Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death (Agatha Raisin 1)

Author/Guide: M.C. Beaton

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: Agatha Raisin moves to the Cotswolds and bakes quiche to make friends. Then murder comes a calling.

ISBN: 978-1849011341
Genre: Crime, Mystery

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What you need to know before your trail

As the novel opens, Agatha Raisin is sitting in her office in South Molton Street in London as she thinks about her imminent early retirement from the PR firm she has built up over the years. Hankering after the quiet life, she wants to fulfill her dream of moving to the Cotswolds and living a life of peace and quiet.

So she does, although the village of Carsely is not the quiet idyllic village she had hoped for. It’s somewhat of an alien environment for a start. So to integrate herself into the village life, she decides to enter and win the Quiche baking contest. But her plotting ends in disaster and she soon finds herself infamous for al the wrong reasons. Someone lies dead and it’s up to Agatha to solve the mystery of why, when and how.

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Travel Guide

It’s perhaps not the best way to integrate yourself with your new neighbours than by cheating your win in a baking competition. Still, that’s Agatha Raisin, raisin by name but hard nut by nature. HAving been used to the posh London life, her dream to live in the Cotswolds of course is going to ensure some changes. Baking a killer quiche might not be the best way to befriend the neighbours however

Still there are some problems even before she arrives

“It was a pity thought Agatha, that the village was called plain Carsely and not Chipping Campden or Aston Magna or Lower Slaughter of one of those intriguing Cotswold names.”

She is pleased however that it’s relatively free from the usual tourist trap of craft and tea shops and daily buses trundling around the leafy lanes. She’s only 53 but has had the dream to live in this part of the world for years.

Booktrailer Review

Susan:

I remember picking up this book for its quirky title and quirky cover and thinking to myself that this would be akin to Agatha Christie and Midsummer Murders all in one. Well, Agatha Raisin is in a league of her own! She is one funny lady and one fascinating investigator who does get herself into some scrapes. She has some funny ways of integrating herself into the village for one and I felt her loneliness at times but once she gets going there’s no stopping her! I have to say that the scrapes she gets into really did make me laugh as you can just imagine it happening. I could see her an the villagers very clearly, each one quite the characters and I so want to live in Carsely now although I may not eat any quiche on offer.