13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful Departure, July 16, 1999
By A Customer
I enjoyed this book more than anything I've read recently. The setting is the classic English country village, where doors go unlocked and gardening, tea, and the Ladies Society are the priorities of most of its residents. The real jewel is Agatha Raisin herself; a wonderfully flawed character who makes us laugh and shake our heads sometimes. Some have compared her to Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, but she's really very different. She's middle-aged former P.R. exec who has moved to the country in her retirement, with a heavy crush on her next-door neighbor, who unfortunately doesn't return the sentiment. Agatha returns home from a solitary vacation that wasn't quite as fun as she'd hoped to find that a new, glamorous woman has moved into town and gotten her claws into Agatha's love interest, and in an attempt to thwart the affair Agatha decides to join the gardening club, which both James (the neighbor) and the new woman are avid members of. Soon, the new woman is murdered. It gets hilarious when we find Agatha up to her old tricks - cheating in a contest, going to elaborate lengths to cover it up, but of course it all comes out in the end, including the murderer. This was a great, fun read. Agatha is a real gem! Her flaws and sometimes petty emotions sometimes remind me a little of, well, me!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Agatha Takes Her Place as a Village Character, June 21, 2007
Like many readers, I found Agatha Raisin to be irresistible as a character when she first appeared in Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death. Here was a blunt, high-powered, but lonely, woman who wanted to start a new life amid her fantasy of what life is like in a Cotswold village. Her pushy instincts in that book worked well (when employed to raise funds for charity) and backfired when aimed at self-promotion (entering a store-bought quiche in a baking contest). Where would M. C. Beaton take this fascinating character?
In Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet, Agatha began to overcome her tendency to pursue James Lacey, her handsome bachelor neighbor, enough to attract him as a sleuthing partner. With Bill Wong as her advisor in the pursuit of the proper male, can she learn to be more reserved?
Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener combines both perspectives into one story. Agatha returns from an extended trip to find that James Lacey seems totally taken with a beautiful incomer, Mary Fortune, who has looks, money, and the same gardening interests as James. Agatha is stirred into action and decides to become a horticulturalist. Naturally, she doesn't know the first thing about what she's doing. Despite a warning from Mary that a frost is coming, Agatha puts out her seedlings. The result is a bare garden. Will Agatha cheat again to get her way?
Before the story is over, there's another murder in Carsely and Agatha is immediately in hot pursuit . . . with James Lacey soon enticed into joining her investigation. Before she's done, Agatha even braves the Boggles (the hard-to-satisfy older couple who like free trips from Quiche of Death) to get information.
This story is a more complex character development than either of the first two books in the series. Agatha becomes much more nuanced in her perspectives and responses . . . and becomes more like a real person rather than a mystery book character. I was particularly pleased to see the careful development of Mary Fortune as a character. It is very well done and adds a lot to the story. Unfortunately, James Lacey is developed in only one dimension, a predictable one. He becomes a bit tiresome before the end of the book.
The mysteries in the book are pretty easy to solve which reduces the book's interest for those who like puzzles. But the crimes themselves are certainly imaginative and enrich the story.
The book's main weakness is that the motives and actions of the characters seemed a little off to me. They didn't quite ring true. See what you think.
Any Agatha Raisin fan, however, would be foolish to skip this book. It's quite entertaining.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cheaters Never Prosper!, June 19, 2003
This review is from: Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener (Agatha Raisin Mysteries, No. 3) (Mass Market Paperback)
Agatha Raisin returns in the 3rd book in this series. In this book, Agatha returns from a lengthy vacation only to find that a beautiful newcomer, Mary Fortune, threatens to snare James Lacey's affections. It seems that the perfect Ms. Fortune shares James' love of gardening and she plans to enter her property into the local garden show. Agatha's black thumb does not prevent her from entering the garden show herself, but she soon finds herself having to cheat when all of her seedlings are destroyed in a early frost. Agatha turns to the help of Roy Silver, P.R. cohort, to replant her garden with fully grown nursery plants. However, someone in Carsley is destroying all of the neighbor's gardens, and then Ms. Fortune is found "planted" in a pot...dead. It is up to Agatha to solve the murder before the murderer plants her too.
The Agatha Raisin mysteries are a delight from start to finish! I loved Agatha's gruff exterior but warm heart. It is heartening to see a character that has flaws, but that can make you laugh too. Agatha gets more loveable in each book, and really draws readers into her life. With both of M.C. Beaton's series (she also writes the Hamish MacBeth series), she makes the reader want to take a trip to the Cotswolds to meet the characters she has so vividly created.
The first book in the series is "Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death". Enjoy!
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