Blurb:
After six months in London, Agatha Raisin returns to her beloved Cotswold village and her dashing neighbor, James Lacey. Well, sort of. James might not be so interested in Agatha. But soon enough, Agatha becomes consumed by her other passion: crime-solving.
A woman has been found dead in a lonely field nearby. Her name is Jessica Tartinck, a hiker who infuriated wealthy landowners by insisting on her hiking club’s right to trek across their properties.
Now it’s up to Agatha, with James’s help, to launch an investigation. Together, they will follow no shortage of leads; many of Jessica’s fellow Dembley walkers seem all too willing and able to commit murder. But the trail of a killer is as easy to lose as your heart and your life. So Agatha and James had better watch their every step . . .
In a nutshell:
I read it in: English
I liked it: Yes
For people who like: cozy mysteries combined with affairs of the heart
My thoughts:
This book introduces us to an interesting concept and the resulting fanatism of some people. The English right of way and the ramblers. According to “The walkers of Dembley” there must be some pretty weird groups of people out there who like to cause trouble and love confrontation with landowners. I understand not all ramblers are militant but the murder victim here certainly is. Why someone would want to walk across the land of someone else with no other purpose than to get into an argument with the landowner and insist on his/her right of way is beyond me. There are other paths to use without less trouble after all.
From what John told me it seems that a right of way expires if it is not used for a certain amount of time (we are not talking weeks or months here), but why someone would like to uphold the right of way straight through a field of rapeseed God only knows. This must be one of those peculiarities like train spotting or plane spotting that other nations don’t understand.
Spoiler:
Agatha gets weirder and weirder. Somehow that woman must think that her life has nothing to do with reality.
At the end of the book James asks her to marry him (I can’t imagine why, but that is neither here nor there) and she agrees. The fact that she is still married and has no clue as to the whereabouts of her drunkard of a husband doesn’t seem to fluster her in the least. Instead of saying to James, who later recalls to have heard something to that effect, that she needs to divorce her husband first and that is that, she just claims that everybody remembers wrongly what she said and that her husband, indeed, has been dead for years. Is she insane? She is vaguely aware of what she is about to do is called bigamy and illegal, but so what?! She even goes so far as to say to Bill Wong that she will kill anybody who will stand in her way to marriage. I bet this is going to cause quite a bit of trouble for her in the next book in the series “Agatha Raisin and the murderous marriage”, especially since her former friend, now arch enemy Roy is already calling detective agencies in order to find Jimmy. How fun! The next book will be a blast, if I can get myself to reading it, I hate big time liars.
Location: The fictional village of Carsely, Cotswolds, England, UK
Product info and buy link :
| Title | Agatha Raisin and the walkers of Dembley |
| Author | M. C. Beaton |
| Publisher | Robinson |
| ISBN | 9781849011372 |
| I got this book from | I swapped it |
| Buy link | Buy Agatha Raisin and the walkers of Dembley |
If you click on the buy link above you will be taken to The Book Depository.co.uk. If you buy the book through this link I will earn a small commission. You can find my general affiliate links to The Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com here.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.
Blurb:
Agatha is taken aback when she finds a new woman ensconced in the affections of her attractive bachelor neighbour, James Lacey. The beautiful Mary Fortune is superior in every way, especially when it comes to gardening. So when Mary is discovered murdered, Agatha seizes the moment and immediately starts yanking up village secrets by their roots.
In a nutshell:
I read it in: English
I liked it: Yes
For people who like: Cozy mysteries with quirky characters and extremely unusual killing methods
My thoughts:
M. C. Beaton comes up with quite a few unusual killing methods. To pot a gardener isn’t your run-of-the-mill murder method, is it? Where is the poison typical for cozies?
Anyway, I can’t say the victim didn’t deserve it, she is a right bitch from the start. Not that you’d notice from chatting to Mary superficially but after her murder it turns out that she was evil. I wondered what was wrong with James Lacey. How on Earth could he ever get involved with that woman? And not only on a friendhsip basis either! Agatha is abrasive, but at least she has got her heart in the right place. He would have been better off getting together with her.
Agatha is her usual cheating self. As if the quiche of death hasn’t been enough, she – together with Roy who is rather selfish once more – concocts this elaborate plan to present her magnificent garden on Garden Open Day to the public after buying an instant garden in secret. Give me a break! Everybody in the village knows that she has not exactly a green thumb! Her desire to impress (and win competitions) borders on the ridiculous.
Again the on/off friendship with James is annoying. He really should make up his mind over whether he wants to be friends (or more) with Agatha or not. My other bugbear is the luring London. Agatha must come to a decision soon! Does she want to go back to London because life in the Cotswolds is boring or not? The everlasting temptation to go back into PR gets on my nerves. Either go or stay, for Christ’s sake!
In spite of these misgivings, I very much like Agatha and her fellow “Carselyians”, most of all the vicar’s wife, and will definitely stay with the series.
Location: The fictional village of Carsely, Cotswolds, England, UK
Product info and buy link :
| Title | Agatha Raisin and the potted gardener |
| Author | M. C. Beaton |
| Publisher | Robinson |
| ISBN | 9781849011365 |
| I got this book from | I bought it |
| Buy link | Buy Agatha Raisin and the potted gardener |
If you click on the buy link above you will be taken to The Book Depository.co.uk. If you buy the book through this link I will earn a small commission. You can find my general affiliate links to The Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com here.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.
Blurb:
A doctor’s career has been ruined by allegations of medical fraud and Isabel cannot ignore what may be a miscarriage of justice. Besides, Isabel’s insatiable interest is piqued and she finds herself asking questions. Would a respected doctor make such a grave mistake? If not, what explains the death of the patient? Clearly, an investigation is in order. Meanwhile, there is her baby Charlie, who needs looking after; her niece Cat who needs someone to mind her deli; and a mysterious composer who has latched on to Jamie, making Isabel decidedly uncomfortable. Whatever the problem, whatever the case, we know we can count on Isabel’s instincts to help her find the right solution.
In a nutshell:
I read it in: English
I liked it: Yes
For people who like: Edinburgh, philosophical musings, busybodies who regard anybody’s business to be their own
My thoughts:
Once more Isabel’s idea of “moral proximity” gets her into a situation where she feels the need to help someone out. She does realize that she could be considered to be an “intermeddler” but that knowledge doesn’t deter her from intermeddling…Her investigations once more go a totally wrong way and the result has nothing to do with what really happened. Somehow, however, her interference helped after all.
I don’t think I have ever come across a heroine who thinks so much about how to be a good person and how to behave properly and who – I don’t want to say “fails”, because she doesn’t fail really –, but is far from perfect. She constantly thinks about being charitable and trusting and what not, and she is everything but. She suspects Jamie of all sorts of things (falsely), she thinks Eddie is a liar (falsely), she hates Dove (possibly with a good reason, but we have no proof of his machinations), she takes an immediate dislike to Nick Smart… She just stumbles along constantly pondering the right ethical behaviour in any given situation, but does she apply her standards to herself? Not really.
And yet you can’t help but like Isabel in spite of or even because of all her failings.
This is another good, comfortable read with plenty of things to think about. The descriptions of the Edinburgh atmosphere add another layer of coziness to this very pleasant book.
Disclaimer: If you do not have children and read those books, please don’t consider Isabel’s motherhood to be typical. Charlie is a model toddler, Jamie a doting father with plenty of time for his son and there is Grace who wants Charlie for himself. Isabel’s experiences as a mother don’t have much in common with the everyday woman, that is for certain. Real life is much different!
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Images from Google maps and wikipedia user David Monniaux
Product info and buy link :
| Title | The comforts of a muddy Saturday |
| Author | Alexander McCall Smith |
| Publisher | Anchor Books |
| ISBN | 9780307474339 |
| I got this book from | I bought it |
| Buy link | Buy The comforts of a muddy Saturday |
| More info | The Sunday Philosophy Club series |
If you click on the buy link above you will be taken to The Book Depository.co.uk. If you buy the book through this link I will earn a small commission. You can find my general affiliate links to The Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com here.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.
Very short synopsis:
Vet who hates small pets gets killed in what looks like an accident and Agatha investigates together with her stand-offish neighbour James.
I read it in: English
I liked it: Yes, but the constant up and down in the “relationship” of Agatha and James got on my nerves. It’s like a childish “Help, she fancies me!” – “Thank God, she fancies me not!” on his side and a “I must come on stronger” – “I need to back up and play it cool” on hers. Too much, that. They are not sixteen anymore, you know.
For people who like: Cozy mysteries where people get killed in not so cozy ways.
Product info and buy link :
| Title | Agatha Raisin and the vicious vet |
| Author | M. C. Beaton |
| Publisher | Robinson |
| ISBN | 9781849011358 |
| I got this book from | I bought it |
| Buy link | Buy Agatha Raisin and the vicious vet |
If you click on the buy link above you will be taken to The Book Depository.co.uk. If you buy the book through this link I will earn a small commission. You can find my general affiliate links to The Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com here.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.
Blurb:
Although the Thomases were not initially liked by villagers, Trixie Thomas had become a model of domestic efficiency – the perfect wife. So it came as a great shock to everyone when she was found dead – to everyone but police inspector Hamish Macbeth.
In a nutshell:
I read it in: English
I liked it: Yes
For people who like: Very cosy mysteries, Scotland
My thoughts:
After his short stay in Cnothan Hamish is back in Lochdubh now. The murder victim is Trixie, a scrounger par excellence who always needs a few pet projects she can work on only to discard them when she is finished with them. Good riddance! Hamish has got his work cut out and his old nemesis Blair isn’t helping either. A new superior officer has the chance to see them both in action and draws the right conclusions about them both, however, towards the end of the book, we get a hint that Blair’s days might not be numbered still.
Hamish finally goes off Priscilla, which doesn’t please her one bit. Serves her right. The way she is going on, dragging one "fiancé" after the other to Scotland is a shame. Not only has she got a terrible taste in men in general, not only is she weak willed and has no spine, she also changes those men like there was no tomorrow. You get the impression as long as she has ANY man at her side she is validated. I dislike her more and more in each book.
Apart from the annoying women in this book (one of them gets killed fortunately, bless the killer) this is again another pretty good mystery with an enjoyable cosy atmosphere.
Location: The fictional village of Lochdubh, Highlands, Scotland, UK
Images from wikipedia and sxc.hu user theoneill
Movie tip
Product info and buy link :
| Title | Death of a perfect wife |
| Author | M. C. Beaton |
| Publisher | Robinson Publishing |
| ISBN | 9781845296674 |
| I got this book from | I bought it |
| Buy link | Buy Death of a perfect wife |
| More info | The Hamish Macbeth series |
If you click on the buy link above you will be taken to The Book Depository.co.uk. If you buy the book through this link I will earn a small commission. You can find my general affiliate links to The Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com here.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.
Blurb:
In Leanne Shapton’s marvelously inventive and invented auction catalog, the 325 lots up for auction are what remain from the relationship between Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris (who aren’t real people, but might as well be). Through photographs of the couple’s personal effects–the usual auction items (jewelry, fine art, and rare furniture) and the seemingly worthless (pajamas, Post-it notes, worn paperbacks)–the story of a failed love affair vividly (and cleverly) emerges. From first meeting to final separation, the progress and rituals of intimacy are revealed through the couple’s accumulated relics and memorabilia. And a love story, in all its tenderness and struggle, emerges from the evidence that has been left behind, laid out for us to appraise and appreciate.
In a nutshell:
I read it in: English
I liked it: I loved the idea, I kind of liked the result
For people who like: Fiction that looks like non-fiction, putting two and two together without being explicitly told what happened.
My thoughts:
I was quite fascinated with the idea of an auction catalogue to tell the story of a relationship. It sounded intriguing, interesting and different. When I started reading this book I realized how much work it must have been to put this together. There are photos of the couple (standing in for Lenore and Hal were Sheila Heti and Paul Sahre), tons of letters and notes, various items, clothes, pictures of cakes and what not. The thought that someone put a part of the lives of two fictional people together in that way is fascinating.
However, I would have liked it better if those people were a little less hip and outstandingly original, but a little closer to everyday people in everyday life. There are a few short conversations that Lenore and Hal had written on brochures during a concert etc. and the dialogue to me sounds just too much of a good thing. Listen to this (about the poodles on the cover):
I can tell you hate them/ No!/ But I love the dogs, the dogs love you, they are perfect pets, as they do not poo./ Dearest Hal, they are not our pal, their breed is a pain, a firm hand must train./ Lenore, Lenore, fear not evermore, these unbroken pups you’ll soon adore./ You win, dark knight, at least they don’t bite.
Often there would be song lyrics scribbled down in books, unfortunately I knew none of the songs, and so couldn’t relate too much. The clothes are mostly vintage clothes, the items are all vintage or artsy. Everything was just a little bit too extraordinary. I mean, who on Earth would go as a litmus test on Halloween? I just couldn’t relate to those two and frankly, I didn’t give a damn whether they would stay together or not (even though, of course, it was clear from the start, they would not). Also, I saw no reason why they would auction off the things they did. Why would you sell on your bathing suits after a break up?
Most of the hints as to what happened in the relationship of the couple we receive from notes to each other, emails, letters (who nowadays writes postal letters from the US to Europe, esp. when the other is only gone for a week or two?) either to each other or from friends or family to either Lenore or Hal. I must be missing something completely because I think that basically the same effect could have been achieved with an epistolary novel of some kind. Maybe in the style of Love Virtually. Somehow I simply expected more of that auction catalogue idea and it didn’t deliver it.
All in all I enjoyed reading this (I love catalogues in general), but the book left me a bit disappointed in the end.
Product info and buy link :
| Title |
Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris: Including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry |
| Author | Leanne Shapton |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
| ISBN | 9781408804728 |
| I got this book from | I bought it |
| Buy link | Buy Important artifacts…. |
If you click on the buy link above you will be taken to The Book Depository.co.uk. If you buy the book through this link I will earn a small commission. You can find my general affiliate links to The Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com here.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.
Blurb:
Agatha has moved to a picture-book English village and wants to get in the swing. So she buys herself a quiche for the village quiche-making contest and is more than alarmed when it kills a judge. Hot on the trail of the poisoner, Agatha is fearless, all the while unaware, that she’s become the next victim …
In a nutshell:
I read it in: English
I liked it: Very much
For people who like: Cosy mysteries, the Cotswolds, the English countryside, Miss Marple atmosphere with a tougher touch
My thoughts:
This is the first book in the Agatha Raisin series. After reading some of M. C. Beaton Hamish Macbeth books I decided to give Agatha Raisin a try and I was not disappointed.
Agatha Raisin is not a very likeable heroine, at least not at the beginning. She is a tough business woman who usually gets her way by bullying and/or flattering others and that’s about all she can do. Being nice doesn’t come naturally to her. When she – very uncharacteristically – gives all the credit for a local charity event that she organized to a friend, she immediately regrets it when he benefits from her action.
Obviously she also does not learn any lessons from previous events. She buys a quiche to enter it into a competition, someone dies from eating it which gets her into an awkward position. However, a little later she has no scruples to take a cake from a communal freezer to offer it to someone as her own, even though she has no idea whose cake it is and what might be in it. She just does what gets into her mind, not considering any consequences.
This also brings me to another question. Don’t they have to keep retained samples from food at such occasions? That should be standard procedure on occasions like the competition or even the storage freezer! That way the mystery would have been solved a little earlier.
All characters in the village were interesting and entertaining, and the Cotswolds are a great setting for the whole idea of a hardened ex-PR agent trying to ingratiate herself with the locals. The whole story was a pleasure to read; humour, atmosphere and a cosy mystery all combined to a very nice package.
Oh, the cover! Isn’t that a lovely cover?I don’t read chick lit but always like those illustrated covers and fancy fonts. So I am more than pleased with the covers of these Robinson editions.
Location: The fictional village of Carsely, Cotswolds, England, UK
Product info and buy link :
| Title | Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death |
| Author | M. C. Beaton |
| Publisher | Robinson Publishing |
| ISBN | 9781849011341 |
| I got this book from | I swapped it |
| Buy link | Buy Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death |
| More info | The Agatha Raisin series |
If you click on the buy link above you will be taken to The Book Depository.co.uk. If you buy the book through this link I will earn a small commission. You can find my general affiliate links to The Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com here.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.
Blurb:
Murder is a Tasty Dish. The most hated man in the most dour town in Scotland is sleeping with the fishes, or-more accurately-dumped into a tank filled with crustaceans. All that remain of the murdered victim are his bones. But after the lobsters are shipped off to Britain’s best restaurants, the whole affair quickly lands on the plate of Constable Hamish Macbeth.
Exiled with his dog, Towser, to the dreary outpost of Cnothan, Macbeth sorely misses his beloved Lochdubh, his formerly beloved Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, and his days of doing nothing but staring at the sheep grazing in a nearby croft.
Now the lawman has to contend with a detective chief inspector who wants the modus operandi hushed up, a dark-haired lass who has an ulterior motive to seduce him, and a killer who has made mincemeat of his victim-and without doubt will strike again …
In a nutshell:
I read it in: English
I liked it: Yes
For people who like: the Highlands, cosy mysteries
My thoughts:
I can’t say I was too thrilled with the murder method. Not that I ever am, mind you, but the corpse in the fishtank being completely eaten is rather unsavory. The whole idea has been done more tastefully (but maybe tasteful was not M. C. Beaton’s intention anyway) by David Wishart in Food for the Fishes.
All that aside, this time the setting was different again. Where in book one there were tourists to be questioned, in book two the local gentry, here they are hostile villagers. There is quite a surprising variety of characters in those books.
One word to Blair. Why this oaf is still leading the investigations is a mystery to me. Why do the “rival” police officers always have to be so mind-numbingly dumb and antagonistic. Instead of securing Hamish’s cooperation (after all, he has solved the last two crimes single handedly and made Blair look rather stupid) he gives him mundane tasks and does everything he can do be an ass. By rights he should have been sent packing after book two.
Priscilla is becoming more and more of a nuisance mystery. She turns up at the end of the book and acts kind of jealous because of another woman’s affection to Hamish. Of course, her own various fiancés and guys she drags up to Scotland are perfectly ok. Strange double standard. Can’t say I like her.
Location: The fictional village of Cnothan, Highlands, Scotland, UK
Images from wikipedia and sxc.hu user arinas74
Movie tip
Product info and buy link :
| Title | Death of an outsider |
| Author | M. C. Beaton |
| Publisher | Robinson Publishing |
| ISBN | 9781845296681 |
| I got this book from | I bought it |
| Buy link | Buy Death of an outsider |
| More info | The Hamish Macbeth series |
If you click on the buy link above you will be taken to The Book Depository.co.uk. If you buy the book through this link I will earn a small commission. You can find my general affiliate links to The Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com here.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.
Blurb:
When Priscilla Halburton-Smythe brings her London playwright fiance home to Lochdubh, the whole town is delighted — save perhaps for love-smitten bobby Hamish Macbeth. But the morning after a posh engagement party, one of the guests, Captain Bartlett, is murdered on a grouse hunt.
Unfortunately, the prime suspects are the party guests. And a second murder soon follows the first. Now Hamish Macbeth must cut through the alibis before the killer strikes again . . . all the while trying to woo the lovely Priscilla from her jealous boyfriend.
In a nutshell:
I read it in: English
I liked it: Yes
For people who like: Very cosy mysteries, Scotland, the British upper class
My thoughts:
This is the second instalment in the Hamish Macbeth series and this time we meet a few more locals. However, the locals are mostly gentry from the wider area, not so much the Lochdubhians (or whatever the inhabitants of Lochdubh call themselves).
I liked Hamish in the first book already, but now I like him even better. He really is Mr.Nice. Unfortunately, his sidekick, well, not really, Priscilla is not his sidekick but rather his crush, left a bad impression this time. Not only did she get engaged to a guy who she knew was a total prick, she also stayed engaged even though she realizes that they are not suited at all to put it mildly. And why? Because she doesn’t want to stand up to her parents! I hate women like that. Whining about their own weakness, but nevertheless not doing anything about it.
The mystery was a good one. It might be me but again I had no clue who the murderer was but was pleased with his/her identity. Hamish is a clever one indeed.
For cozy mystery lovers this series is a must read.
Location: The fictional village of Lochdubh, Highlands, Scotland, UK
Map from wikipedia, landscape by macleod from sxc.hu
Movie tip
Product info and buy link :
| Title | Death of a cad |
| Author | M. C. Beaton |
| Publisher | Robinson |
| ISBN | 9781845296667 |
| I got this book from | I bought it |
| Buy link | Buy Death of a cad |
| More info | The Hamish Macbeth series |
If you click on the buy link above you will be taken to The Book Depository.co.uk. If you buy the book through this link I will earn a small commission. You can find my general affiliate links to The Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com here.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.
Blurb:
Narnia…a land frozen in eternal winter…a country waiting to be set free.
Four adventurers step through a wardrobe door and into the land of Narnia – a land enslaved by the power of the White Witch. But when almost all hope is lost, the return of the Great Lion, Aslan, signals a great change…and a great sacrifice.
In a nutshell:
I read it in: English
I liked it: Kind of yes, kind of no
For people who like: fairy tales, fantasy, good vs. evil
My thoughts:
This was the quickest read for me in a long time. I started some time in the morning and was done in the afternoon (including the usual family interruptions, I might add). According to the target group the story was not overly complicated and extremely easy to follow.
I liked the general idea of the children discovering another world by entering a wardrobe, moving through fur coats and leaving through the back. But there were a few things I didn’t like at all.
- The mishmash of characters in Narnia that just didn’t go together. Giants, trolls, fauns, speaking beavers, satyrs, unicorns, centaurs, for me they don’t all belong into the same universe. What I found even more annoying was the appearance of Santa Claus. What on Earth does he do in a parallel fantasy world? And gives some useful gifts, too. Those gifts sounded more like fairy gifts than from jolly old Santa.
- The witch was mean, but stupid. She could have gotten more use out of Edmund after he came to her castle had she been a bit nicer. As it was she made him realize how wicked she really was and he turned against her. That wasn’t something I would have expected her to do. She should have kept up her sweet, deceiving personality a little longer.
- Aslan, well, that little trick he pulled was not very honourable. I didn’t care about the Christian aspects of that scene but what really annoyed me was that he betrayed the deal with the witch. He gave her his word (implied by his furious roar when she asked about whether she could trust the deal will be honoured) and then he comes up with the even older magic crap which the witch didn’t know about. Not fair! I admit he had to go through a fair amount of humiliation and yes, the witch would have not been honourable and honest either, but two wrongs don’t make a right (sorry about having to quote a commonplace here). Also this is not a very good example for children. I know something you don’t, so I can cheat on you easier. And that is ok, because you are evil and I am good. I didn’t like that. At all.
It was an ok start to the series as the children discovered Narnia together with me. I am curious to know what comes next. At the same time I am quite apprehensive. Will the series continue to give such dubious messages to its readers? The end justifies the means isn’t something I 100% agree with. We will see.
Movie tip
The chronicles of Narnia: The lion, the witch and the wardrobe
Product info and buy link :
| Title | The lion, the witch and the wardrobe |
| Author | C. S. Lewis |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| ISBN | 9780007115617 |
| I got this book from | I bought it |
| Buy link | Buy The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe |
If you click on the buy link above you will be taken to The Book Depository.co.uk. If you buy the book through this link I will earn a small commission. You can find my general affiliate links to The Book Depository, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com here.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.
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