The Deadly Dance

Another fun, cozy mystery featuring the flawed Agatha Raisin. As much as I sometimes want to throttle her for her foolishness , she is worth sticking with. In this novel, the epilogue had me in stitches — too funny!

Agatha has decided that a private detective agency is the way to use her talents and opens an office with the necessary staff. This is an early Agatha Raisin book, and one of several that I missed back when I started reading Beaton’s work (usually the Hamish Macbeth series). It was a nice treat to go back to the beginning of her detecting days.

Agatha continues to evolve, now with her own detective agency rolling along. This was well-plotted, sprinkled with interesting twists and surprises, and quite entertaining. The droll comments and asides from Ms. Beaton continue to amuse me no end, and I am learning odd bits of British slang (probably long obsolete).

I am glad Agatha is (maybe) learning to treat her loyal friends a little better. Will it continue? Only one way to find out.. Onward!

Actually I'm quite surprised that I liked this book, not so much Aggie, but the other characters and the story.

Agatha Raisin is a grouchy cantankerous 50 year old woman, who is divorced & has gone through a series of men. After she is mugged in France (the police doing nothing) Agatha decides to open a detective agency...

Agatha hires her neighbor, Emma, as her secretary then investigator; Emma soon falls in love w/ Sir Charles Firth, a very good friend of Agatha... and then problems of jealousy, stalking, insanity, & murderous intentions begin.

There are other stories intertwined, which all held my interest.... the end was tied a little too conveniently, but in the end all the bad guys got their just rewards.

Fifteenth in the Agatha Raisin mystery series set in the Cotswolds in the UK, in which Agatha finally gets up the steam to open her own detective agency. Now, to me, this book was just plain silly. Instead of one man-crazy woman (Agatha) we also have Agatha’s crazy assistant at the Raisin Agency, Emma Comfrey, who has taken to batting her past-middle-aged eyelashes at every man she meets and obsessing over them. I swear Ms. Beaton must’ve been drinking coffee laced with uppers during the writing of this book or something, because the story bounced all over the place, told partly from Agatha’s viewpoint, partly from Emma’s, and with occasional forays into other folks’ minds as well. While some of the other books in the series show more have had their irritating moments, I mostly enjoyed them overall. I nearly threw this one across the room in disgust a couple of times. The whole thing was totally unrealistic. Ludicrous! I found that I really didn’t even care about the original ‘whodunit’ case, the rest of the story was so choppy and silly. And I freely admit that I skimmed about the last 50 pages of the book and am taking a long vacation from the Raisin woman, possibly a permanent one. I haven’t decided yet. show less

No actual dead body just an attempt on a life. A bit of a convoluted plot but the joy as always is Agatha, Sir Charles, Roy and Mrs Bloxby. Not too much panting after unavailable men was a welcome relief.

Agatha Raisin is a 50ish Stephanie Plum. Crazy things keep happening to her as she stumbles around trying to solve cases. Agatha hires a secretary for her detective agency who attempts to kill her so that she can have Aggie's friend all to herself. Meanwhile the case she's working on has someone trying to kill her also because of what she knows. There a hilarious calamity Christmas party at Aggie's house at the end of the book.