Monday, May 26, 2014

Book Review: Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came by M.C. Beaton

Agatha Raisin is feeling in the dumps after her failed marriage to James Lacey and even her good friend, Charles, has abandoned her and gone off to be married in Paris! Feeling like she needs a holiday she heads to a sunny island. This visit sees a murder happen on the island (wherein a husband kills his wife) and when Agatha discovers another murder on her return to Carsely, she wonders if it is the same scenario. Kylie Stokes is set to marry her fiance, Zac Jensen. However her body is discovered floating down the river, following recent flooding. Agatha believes the murder is just the same as the husband killing his wife, on the island she visits, and investigates in the hopes of pinning the murder on Zac. With no Charles or James nearby to help her investigate, she calls on her new neighbour, detective writer, John Armitage, to help.

I love Agatha Raisin. In a world where most cozy sleuths find their happily ever afters pretty quickly, she's still looking for "the one". Thankfully she realized pretty quickly that the one was not James Lacey. He's now gone to join a monastery and it's up to Agatha and new neighbour, John, to solve this case. Despite her long history with failed relationship, Agatha is an optimist and I like that about her. She's also stubborn as all heck and she never gives up on a case!!

This case sees her trying to infiltrate a disco club to find out who Kylie really was, and whether she died from a drug overdose as suicide, or was it murder. The thing I like about Agatha (and M.C. Beaton) is they always find interesting and plausible reasons for Agatha to investigate. This time she takes the angle of working on a tv show to find out more about Kylie and her friends.

Since this mystery took place near Carsely, we got to see a lot of my second favourite character - Mrs Bloxby. Mrs Bloxby is the vicar's wife and she truly has a heart of gold. I strongly believe she's the only one that really knows Agatha, and probably knows her more than Agatha knows herself. The advice she gives Agatha always rings true, and hopefully one day Agatha might take some of the advice to heart!!

Agatha Raisin and the Day of the Floods was another delightful instalment in this series. As always Agatha had me laughing at her quick mouth (and temper!) as she tries to solve the mystery, and the book was over all too soon! Luckily for me I still have plenty more Agatha Raisin mysteries to read.

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