Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham [Paperback]

MC Beaton (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Robinson; paperback / softback edition (2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1849011419
• ISBN-13: 978-1849011419
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,097,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

M.C. BEATON has won international acclaim for her bestselling Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin mysteries. She is also the author of over 100 romance titles and a series of romantic suspense, The Edwardian Mystery Series. M. C. Beaton lives in a Cotswold cottage with her husband.

Marion is active on Facebook using her most popular pen name, M.C. Beaton. You can find complete book lists, information on events, and sign up for news updates at her website, www.MCBeaton.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars One-note Agatha Raisin, May 16, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham (Agatha Raisin Mysteries, No. 8) (Hardcover)

Though I remain a staunch supporter of the Agatha Raisin series, its plot staples (Agatha's unrequited love for James, her feeling displaced in the Cotswolds, her battles with weight and the signs of old age) are wearing thin. In the Wizard of Evesham, there is not even the tinge of humor that marked the first few entries in the Agatha series. I read this novel in the dashed hope that M C Beaton would finally make Agatha fuller character. Yet Agatha persists in coming across as two-dimensional, a cardboard cutout.

As for the "mystery," it fell flat. Rather than taking a truly active role in the storyline, Agatha blunders through the story. It hardly seems in character that a tough businesswoman would be such a victim in any aspect of her life. Elements from past novels were recycled (Agatha buying catered food, passing it off as her own. Agatha "solving" a crime by placing herself in the killer's hands.)

If Agatha must remain a cardboard figure, why not explore the lives of the others in the village of Carsley? Though the vicar's wife, Mrs. Bloxby, is made to seem a paragon of Christian charity and humility, I sense each time she appears a more sinister side could be lurking just beneath the surface. It is the mark of a truly poor book when a secondary character draws a reader's interest more than the titular main character.

Let's have more and BETTER Agatha Raisin.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, Not Terrible, February 24, 2003

By 

S. Schwartz "romonko" (alberta canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham (Agatha Raisin Mysteries, No. 8) (Mass Market Paperback)

I enjoyed this installment of Agatha. If nothing else, we were spared the odious James this time round. I think Charles is better than him - at least he's true to a type! Agatha gets involved with a handsome hairdresser from a neighbouring village in this story. Then she finds out that he is not as he seems. She pieces together that he has been blackmailing middle-aged women. Agatha tries to prove the blackmail, but in the meantime Mr. John is poisoned. Agatha and Charles set out to find the killer. Agatha is really very appealing in this story. Her vulnerability is charming to me, as she tries to hide it in her usual bluster.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Long suffering Agatha and Dear Reader, October 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham (Agatha Raisin Mysteries, No. 8) (Hardcover)

Although this book was a tad more cohesively written than the "wellspring of death", and the reappearance of Charles is less numbing than James, I, too am eager for Agatha to grow into a more self-aware and self-possessed woman. As a successful business-woman, she is entitled to more confidance about her own qualities and abilities, and if feels out-of-character for her to be so insecure about her person and her worth.