Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House (2003)

Somehow I still hang on with Agatha even though I've given up on almost every other mystery series I used to read.

I'm not sure why really, I don't even like her that much, but I guess they're short. Or maybe I think THIS TIME SHE WILL FINALLY GET HER LIFE IN ORDER.

She won't, of course. ( )

The story is almost laughably simple, Agatha Raisin is a middle-aged woman who has left London for a small English village where she has gained the reputation of being an amateur sleuth. Her new next-door neighbour is handsome Paul Chatterton and when they hear that the house of an elderly lady is being haunted the pair decide to investigate. I’ll leave the remaining few surprises up to you to discover should you have a yen to but I wouldn’t hurry. The plot has significant holes and the characters aren’t likable enough that you’d be genuinely interested in the endless boring details of their lives. Agatha Raisin is plain silly, dithering about changing her outfits every time she is due to meet her neighbour and fantasizing about him asking her to marry him despite the fact he is already married and has shown barely a ripple of romantic interest in her. Her crime solving skills are negligible at best and if I met her in the real world I’d have to fight the urge to slap her as she is pretty much everything I despise in a woman all wrapped up in a single package.

I don’t actually think it’s much of a recommendation that the book was suitable for paying minimal attention to while sitting in hospital waiting rooms and keeping me awake while driving late at night. However much of my attention was held by the book is due to Penelope Keith’s acting talents and not Beaton’s storytelling ones but even Keith can only do so much with such poor source material. ( )

After another stint of PR in London, Agatha Raisin returns to her village to find another new neighbour has moved into her ex husband's cottage next door. Paul Chatterton is rather handsome, and rather married to a fiesty younger woman living in Spain. Having heard of Agatha's detecting abilities, he is keen to involve her and himself in the mystery of an apparent haunting in a neighbouring village. The victim - an elderly woman - is apparently disliked by everyone, and of course turns up murdered fairly soon after. Trouble of course ensues as Agatha and Paul get themselves involved in investigsating the crime.
This book has all our old favourite characters, including the welcome return of Sir Charles Fraith, Agatha's sometime partner in crime. A good fun, light read, with familiar people and places I have come to look forward to catching up with, perfect for lazy sunday. ( )

Fourteenth in the Agatha Raisin, amateur sleuth in the Cotswolds mystery. A mystery presents itself when a woman in a nearby village claims she’s being haunted in her own home. 92-years-old, far from frail, and the bane of everyone in the village including her own children, the woman eventually ends up dead. Many had motives, as the woman had some money and lived in a home that was significant historically. But who had means and opportunity? Agatha and her new neighbor Paul, a computer specialist that she (once again!) finds attractive, investigate. Agatha and her concerns over her aging looks and propensity to become enamored of every man she meets makes me laugh—in other characters, it would just be annoying and I’d stop reading, but for some reason I tolerate it and even enjoy it in the indefatigable Ms. Raisin. This was a typically enjoyable entry in the series, bolstered by the appearance once again of Sir Charles Fraith. ( )

Agatha Raisin, snug and warm in her Carsely cottage, has the same old
feeling -- boredom -- until a report of a haunted house sends her and
handsome new neighbor Paul Chatterton to investigate. Suddenly, middle-aged
Agatha is aglow with romance and excitement. But the glow fades fast. It
turns out that Paul is married and a cad. The victim of the haunting is a
universally disliked old biddy. And the ghost is most likely someone
playing a malicious trick. Then, the old lady is found, murdered, at the
foot of her stairs with a broken neck. Agatha thinks solving a murder is
more interesting than ghostbusting, and soon has a theory and a rather risky
scheme to prove it. As usual, the murders multiply and the suspects are
many, but Agatha remains two steps ahead of the police and will end up
saving the day once again.

Was there ever any doubt? LOL This is the typical cozy romp through the
Cotswolds, but I think Agatha is beginning to get her old spirit back a tad
with this one. She's also showing a lot more wit than she has to date and
set off a giggle or two while I read. M.C. Beaton's books are always good,
but never great, and I always get the feeling that they should be fleshed
out just a tad more than they are. Still, it was an enjoyable read and I'll
give it a 3.5. ( )