicted on her by the misogynistic, emotionally abusive Lacey...and will find further snickers in the brief images of the fickle tightwad Sir Charles Fraith, a former partner in investigation and erstwhile lover, caught in a not necessarily happy marriage and newly chubby to boot. Don't we all want to see Agatha find a man who thinks she's as funny and worthy as we do? Could her new neighbor, the famous author John Armitage, be The One? Can't wait for the next installment in this series to find out! As far as the plot, it's predictable and delightful. If you're an Agatha Christie fan, you'll recognize the plot and certain clue devices early on, although Beaton takes a few twists and contemporary turns on the original. Beaton never fails to delight in her plots, nor in the continuing saga of the grumpy but tender-hearted Agatha! More, more, more, and more, please Ms. Beaton!

Like "Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell," the manner in which this latest Agatha Raisin installment unfolds pretty much mirrors Agatha's frame of mind and feelings. The ending of her short-lived but ill fated marriage to her great love, James Lacey, has left Agatha feeling empty, lonely and utterly diminished in the self confidence department. As such, the novel moves between Agatha's feelings of inadequacy and her determination to get a handle on things and so move forward and onward. This could be slightly off putting if you're not an Agatha Raisin fan, and if you're not prepared to fall in with whatever master plan M. C. Beaton has mapped out for Agatha. I enjoyed the book very much. It was well written, cleverly executed and completely engrossing.

Saddened and weary -- first James ends their marriage in order to join a monastery, then Sir Charles Fraith (someone she thought she could count as a friend) gets married to a French society beauty and never bothers inviting her to his wedding -- Agatha decides that what she needs in a holiday far away from everyone she knows. A week at a small isolated South Pacific island seems just the ticket. And to her surprise Agatha finds herself enjoying her vacation. The other vacationers are incredibly friendly and take great pains to include Agatha in their activities. Only the honeymooning couple remains aloof. And although something about the newly wed husband strikes Agatha being slightly 'off,' she manages to keep her opinions to herself, and refrains from interfering.

Back again in England, Agatha comes across a young local couple (Zak Jensen & Kylie Stokes) that reminds her of the vacationing honeymooners. Something about Zak Jensen seems slightly 'off' as well. A couple of weeks later, Agatha watches in horror, as the body of Kylie Stokes, dressed in her wedding dress and clutching a bridal bouquet, floats down the river during a storm. And while the police are strangely reticent about classifying Kylie's death (her body was pumped with heroin and frozen before it ended up in the river); Agatha is sure that Kylie was murdered and that Zak had something to do with Kylie's death. And she is determined to prove it. Disguising herself as a researcher for a TV station, Agatha begins making the rounds, interviewing Kylie's friends and coworkers, hoping to discover something that would lead her to Kylie's killer.

I like this series immensely -- it is poignant, humourous and completely appealing. And this particular installment, "Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came," proved to be as compulsive a read as the other books in the series. Part romance novel (will Agatha ever over her love for James?), part mystery novel, I've been an enthusiastic fan of this series from the very beginning. And while the tone has changed a little -- the first few mystery novels were a little more quirky and humourous than the later ones which have been more poignant in tone -- this novel still made for enjoyable reading. I thought that the novel unwound in a smooth manner even if the denouncement was a bit rushed. There were quite a few red herring suspects to keep readers guessing, even if the plot was not a terribly complex or complicated one. All in all, great reading.

Agatha is as loveable as ever -- funny and flawed -- but still mooning over James, the jerk of an ex-husband who abandoned her. A new bachelor has moved into the house next door, a mystery writer who has all the single women in the village (and some that aren't single) running after him. Agatha plans to ignore him, but ends up teaming up with him to solve a mystery -- a young girl floating in a flooded river, dressed in a wedding gown and holding her bouquet in her hands. Despite repeated warnings from the police to let them handle it and to quit going around in a wig asking questions, Agatha won't (can't?) leave it alone. It quickly becomes clear that getting arrested is not the worst danger she's in by pursuing this, but like smoking, she just can't quite quit.

There are lots of laughs and a really good plot as the character of the murdered woman is gradually revealed.

I can hardly wait to see what will happen next with Agatha. Will James return? Will Charles or the mystery writer take his place? Or will Agatha finally find a man suited to her?

If you haven't read any of the series, you should probably start with the first (Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death). But no great harm would come from starting with this one and then working your way back.

Not too long ago I read one Janet Evanovich cosy mystery starring Stephanie Plum, a female protagonist who is in her thirties. M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin is a good deal older than Stephanie Plum but certainly no wiser, no more skilled, and is certainly just as silly.

The Vicar in this novel repeatedly calls Agatha Raisin a silly woman, and after the irresponsible and immature shenanigans the reader witnesses in Agatha Raisin's behavior throughout the story, the reader knows there has to be one person here who is no fool and who knows what's what, and that happens to be the Vicar after all. Like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, M.C. Beaton's protagonist is inept, is constantly getting herself into trouble because of her own ineptness, and eventually has to be rescued by men even while she disparages them.

In one scene, Agatha Raisin (which is I think a really wonderful name to give a main character in a series) wears a wig and sunglasses to disguise herself but is nearly run over at night by a car driven by someone who recognizes her by her wig and sunglasses. In the very next scene, a (silly) woman friend calls on Agatha and asks to borrow her wig and sunglasses so she can attend a secret tryst with a married man. Agatha gives her friend the wig and sunglasses fresh off her own near-death risk in the self-same disguise she's now turned over to her friend. Agatha's gesture here is neither kind nor generous; it expresses, unintentionally perhaps, a thoughtlessness of mind and shows just how mindlessly inappropriate a mature Agatha Raisin can behave -- or how the author lets her behave -- especially for one who considers herself a worthwhile sleuth and gets upset when she's not credited or praised for her so-called skills.

Of course, Agatha's friend is soon killed thereafter by a strange car. Not only does Agatha Raisin experience little guilt or awareness of her own responsibility for this murder, but M.C. Beaton tries to distract the reader from her main character's culpability by focusing on Agatha's sudden self-consciousness about a hair protruding from her upper lip while she is kissing a handsome mystery writer who lives nextdoor to her, a John Armitage who comes to see her in her home. Not that she's really interested in romance or men. Yeah, right. Pure hypocrisy.

A lot of the deaths that occur in this story, as in every cosy, occur in the background, but the odd thing is that Agatha Raisin's behavior here is played for laughs meanwhile, and I personally found the lack of seriousness about the murders, about death and responsibility quite sickening, tragic in its lack of appropriate affect by the author for her character. A mystery novel is not a pinball or video game, where death is immaterial and just all about the fun and the laughs.

M.C. Beaton makes Agatha Raisin appear sometimes like a crotchety old matron, a character trait appropriate for an older single woman, maybe, but for the most part the author paints a temperament for this very amateurish middle-aged female sleuth that is histrionically adolescent and short-attention spanned. Cosy mysteries are supposed to have intelligent single women as amateur sleuths. This novel doesn't meet that standard. It falls far below it. An old Stephanie Plum is what she is, and not nearly as attractive as her American competitor. I don't know why any truly intelligent woman would read this series (or Evanovich's series either, for that matter).

Agatha Raisin is in a deep funk. The man she loved, cherished after and finally married is divorcing her to become a monk in a French monastery. Her good friend Sir Charles is no longer available to keep her company because he married a French woman who is pregnant with twins. Her spirits are lifted when she finds the body of a bride in a wedding gown floating down the river.

She decides that since the police ruled the case a homicide she would solve it before the authorities do. Helping her is her new neighbor, crime writer John Armitage. While interviewing individuals connected to the victim, Agatha discovers the dead woman was a cunning, cold and manipulative person who was black mailing some people. While trying to figure out who that someone is, two attempts are made on her life before she finally figures it out and by then it is almost too late.

Agatha Raisin, a cranky, crude and raunchy woman somehow (and this reviewer doesn't have a clue) manages to warm her way into the reader's heart and elicit their sympathy. The latest installment in this long running series is funny, breezy and very enjoyable. Though the heroine has not changed an iota from the first tale, M.C. Beaton has written another winner.

Harriet Klausner

M.C. Beaton has done it again with the 12th book in the delightful and captivating Agatha Raisin series. Agatha, ever the amateur detective, is solving still another murder in the Cotwolds, but she is also on a self-improvement program of exercise classes and giving up cigarettes. She also wants to be free of men, though she still misses her ex-husband, James, who joined a monastery in France. A new neighbor, a mystery writer named John Armitage, who bought the cottage her ex-husband used to live in, joins her in trying to solve the murder. Will John be Agatha's next love interest? Stay tuned for book 13!

Winsome, quirky, irritable and delightfully miserable, our middle aged heroine Agatha Raisin has been deserted by James Lacy and must go on to find what life awaits. An escapist trip to Robinson Crusoe island in South America was a bit of a surprise, but it has now been added to my venue of places to visit. Upon returning to her cottages in the Cotswolds and her adoring cats, Agatha seriously takes up Pilates, determines to studiously ignore her new neighbor and to hypnotize away her cigarette habit. Mrs. Bloxby, the vicar's wife, is a minor character, but has one line in this book that makes the whole read more than worth while. As Agatha finds herself in the midst of yet another murder mystery, she dons a wig and glasses and goes investigating. Despite rude remarks about her age, threats and more murder, Agatha perseveres and (of course) nearly gets killed herself. How M.C. Beaton can continue to improve on her Agatha formula book after book, I couldn't guess, but I found this one even more fun and even wiser than previous volumes. Exceedingly clever.

As I live and breathe, that Agatha Raisin appears to be growing up. No longer is she endlessly chasing after James, or Charles or even the new man next door. Agatha is not doing anything as trite as trying to "find herself", but she is starting to come to some new realizations and her old irritating self is starting to wear off those rough edges and slowly, but surely, turn into a tolerable woman.

In a deep slump after James joined the Monastery and Charles has run off and married a woman purported to be carrying twin; Agatha is left to her own depressed thoughts, that is, until a body is found floating down the river. Though the police call it a suicide - Agatha knows better and sets off to solve the mystery of the woman and why she was wearing a wedding dress and carrying a bouquet of flowers.

Mrs. Bloxby comes into her own in this book; she is a character that I have always enjoyed for her never-ending insight and patience when it comes to Agatha and her harebrained schemes. Police Chief Budge is still completely flabbergasted by Agatha and the regular characters make their usual appearance, including the reverend and his endless frustration with "that horrible Agatha woman".

The overall story is not that fascinating, but the characters are what brings me back again and again to this series. If you are expecting a thrilling and fascinating read, you will not find that here, but start this series at the beginning and you will find a parade of characters that never cease to entertain.

This is only my fourth Agatha Raisin book but I'm afraid that I am becoming tired on her constant whining over her advancing age and physical attractiveness (or lack thereof). I do realize that this book is #12 in the series and follows the departure of James, her now ex-husband, who left her to join a monastery (of all things) and the marriage of her latest paramour to another woman. One can understand that she might be a bit lacking in the self-esteem department and the fact that she signs up for Pilates classes and undergoes a beauty over-haul are understandable actions as is her get-away vacation to Robinson Crusoe Island.......but all that incessant kvetching about men, her looks, her age and her love life begins to wear a bit thin.

Upon returning from her island trip torrential rain and flooding strike her village and Agatha sees the body of a young woman clothed in a wedding dress floating down the river. She recalls the woman from an incident that occurred during her visit to the beauty salon the previous day and, being Agatha, feels she has carte blanche to investigate the girl's death. As usual, she is warned by the police "not to interfere" with their investigation.......a warning she promptly dismisses.

The usual characters are all here as well as a couple of new ones like John Armitage, a successful mystery writer, who has conveniently moved into the house next door and is thereby available to assist Agatha with her investigation as well as play a part in her romantic fantasies. The mystery itself if pretty simple and the police are predictably obtuse.

On the plus side, there are a couple of amusing sequences like Agatha's vaulting into the bushes while trying to evade on oncoming vehicle and being mistaken for a drunk when she staggers out of her hiding place. Objectively speaking, this is an unremarkable addition to this cozy series with a few amusing scenes and comments that elevate it from humdrum to adequate. 2 1/2 stars

Agatha is back in her funny and enjoyable way with this outing. She is on her own finally. James has joined a monastery and Sir Charles has married a French woman. The book starts with her on a holiday on an island off Chile's coastline where she meets a wonderful Spanish family, and she finds that they become good friends. But then she must go home, and sure enough there is another murder in nearby Evesham. They have a huge spring flood and Agatha is standing on a bridge watching the rushing water and she sees the body of a young girl floating face up in the water. She's wearing a bridal gown and holding a bouquet. Agatha is sure she's been murdered so she sets out on her own to discover the killer. In the meantime she teams up with her new neighbour, John, a writer who bought James' cottage. He's an attractive divorcee, but Agatha is determined not to get involved romantically with him. She again finds herself in danger as she tries to unearth the killer. This is a really funny little story, and I enjoyed it very much.