The Quiche of Death

I love every one of M. C. Beaton’s books, including her witty, wry humor and observations of an abusive ex-husband and her move to a small village. I love her flaws and that she is an unapologetic smoker and has two cats she loves. I love that she is relatable with a hardscrabble life, coming from an impoverished childhood and finally making it. Albeit with all the insecurities that come from her past. Every book is a treat. 

It takes guts to write a protagonist who’s hard to like. Agatha Raisin, a tough businesswoman who retires to the tiny village of Carsley, is so beautifully flawed she’s impossible to ignore. She’s somewhat of a bully, prone to conniving, and deeply competitive, which is why she buys her quiche at a shop and enters it as her own creation. Of course, someone drops dead after eating it. This crusty woman of a certain age just bulldozes her way through the investigation and her flaws are so funny and refreshing that you wind up rooting for her. She’s a breath… show more.

I’ve been an M. C. Beaton fan since forever and realized that a cozy mystery doesn’t need to be trite and treacly. They can be tart, saucy, sarcastic, and cuttingly funny. Agatha Raisin’s debut misadventure is a good place to start.

Agatha, a London PR exec, has a chip on her shoulder the size of Surrey. But when she retires to the Cotswolds, she wants to fit in and make local connections. Why not enter a quiche in the local baking contest? (A store-bought quiche, in fact—typical Agatha.) A judge samples it and drops dead. Many a chuckle and hoot… show more.

The Agatha Raisin series features a 52-year-old successful PR executive who retires to a small country village in England. Agatha is a force of nature, she’s irascible, difficult, and determined but utterly endearing. She’s not averse to cheating either and it’s when she passes off a quiche as her own in a village contest (the quiche turns out to be poisoned) – Agatha is the prime suspect. The situations Agatha gets into are very much like I Love Lucy.