Customer Reviews

Agatha Raisin: there goes the bride

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Well, looks like I have finally found a female P.I. protagonist that I can really relate to. Agatha Raisen is in her 50's, has an arthritic hip that constantly gives her trouble, is just a tad jealous of Toni (the blond, beautiful and extremely photogenic junior member of the detective agency) and is feeling a more than a little insecure about her looks since her ex-husband James has decided to marry a woman several years his junior.

When Felicity, James's bride-to-be, is shot dead on her wedding day Agatha initially is seen as the prime suspect. When her alibi checks out she is hired by Felicity's mother to conduct an investigation into the death of her daughter. Agatha compiles a list of potential perpetrators with motives that run the gamut from laughable to dangerous. There's a group of young peeping Toms and a couple of Felicity's ex-fiancés as well as a suspicious dog handler, a bad-tempered security guard and the brides unscrupulous father not to mention an enigmatic lothario of a Frenchman (who employs his smarmy charms with the love starved Agatha). That is not to say that there are not plenty of men in Agatha's life.........it's just that most of them would fall into the "friend" classification as opposed to being categorized as romantic interests.

THERE GOES THE BRIDE is book #20 in the Agatha Raisen series. For this reader, however, it is book #1 and is a good example of the consummate cozy. The fact that I had not read the previous nineteen books did not detract in any way from my enjoyment and anyone who appreciates this genre will literally gobble up the delightfully amusing escapades of Agatha as she navigates her way through a minefield of murder and mayhem and encroaching signs of aging.

This story has several twists and turns. Just when you think it will be over you realize there are still many loose ends. All the usual men in her life come and go but prove to be true blue. Agatha is worried about her mind losing it's sharpness as she keeps getting trapped by killers. In the end she overcomes her fears of them and her worries about age. I think she will be around for many more years to come.