Book Reviews and A Case of Mistaken Identity

I said my next book reviews were going to be about children's books. Well, I changed my mind. First, I am going to discuss another adult book.

First up is Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death by M. C. Beaton, mystery, 1998

There are over 30 books in the Agatha Raisin series, with the first 24 written by M. C. Beaton. In case you aren't familiar with Agatha Raisin, she is a 50-something woman who sells her advertising business in London to move to a simpler life in the country. She brings her city ways with her and is often brash and impatient, but she gradually adapts to the slower way of life and eventually gains most of the locals' acceptance. She also has an obsession with James, her next-door neighbor, and they have an on-again-off-again relationship as they investigate murders together.

The Agatha Raisin books are cozy mysteries and easy reads. I enjoy them then and again, although I sometimes tire of Agatha's fixation on James. 

The Wellspring of Death is #7 in the Agatha Raisin series. In this book, there is a controversy over the use of a natural spring and the subsequent murder of the council head, who had the deciding vote on what happens. There is a long list of people who are upset for one reason or another, and one of them is the bad guy in the end. 

And now, for the rest of the story. Ward saw my Agatha Raisin book and asked if he would like it, especially since it was a mystery, which he reads a lot. I said maybe, but he wouldn't initially like Agatha, but she would grow on him. However, I suggested he should start with the first one, The Quiche of Death, so he could learn the characters. He likes to read e-books, so he checked it out and started reading on his phone. He was about a third of the way through before he figured out he had the wrong book. He was reading The Quiche of the Dead by Kirstin Weiss instead of The Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton. He was wondering when the story was going to introduce Agatha, the main character. However, he finished and enjoyed Weiss's book, fortunately, the first in a series. He enjoyed it enough that he has read four of the series so far. 

In the meantime, I checked an Agatha Raisin DVD out of the library. British television made a series from the books, and we watched the Quiche of Death episode. I was right. Ward didn't like Agatha very much. The show was pretty true to the book, but I like reading the mysteries better than watching them. I am going to encourage Ward to give Agatha another chance and actually read one of the books.

But before that, Ward will review The Quiche of the Dead for You.

Ward says he doesn't remember agreeing to write a review of "The Quiche of the Dead", and he's going to be busy for a very long time, so I should just go ahead and publish this post.  😉

Until next time...

Note: Miss Landers has read all of the Agatha Raisin books and said that Ward and I should keep reading them and watch the characters develop.

Ward here: OK, I've been asked twice to do this. Here goes - The Quiche and the Dead by Kirsten Weiss is the first of a series of cozy mysteries centered around Valentine Harris, who runs the Pie Town bakery. She is accompanied by her seventy-something pie crust maker, Charlene, who has no filter and says what she thinks and who believes in crazy theories. Together, they work to solve a mystery - in this first book, a customer dies of poisoning in her pie shop after eating one of her quiches. Romantic tension arises from the attraction between Val and the (single, handsome) policeman Gordon, who cannot act on his feelings because Val is a suspect. It is sweet and silly, wrapped around a decent mystery. I think there are five or six books in the Pie Town series, and I'm on book number four.