Agathas in your life. I've been an Agatha Christie fan from the moment I read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I even named my little scottish dog after her. And now I've discovered Agatha Raisin - the blundering amateur sleuth created by M.C. Beaton. We are introduced to Agatha in The Quiche of Death, wherein she has just retired from a successful public relations career in London. She fulfills a lifelong dream of living in a small English village by purchasing a quaint, thatched cottage in the Cotswolds. She is welcomed to Carseley by the Ladies Society, headed by Mrs. Bloxby, the vicar's wife. Always competitive in both business and personal matters, Agatha enters a local baking contest at the village fete. She can't cook, so she travels to London and buys a quiche at her favorite shop, entering it as her own. Lo, and behold, the philandering judge of the contest dies after eating Agatha's quiche and she's suspected of his much-deserved murder. And so begins her career as a detective. Along the way, she makes her first real friend, local police Detective Bill Wong - half English, half Chinese - whose love life is continually sabotaged by his horrible parents with whom he unfortunately resides. Agatha Raisin isn't terribly likeable at first; she's pushy, petty and suffers from seriously low self-esteem. About halfway through the story, we begin to understand her a little better and by the end, well, she's become someone it might be interesting to know. I won't spoil the story if you haven't had the pleasure of reading it - but if you do, you'll want to read the next one and the next... I'm on the fourteenth Agatha Raisin mystery now with seven more to go. The books and quirky characters just keep getting better and better!
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