Customer Reviews

The Walkers of Dembley (Agatha Raisin Mysteries)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

A welcome come-back of an old story. M. C. Beaton is best in the field of British light mystery at this time. I hope all her early works come back in print so I can complete my Beaton collection. Her wry humor makes all her characters real, even the wicked ones, and they aren't always all that wicked. As an author of mysteries myself, I envy her skill and wit.
Mary Saxon Wilburn

In this, the fourth book in of the Agatha Raisin cozy British mystery series, the irrepressible Agatha has just returned to her bucolic Cotswold village of Carsely, from her six month stint as a public relations agent in London. Hoping that absence has made the heart grow fonder, she is disappointed to find that her secret heartthrob and neighbor, the very attractive retired colonel, James Lacey, is not pining away for her.

When Jessica Tartinck, who runs a hiking club called the Dembley Walkers that treks across the properties of others without so much as a by your leave, turn up murdered in a local field, Agatha Raisin perks up. Once again she is able to join forces with James Lacey, and together this amateur crime fighting duo will try to solve the murder. Perhaps, it just takes murder to warm the cockles of his heart towards Agatha.

This book is notable for its introduction of the recurring character, Sir Charles Fraith. As always, the book is filled with droll humor and the central characters and their relationships continue to evolve. As with all cozy mysteries, the murder in almost secondary, as it is simply the glue that binds. This is a fun and highly addictive series, entertaining and peppered with a host of quirky characters. Well-plotted, the dialogue is credible, and the pace is brisk. Fans of the cozy mystery genre will love this series.

She crafts a good, solid mystery with lots of fun for everyone. Walkers is no less.

If you can, start at the beginning. I've read the whole series and miss them when done.

Although I've read the Hamish Macbeth series by M. C. Beaton, I had not read the Agatha Raisin series, so I decided to give it a try. I'm not quite as thrilled with the character, though I have to admit I plunged into the middle of the collection when I selected something to read.

The main character, Agatha Raisin, is a PR officer in a large London firm in this book. I gathered in passing that she formerly owned her own PR firm but had retired to live in a small village to get away from the push and shove of urban living. This probably set her in a new and untried environment in order to take the series, which appears to have been a long one, along a new path, a la The Cat Who Mysteries (where the Quill character moves to a north woods community in the Central United States, abandoning the high pressure career of journalism in big cities like Chicago and New York, The Cat Who Went Underground.) She is truculent but endearing and reminds me of the Aunt Agatha character in the Inspector Jury series by Martha Grimes, The Anodyne Necklace (Richard Jury Mystery) and The Old Fox Deceiv'd (Richard Jury Mystery), except that she lacks the straight man foil that Melrose Plant provides his own Agatha.

The collateral characters were interesting, but because I didn't start at the beginning, I felt that there was a lot unsaid about them, because I had not met them when they were first introduced. For the same reason, I felt a considerable emotional disconnect when the plot travelled from London to Carsely and then to Dembley, etc. I can only advise the reader new to the series to start at the beginning, as I shall do myself, in order to gain a good sense of who everyone is. While I was aware of A history in each venue, I was not really aware of The history. It made me realize how important it is to take each book in order.

The plot was well arranged, with plenty of carefully crafted red herrings strewn along the way. There was a beginning, middle and end to it that provided a satisfying who-dunnit conclusion; that is, the reader does not feel manipulated or cheated by the denouement. The setting is late twentieth century England with the same concerns as those one expects of a first world country approaching the twenty first.

For those readers who like more of a sense of ambience to their mysteries as I do, the book will be something of a disappointment. This is not like Jacqueline Winspear's series, Maisie Dobbs (Book 1) and The Mapping of Love and Death (Maisie Dobbs, Book 7), where the mood of the words and the rhythm of the prose create a sense of emotional environment and a visual image of the venue. For those who enjoy a playful, fast paced work without a lot of verbiage between the dialogues, you will be pleased. This is much like Lillian Jackson Braun's series, The Cat Who mysteries, The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (Cat Who...) and The Cat Who Dropped A Bombshell (Cat Who...) or Joanne Fluke's Minnesota series, Cream Puff Murder (Hannah Swensen Mysteries) and Apple Turnover Murder (Hannah Swensen Mysteries).

A nice visit that invites another.

This is one series that I love. Agatha reminds me of all of my friends. I hope the author keeps them coming.

A loved every minute of my reading. I've bought all her books of this series and enjoy myself with everyone of them

Because I could not find this novel until I was well into the Agatha Raisin series, I missed how Sir Charles and Gustav became a part of Agatha' life. It also provided the background for the Murderous Marriage. Basically Agatha and James play husband and wife to investigate the murder charge against Sir Charles.You learn quite a bit about Sir charles' background and his foibles. Finally A victory for our Aggie-maybe

M.C. Beaton writes under several names, but the quality of the Agatha Detective Series is good and I think they are getting better as she goes. Characters are good and you look forward to see what they are up to on the next case. once you get started, I think you will enjoy the cases in the small English village with Agatha, Charles, Toni, The Vicar's wife, her cats and Agatha's many romance adventures that always fail. Good reading!