Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Review: Agatha Raisin and the Deadly Dance by M.C. Beaton



Genre:
Cozy Mystery

Format:
Audio

Publisher:
Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Release Date:
February 2013






After years of solving crimes as a hobby, Agatha Raisin finally opens her very own detective agency. She figures this should be easy with all her investigative experience. However, it’s not quite as simple as she thought it would be. Her agency is hired to do little cases like finding missing cats.  Agatha was hoping for more than that.

She finally gets a client, Catherine Laggat-Brown, looking to hire her to protect her daughter. Apparently the girl has been receiving death threats.  Mrs. Laggat-Brown wants to know why and who is behind it. Agatha jumps at the chance to sink her teeth into a real case. Of course things don’t go as smoothly as Agatha would have liked and she finds this case is more complex than she thought – blackmail, death threats…this case has it all.

To make matters even more complicated, Agatha – once again - has a new neighbor. For a change it’s not someone Agatha immediately falls in love with. This time it’s a woman in her sixties who Agatha hires to help out at the detective agency. It doesn’t take long for Agatha to realize there’s something not quite right with her new employee.

This is another good entry in the Agatha Raisin series. As always, I enjoy the short mysteries M.C. Beaton writes. The stories flow perfectly and aren’t too complicated. They are easy to follow, but they go by way too quickly.  The author continues to keep the series fresh by introducing new characters along the way.

My one complaint is that they still talk as if Agatha is in her 90’s instead of mid-50’s. Now they added her new neighbor to the mix and she’s in her mid-60’s. The way everyone in the story talks about them, you’d think they were nearer to 100 years old. Plus, they both seem to fall madly in love at the drop of a hat. I guess it can be humorous but I find it to be more pathetic than anything else. But, I still love Agatha and I’m ready to get to the next one. It’s on to #16 in the series.




For reading challenges:
2015 I Love Library Books Reading Challenge
2015 My Kind of Mystery Reading Challenge

Disclosure: I borrowed the audio from the library. All opinions expressed are my own.

3 comments:

  1. Oh, I can't wait to read it. One of my all-time favorite mystery authors.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have a love/hate relationship with Agatha. She drives me nuts but I can't help liking her. I do wish we could lose the man-crazy part. Like you said it's more pathetic than anything else. It doesn't have to be gotten rid of completely but toned down a bit would be nice. I'd really love to go back and read the ones I've missed. I've really enjoyed your reviews.

    ReplyDelete

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