Agatha Raisin ~ BRC
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a review on here…this blog is getting away from me. But thankfully, Barrie Summy and my fellow Book Review Club tribe are keeping me on track most months.
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@Barrie Summy
This month I’m not reviewing a specific book, but a series. And it’s kind of complicated. Basically I had listened to Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by M. C. Beaton as a free gateway audiobook and got a little hooked. It was a short cozy with a good narrator and it kept my attention through many hours of driving with a rather clever whodunit. So then I purchased the second audiobook in the series instead of using my monthly credit, because the books are only about five hours long narrated and I’d rather use my credit for a good long story. I’m about halfway through that one, enjoying it as well, although it’s a different narrator. Meanwhile, I discovered that Acorn TV (Netflix of British television) is showing an Agatha Raisin series, so I whipped over, signed up for the free trial, and have been binge-watching the first season ever since. It’s become a bit of an obsession really, but I still haven’t actually read a single one of the books.
I don’t typically read cozies, but I love the Cotswolds setting of this one and all the characters are unique and interesting. Agatha herself reminds me of a person in my own life who can be rather abrasive and sees nothing wrong with saying whatever’s on her mind. It amuses me in literature much more than in real life. There’s also humor, a love interest, and various little village side stories.
From Amazon:
Putting all her eggs in one basket, Agatha Raisin gives up her successful PR firm, sells her London flat, and samples a taste of early retirement in the quiet village of Carsely. Bored, lonely and used to getting her way, she enters a local baking contest: Surely a blue ribbon for the best quiche will make her the toast of the town. But her recipe for social advancement sours when Judge Cummings-Browne not only snubs her entry–but falls over dead! After her quiche’s secret ingredient turns out to be poison, she must reveal the unsavory truth…
Agatha has never baked a thing in her life! In fact, she bought her entry ready-made from an upper crust London quicherie. Grating on the nerves of several Carsely residents, she is soon receiving sinister notes. Has her cheating and meddling landed her in hot water, or are the threats related to the suspicious death? It may mean the difference between egg on her face and a coroner’s tag on her toe…
I recommend Agatha Raisin for anyone who likes a good cozy, a light, humorous mystery, or a quick, entertaining read. Here’s the trailer for the series debut, now showing on Acorn. I think they’ve made Agatha quite a bit more likable than she is in the books, but maybe that’s just me. If you decide to go for the free trial, let me know. I’ll shoot you an email and earn myself a bounty of one free month. 😉 Enjoy!
Be sure to click over to read the rest of this month’s reviews!
02/01/2017 at 2:49 am
Me, me! I’ll try a free month of Acorn. I’m always looking for British TV shows. And I was seriously looking for a cozy. I try to read one every once in a while because one of my critique partners (not Kelly) writes them. So, this is perfect timing! Thank you, Alyssa!
02/01/2017 at 3:47 am
Yay! Consider yourself hooked up, Barrie! Although…it’s only a free week, unless you get someone else to sign up.
Thank *you*!
02/01/2017 at 3:07 pm
An entire blog post could be devoted to the types of people that need to be kept strictly to fiction, like Agatha.
I love that her quiche is store bought! And that a quicherie is a thing.
Thanks for the review.
02/02/2017 at 7:08 pm
Agree. With everything. 😛
The quiche element was definitely very fun!
02/02/2017 at 1:47 am
Ooh, this does sound like fun. I’ve read lots of M.C.Beaton’s old Marion Chesney Regency romances and enjoyed them. The series sounds like fun, too. Thanks for the review.
02/02/2017 at 7:09 pm
The Six Sisters novels by Marion Chesney were some of the first Regency romances I ever read. And reread! Loved them.
So far so good on this series too!
02/02/2017 at 6:43 pm
Oh my goodness, both this series and the television show look amazing and right up my alley! I love a good cozy, even if the character is less-than-likable. Thanks for the review! I’d also love a free trial to Acorn, though I’d like to read the book first. (Force of habit.) Does it need to be activated immediately?
02/02/2017 at 7:10 pm
The website says something like, “For a limited time” regarding the free trial, so I really have no idea how long it lasts. I can send you the link if you’d like and you can click through at your convenience.
02/02/2017 at 6:59 pm
It’s interesting how being an audiobook subscription shapes your reading habits – good marketing on their part! I hadn’t heard the term cozy before but could figure it out from your description. My life in England is already feeling too much like a cozy, minus the mystery.
02/02/2017 at 7:11 pm
Too much like a cozy?? Is that even possible? ;P Can you tell I’m jealous?
02/02/2017 at 11:37 pm
I love it! What a title!