Agatha Raisin Series by M. C. Beaton
They say, the first step is admitting you have a problem ~~ deep breath… here goes…
I recently splurged on a book purchase (no surprise there) , but I should clarify it was a “books” splurge (emphasis on the plural) ~~ uh oh.
This artist’s humorous installation (which I don’t find that funny) actually used my house as inspiration. Come on by, if you’re in the neighborhood. I’ll pose for selfies.
As rationalization background, I’ve always preferred British literary editions, their books often are higher quality, lovely in the hand, and their covers are always beautifully designed. Years ago, I returned from Blackwell’s in Oxford with my luggage full of books, a whole other separate box they shipped, and a severely damaged credit card which took me weeks to resurrect.
HERE — just look, you’ll understand.
Just after Christmas, I was telling a British friend about my love for British volumes, and he pointed out an obvious fact (one which somehow eluded me) that I could order books via Amazon UK. They covert British pounds and happily take our American money … SAY WHAAT?
So I set up an Amazon UK account and did some browsing ~~
I know, I know – Danger Danger Will Robinson…
But look, just look what arrived from the UK yesterday – be still my heart.
Ta Da! It’s (almost) the entire series of Agatha Raisin mysteries – direct from the UK! I am so excited I can hardly stand it. And all of them, including shipping (again from the UK) for just a bit over $30 American.
I take no financial reimbursement for this, but I have to mention that Book People UK offered this deal — brand spanking new paperbacks – which arrived perfectly packed and cello-wrapped together – again for an absurdly good price.
(Okay, that’s my opinion – Husband has a different take, but then, he is not one of us – try and forgive him, he really is adorable in all other aspects.)
I have more than my share of guilty pleasures — but let’s stick to reading shall we? I am crazy for the Agatha Raisin mystery series by M. C. Beaton.
Now the more intellectual Book Barmy followers will likely scoff at this series — but as my favorite (British) blogger Simon says – “I care not”. He, too, devours Agatha Raisin mysteries — you see why I consider him a reading buddy.
Now, if you don’t know about Agatha Raisin, let me correct that for you.
Agatha Raisin retired from a successful career in public relations and decided to live her dream of leaving London for a picturesque cottage in the Cotswolds. Don’t worry, she is not a particularly likable character. Agatha is self centered, tends to over indulge, and blurts out whatever is on her mind– with many disastrous and funny results.
Turns out, her idyllic life does not always live up to her dreams — and maybe, just maybe, retirement does not suit Agatha Raisin. She has trouble being ever-so-polite, caring about village gossip, or the dramas. Bravely, Agatha grits her teeth and tries to fit in with the village life.
From a disastrous cooking competition (in which she enters a store bought quiche) to openly scoffing at Women’s Institute activities — Ms. Raisin tries her damnest. And she keeps trying and trying. But don’t count Ms. Raisin out – this is no shrinking violet. Agatha ends up solving the village infractions, serious murders, goes foul of the local constable and falls in (and out) of love. Slowly – ever so slowly, she becomes part of the community – simultaneously befriended, resented and hated.
The series is clever and quirky, filled with a wacky assortment of characters, and snort-out-loud-humor.
But my delight in my new acquisition knows no bounds – just take a look at these precious British covers…and did I mention, they are all brand spanking new?
Click to make larger…you know you want to…
I want to continue the series, (I think I’m at the 5th or 6th) but I’m afraid to crease the spines. But I’m sure to delve into them soon.
Don’t worry you, too, can enjoy the Agatha Raisin mysteries by M. C. Beaton. They are at your local library or can be picked up for a buck or two at any used bookstore.
Pay no attention to the fact that you are reading the tacky American paperbacks with sub-par covers…contents are the same.
As you read, just try not to think of me, as I happily pet and shelve my new British versions.
Okay, that was unseemly — pure gloating.
Best $30 I ever spent.
N.B. The Brits made a television series based on the books. It’s available on Youtube or Acorn TV if you’re interested Link: HERE. I will wait until I’ve finished reading the series (in order, if you please) or I’m drooling in a nursing home — whichever comes first.
In the Woods by Tana French
Years ago, I used to devour those quick, cozy, connect-the-dots mysteries, often reading nothing else for months on end. Then, suddenly, I ground to halt, having grown tired of the often predictable plots and one-dimensional characters. I vowed to only read mysteries that were well written, with intelligent plots and fascinating characters.
I voiced my new resolution and high standards to my bookgroup at the time and was quickly introduced to a range of authors including Deborah Crombie, Elizabeth George, and Peter Robinson On my own, sans bookgroup, I’ve since discovered Louise Penny, Kate Atkinson, and Susan Hill. So, my mystery reading days are back in full swing.
Thanks to a friend’s urging, I’ve just discovered a new series and author — Tana French. I must have been under a rock, because In The Woods (her first in the series) was published in 2007. I was aware of this book, having seen it over the years. But, look at that cover — doesn’t it look like a horror filled, psychological thriller? Shame on me for judging a book by its cover.
In the Woods immediately pulls you in, the terrifically written prologue sets the stage and puts the reader into a carefree summer day in a 1984 suburb of Dublin with three children playing in the woods.
When the children don’t return home, only one child, Adam Robert Ryan, is found catatonic, remembering nothing but his shoes are soaked with blood. Now twenty years later, Ryan, going only by Adam Ryan, is a detective for the Dublin Murder Squad. No one knows of his connection with the 1984 incident. A young girl is found murdered in the very same woods and Ryan finds himself in his old hometown which triggers memories of what happened on that tragic day.
In the Woods is narrated by Detective Ryan and Ms. French has given him a complex voice – taunted by the past, torn up with survivors guilt and the hard, cool viewpoint of a detective.
What I warn you to remember is that I am a detective. This is my job, and you don’t go into it — or, if you do, you don’t last — without some natural affinity for its priorities and demands. What I am telling you, before you begin my story, is this — two things: I crave truth. And I lie.
Detective Ryan and his partner from the Dublin murder squad, Cassie Maadox, begin their gentle but relentless investigation into the death of young Katy Devlin. Their relationship is intricately developed and compassionate.
How can I ever make you understand Cassie and me? I would have to take you there, walk you down every path our secret shared geography. The truism says it’s against all the odds for a straight man and woman to be real friends, platonic friends; we rolled thirteen, threw down five aces and ran away giggling. She was the summertime cousin out of storybooks, the one you taught to swim at some midge-humming lake and pestered with tadpoles down her swimsuit, with whom you practiced first kisses on a heather hillside and laughed about it years later…
Ms. French deftly weaves back and forth between the two plots and it’s fascinating to see if two murders relate or are a mere coincidence. The interrogation scenes are some of the best parts of this debut;
It becomes second nature, interrogation; it seeps into your blood until, no matter how stunned or exhausted or excited your are, this remains unchanged: the polite professional tone, the clean, relentless march as each answer unfolds into question after new question.
There is rich atmosphere, from the Irish weather;
It was your basic Irish summer day, irritatingly coy, all sun and skidding clouds and jackknifing breeze, ready at any second to make an effortless leap into bucketing rain or blazing sun or both.
To the murdered girl’s autopsy;
I thought of the old superstition that the soul lingers near the body for a few days, bewildered and unsure
In the Woods is atmospheric and engrossing, with richly drawn characters and some lovely detailed writing. Hard to fathom that this is Ms. French’s first novel.
I read most of the day – couldn’t put it down. The ending does not tie up all the loose ends but I’m hoping the next in this intelligent series will start to resolve some of the questions.
Out of my way folks — got to get to the library for the next one, The Likeness.
Warning, the crime(s) are graphic and do involve child rape.
Her by Harriet Lane
You may remember my review of Harriet Lane’s previous novel Alys Always.
I greatly admire Ms. Lane’s spare and visual writing style –she’s a writer who can paint so much in so few words.
Her is her second novel and like Alys Always it’s creepy minimalist writing at its best.
Told in the first-person narrative from two women’s perspectives, the novel teases you along in alternating chapters.
Nina spots Emma in North London — a woman she knows from her childhood and contrives a way to connect with Emma — we know not why.
Emma is a harried, scattered mother of two kids. She is also vulnerable and clueless – she doesn’t remember Nina and takes her to be a new friend. You cringe as Nina (obviously a psychopath) begins to orchestrate a series of devious and manipulative events to successfully insinuate herself into Emma’s life.
Emma’s messy, but ordinary domestic life is the perfect stage for Nina to play out her menacing plan. True friends – maybe not. Nina purposely messes with Emma — household items go missing, babysitting plans go awry, a child seems to get temporarily lost — these haphazard domestic incidents provide a ominous backdrop. The reader knows this is a household about to unravel in a most disturbing way.
And so we are intrigued…what’s going to happen? Why is Nina so intent on connecting with Emma? What was the past incident that is causing this evil charade?
As in her previous novel, Ms. Lane is very good at painting the seemingly normal, but creepy stalker. Slightly “off” people who seamlessly infiltrate themselves into innocent lives. You read along, nervously aware that something terrible is going to come of all this, but unsure what, how or why. That is the mark of an intelligently constructed thriller.
This book has been compared to the currently popular thrillers Gone Girl and Girl on a Train. I’ve read both books and Her is far superior writing and I think more thrilling and creepy. Again, it’s the minimalist writing – an around-the-campfire ghost story teller who pauses for utmost effect to let your imagination fill in around the silence.
My only quibble is with the reiteration of the same event from each woman’s point of view — there isn’t enough difference in the two voices to make the re-telling fresh and so at times the narrative seems to slow down – but perhaps this is Ms. Lane’s intention – maybe it’s supposed to be a slow burn.
Stick with it my friends, the author kicks up the tension and the last chapters are evil and frightening. To some, the ending may feel unfinished and you may be wondering WHY? — but that is the chilling nightmare.
A (very special) Christmas Crime Story
Three Days Until Christmas
Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon
Get yourself a cup of tea, this is a long story. Back in my college days, I spent several consecutive semesters living and working in the highlands of Scotland (that’s a whole other story). At a local church rummage sale, I came across a beat up old paperback — I think it cost me 10P. This snowy Christmas-time mystery got me through several icy evenings in my digs on the top floor of a frigid stone landowner’s manor, which lacked any sort of central heating. I cuddled under my eiderdown with a hot water bottle (and yes it was a real eiderdown) and read several evenings away. I was due to go home soon, homesick and looking forward to celebrating the holidays with my loved ones.
I lugged that poor paperback back to the states, and would re-read it with my other Christmas books until it had to be rubber banded together to prevent the pages from falling out. During one of my moves, the rubber band broke, random pages went missing and I lost the back cover. Then several years ago in a fit of “this is ridiculous” I tossed it in the recycling bin – the poor thing wasn’t even fit for my donation box. I sometimes remembered this 1930’s classic crime story that kept me mesmerized when I could barely feel my fingers while reading.
So what to my wondering eye should appear but the new British Library Crime Classics reprint series and there it was – my book! Mystery in White – A Christmas Crime Story – all gussied up and sporting a fabulous new cover. I was on Amazon and hitting checkout before I could even take a breath. Originally published in 1937, Mystery in White apparently went out of print and is now republished as part of this new series. (Check out the series for the retro covers alone.) The author is not as well known as many others of the Golden Age yet he was popular in his day. From the book cover:
On Christmas Eve, heavy snowfall brings a train to a halt near the village of Hemmersby. Several of the passengers take shelter in a deserted country house, where the fire has been lit and the table laid for tea – but no one is at home.
Trapped together for Christmas, the passengers are seeking to unravel the secrets of the empty house when a murderer strikes in their midst.
I’m only halfway through my new edition, I keep stopping to marvel at its new incarnation, but I remember this is a surprisingly unusual crime story. While the language is typical of the 1930’s Golden Age and despite its classic situation (strangers-stranded-in-a-blizzard) Mr. Farjeon gives us mysticism, unexpected plot twists, a hapless police inspector who arrives too late to solve the crimes, a dose of romance and chuckle-worthy Noel Coward humor. Some of the situations strain credibility – how do they see the stranded car at night without flashlights? and why does no one seem wet or cold after thrashing about outside in the blizzard? But you’ll soon forget those little reality fails because this is a clever mystery with a snowy Christmas setting that’s sure to keep you warm and happy.
I found an image of the original hardback edition. My paperback had the same cover. 
Murder for Christmas by Thomas Godfrey
9 Days until Christmas
I’ve had these paperbacks forever — they’re well-worn and spine-creased – but I can’t get rid of them as they were some of the few books I had in our first apartment in New Hampshire. I would cuddle up on the couch with two afghans – (the apartment was drafty and so-o-o cold), watch the snow and secretly savor these light stories of mystery and mayhem.
A two volume selection of yuletide mysteries from some of the classic golden age authors at their best, Agatha Christie, Georges Simenon, Stanley Ellin, Ellery Queen, and famous characters such as Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey, and Nero Wolfe.
There are also few anomalies (the Woody Allen story is a plum for those readers who enjoy a little metafiction), and a few obscure works (who knew Thomas Hardy wrote a Christmas mystery which didn’t end in death and despair all around?).
There are delightfully morbid Graham Wilson drawings to dispel any Christmas saccharine sweetness that may be invading your holiday.
Dip into a short mystery as a quick break from the holiday preparations they’re sure to get you in a festive mood (aside from the murders and whatnot).
Robert B. Parker
Just returned from a week in Palm Springs (more on that in a later post). I pulled out several unread Robert B. Parker mystery novels for the trip. Does anyone else pick out their books for a trip even before thinking about packing other essentials like clothes and shoes?
If you don’t know about Robert B. Parker you are missing some great entertainment. He wrote over 70 novels and his most popular was the Spenser series. I’ve been a cult follower since the 1980’s, went to multiple readings and have several of his books personally autographed (I know I’m a NERD).
Mr. Parker’s novels crackle with wit and the best dialogue ever written. (If you are an aspiring author, read Parker and learn how dialogue can and should deliver.)
These are quick reads (I once read one of his mysteries cover-to-cover during a 2 hour flight) but all are engaging and tightly written. The chapters zoom along as you rapidly turn pages to chuckle at another slyly written escapade. Spenser is a wonderful character — a hard boiled private eye who is evolved. Spenser cooks, adores baseball and his long-time psychiatrist girlfriend – Susan who is based on his wife Joan. Go to the Robert B. Parker website to see pictures of Joan and you’ll see the muse and model. Spenser is funny, yet serious but not anguished. Most of the scenes with his sidekick Hawk are laugh out loud fun.
Jessie Stone, star of his other well-known series, is a burned out, heavy drinking LA cop who rediscovers himself and a new life as a chief of police in a Massachusetts seaside village. (Watch for the made-for-TV movies with Tom Selleck as Jessie Stone – they’re spot on and well-worth watching!)
No need to read Mr. Parker’s books in order but, in my opinion, the first five in the Spenser series are extraordinary.
Sadly, Mr. Parker (at 77) passed away in 2010 – a sudden heart attack while at his desk writing his next novel.
The Parker estate has recently hired a new writer to take over the series, but I can’t bring myself to read those.
NetGalley Professional Reader
NetGalley Approved Reviewer
Independent Bookstore Supporter
Follow me on instagram
