Amazon.com Review
Agatha Raisin, the crusty, yet perversely self-conscious Londoner who has resettled in the ostensible calm of a Cotswold village stars in her seventh adventure by M.C. Beaton. In this episode, Agatha has agreed to come out of retirement to manage the publicity for the launch of water bottled from a village spring--much to the chagrin of some of her neighbors. Worried that the commodification of at least part of the village's charm might wreak havoc on their peaceful existence, some of the community try to stop it once and for all. Still, killing off a member of the village council and leaving the corpse in the spring itself seems a little extreme, especially as it makes Agatha's paying job a bit more difficult. Believing that a dead body might destroy the chances for a successful campaign to market her product, Agatha begins an investigation into who might have wanted the victim dead.
Agatha Raisin continues to be an engaging and slightly puzzling heroine in The Wellspring of Death. She careens around the Cotswolds asking impertinent questions regarding the personal lives of her neighbors, all the while wondering why so many of them are unpleasant to her. She manages to muddle her own romantic affairs to such an extent that she finds herself in bed with her young and handsome employer--to the dismay of her former fiancée. Yet, in spite of all this, she engages in the occasional humorous assessment of what life among charming façades and lovely vistas is really like (crowded shopping in too small stores) and has a peculiarly British obsession with class and accent. There is much to appreciate here and little that is daunting or dismal. --K.A. Crouch
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Cotswolds snoop Agatha Raisin (Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist, 1997, etc.), still smarting from her broken engagement to neighbor James Lacey, returns in yet another cozy featuring backbiting provincial villagers. The Ancombe Water Company is trying to negotiate a deal with the parish council to bottle water from a historic village spring, a move that has sharply divided the council. When the body of Robert Struthers, the council chairman who had not yet committed on the issue, is found head-down in the spring, Agatha, who's doing PR for the water company, and James each decide to investigate. Bitterness keeps them apart, and 50-something Agatha is romanced by the much younger Guy Freemont, a company director. Beaton performs deftly, with Agatha pining for James while weighing the pros and cons of village life. Particularly entertaining elements include James's undercover stint in a militant environment group and, in a finale that follows a second murder, the introduction of a new side to Mrs. Bloxby, the vicar's usually plodding wife.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
