Love, Lies and Liquor

Agatha Raisin is a pill. A prickly middle-aged woman, she's blunt, says what she thinks--often to the point of rudeness-and she certainly does not suffer fools gladly. Agatha Raisin drinks and smokes, and although, over the course of the series, we've seen her obsess over, chase, marry, divorce, and obsess some more over James Lacey, that doesn't mean we also haven't seen her fall into bed on more than one occasion with her friend Sir Charles Fraith.

James is, in fact, Agatha Raisin's one true blind spot (although she can be said to have a few other spots that are myopic at best), and as Love, Lies and Liquor opens she's agreed to go on holiday with him. She's in for a treat, he tells her, although he won't reveal their destination. How show more unhappy Agatha, then, to find that it's not the South of France or a Greek Isle, but rather, a cold, dreary, British seaside town aptly named Snoth-on-Sea. Why wouldn't she be delighted, James reasons, since he has so many wonderful memories of the resort from his childhood? But even James is disappointed to find that not only is the town overrun by chain stores and restaurants, not only has the beloved and elegant Palace Hotel of his memory fallen into inelegant disrepair, but the whole town is quite literally crumbling into the sea. And the capper on this wonderful getaway is the caliber of the other guests in the hotel, a bizarre family that includes, among other characters a skinhead and his fat faced, blowzy mother, who immediately catches Agatha Raisin looking at her and screeches at her to "Mind yer own business, you silly cow." To which Agatha, after a bit of banter and an invitation from the skinhead to James to step outside, replies, "I'll murder you, you rotten bitch."

Too bad the next day Fat Face is found strangled on the beach outside the hotel, Agatha Raisin's lost scarf still around her neck. Agatha and James are hauled in for questioning; afterward, she decides she'd better do some detecting and figure out who the real murderer is.

James is in and out of the story, leaving Snoth-on-Sea alone in a fit of pique when Agatha won't go with him, returning when he learns that Charles has appeared, leaving again in another snit later. But Agatha perseveres, and with help from her employees at her detective agency she gets into everybody's business, up and down the coast and in town as well.

The best thing about this series is far and away the character of Agatha Raisin. Her inner torment is real and mundane, and so believable, and each time she answers James's call or lets Charles have a laugh at her expense the reader can't help but feel it, and squirm in sympathetic discomfort. But hey, she always solves the case. show less

Usually I care more about the characters in a mystery than I do the actual mystery, but here I found Agatha’s on-again off-again feelings for her ex to be so aggravating that I was far more interested in anything that might move the plot forward. This is far enough into the series that I didn’t necessarily expect character development; there comes a point in real life as well as in books when certain characters are fully formed and even somewhat settled. That said, I found these particular characters—Agatha, James, and Charles—to be more than a little frustrating here. Mrs. Bloxby was wonderful, but she wasn’t in the story much. This was a mildly interesting novel, but much of it was just tedious. A solid 3 stars: not bad, show more certainly, but not great. show less

Agatha begins this tale by doing what every divorcée wants to do: go on vacation with her ex-husband. Oh, wait, maybe that isn’t what every divorcée is hoping for. But then, Agatha Raisin isn’t like most people. What starts as James’ stroll down memory lane, much to Agatha’s dismay, gets decidedly worse when an obnoxious women is found strangled with Agatha’s lost scarf. From then on, the story gets even more contrived and convoluted, as Aggie and her crew try solve the murder. If nothing else, an Agatha Raisin tale is entertaining, but one could only hope that Aggie could make up her mind about James once and for all.

In this number 17 of the series, Agatha is taken on a surprise holiday by ex-husband James, suspending her critical judgement after their apparently awful marriage, as she is still obsessed with her romantic idea of him. The biggest surprise to me, having read book 2 previously where she was desperately pursuing him and he was running away except when she played it cool and helped him solve a murder, is that they were actually married at some point between the two books.

The seaside town where James takes her is a big disappointment even to him because it has declined severely in the intervening 40 years. The formerly grand hotel is rundown and with worsening sea erosion, in danger of being swept away, a peril that worsens as time goes show more on. On their first night, over a dreadful dinner, Agatha gets into a slanging match with a thoroughly unpleasant guest who is murdered that night with Agatha's mislaid scarf, and she has to prove her innocence. Soon Agatha is embroiled in a convoluted web as the dead woman turns out to have been a gold digger who married men for money and was involved with criminals. A number of her family and friends are in the frame for her murder and bodies begin to pile up, with Agatha's own life being endangered more than once. And the local police are inept and resentful of her involvement and that of her staff. To make matters worse, James clears off abroad although he later returns, and Agatha is riven with jealousy over his apparent involvement with an attractive divorced woman who has recently arrived in their village.

As I have observed before, these books have a cartoon like quality. You couldn't be involved in this much whistlestop action, with money launderers, hitmen, armed robbers and more, in anything resembling ordinary fiction. Plus Agatha is woefully inept in her chosen career, discussing details of the case in public places and putting others' lives in danger in the process.

The book is a little better than number 22 which I also finished today, as there is quite a well developed sense of place, with the dingy seaside location, crumbling seawall and lashing spray against the hotel and houses. It has the strongest sense of place I've seen so far in this series, and in fact the place is a stronger character than any of the people who are cardboard characters apart from Agatha who is merely irritating and unlikeable. show less

I must say, this one is the best Agatha yet. Because
within the covers of this volume Agatha tells James to go piss up a rope (in
so many words), Sir Charles starts a rumor that he's asked Aggie to marry
him, Mrs. Bloxby goes on holiday without the vicar, AND there are a few
murders with the usual suspects (including Agatha herself). In this
episode, James is back and has begun courting Agatha again, and she's
surprised at the fact that she doesn't give a rip anymore. But, he
persuades her to go on holiday with him "for old time's sake" and spirits
her away to a tawdry, run-down old sea resort he has fond memories of from
his youth. Snoth-on-Sea (what a name!) is as gloomy and dreary as anything
Agatha's ever seen, and they find show more themselves sharing the only hotel left in
town with a bunch of rude, crass people. Just as they are about to give up
and move on, one of the other tourists is found strangled on the beach with
Agatha's scarf wrapped around her neck. The hunt is on for the real
murderer and Agatha calls in her own team of detectives from her detective
agency in the Cotswolds.

I'm still rooting for Sir Charles to hook up with Agatha, and he's nearly
there! LOL I enjoyed this one and give it a 4. show less

Agatha and the Bitter Vacation
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (February 2013) of the original St. Martin's Press Minotaur hardcover (September 2006)

Love, Lies and Liquor finds Agatha Raisin going off on vacation with ex-husband James Lacey for what she hopes will be a rekindled relationship. Instead they turn up at Snoth-On-The-Sea, a former resort town that had seen better days in the time of James' youth. Agatha gets into an argument with a loud-mouthed woman at a restaurant and later on the woman is found murdered with Agatha's scarf. As usual, Agatha has to solve the case and clear her own name as well. Meanwhile, the relationship with James goes back downhill and Sir Charles shows up to add to the antics.

I'm show more continuing to enjoy the fun of these cozies which are somewhat different from the TV-series which I saw first. Sir Charles is much more of a recurring character and occasional love interest than he is in the screen adaptation and his cheap and chintzy manners are played up quite a bit. The narration by regular reader Penelope Keith is always excellent in all voices. Keith is as perfect a voice fit for the audiobooks as Ashley Jensen is to the TV role.

Most (28 of 32) of the Agatha Raisin audiobooks are free on Audible Plus. A continuation series Book 32 Down the Hatch is yet to be released, and is expected to be published in October 2021. Down the Hatch is apparently entirely written by continuation writer R.W. Green whereas #31 Hot to Trot was a collaboration with M.C. Beaton.

Trivia and No Link
Love, Lies and Liquor has not yet been adapted for the currently ongoing Agatha Raisin TV series (2016-). It is possibly in the running to be part of Series 4 which will probably be aired late in 2021 as they have been adapting the books roughly chronologically. show less

It's always lovely to spend a little time with Agatha and thankfully she just manages to not out do her welcome in these short books that pass easily & quickly. Agatha is back to pining after James this time in the seaside village of Snoth on Sea. These are indeed "cozy crime" books as comfortable as worn slippers.