Featured Author - June 2011 - M.C. Beaton

[Tricia]

I took me awhile, but I finally finished The Quiche of Death and loved it! Agatha is truly a unique character. I have a couple more of this series on my shelf and am anxious to get them read.

[Heidi]

Tricia wrote: "I took me awhile, but I finally finished The Quiche of Death and loved it! Agatha is truly a unique character. I have a couple more of this series on my shelf and am anxious to get ..."

Yay!

[Kimmie]

Tricia wrote: "I took me awhile, but I finally finished The Quiche of Death and loved it! Agatha is truly a unique character. I have a couple more of this series on my shelf and am anxious to get ..."

Agatha is a joy. I stockpile this series for light and fun reads.
Kimmie

[Denise]

I finally tried Agatha Raisin last summer, when I came across Introducing Agatha Raisin (which includes the first two books) for 90% off in a Borders closing sale. Who could resist that? And I knew the series had a lot of fans. I loved these stories! Hilarious! Since then, I have read two more, in order (Potted Gardener - didn't Agatha learn her lesson from Quiche of Death?, and Walkers of Dembley). I love seeing the evolution of Agatha's character, as she actually has to deal with people on a personal level, which she apparently never did before during her career, and is surprised to find that she actually wants some of them to like her. I definitely will continue with this series, although at the moment, since I have been cataloging my books here on Goodreads, I am starting to realize exactly how many books I own that I haven't read yet, and it's scary!!! I need to make a goodly dent in those and try to cut way back on buying new ones, for a while, at least! I'll still keep up with series that I'm caught up with, but some that I've come to more recently and have more catching up to do may have to wait.

[Nell]

Karen wrote: "Well all done with Death of a Gossip; on to Death of a Cad."

There's a significant shift between these two mysteries. In the first Hamish, most of the story is told from the point of view of a lovelorn young woman who was part of the tourist group. Her whiney attitude annoyed me. I preferred the POV of the Hamish mysteries after this one. Maybe Beaton was trying this out in the first of the series and thankfully abandoned it. What do you think of the POV shift she makes in Death of a Cad?

[Denise]

I recently read numbers five and six in the Agatha Raisin series - Murderous Marriage and Terrible Tourist. Murderous Marriage seemed like a pivotal one; some very important things happened, and Agatha went through more than her usual share of problems in this one. It was great! Terrible Tourist I didn't care for quite as much as the others, although I still liked it a lot. But it took place in Cyprus instead of Carsely, and I missed the whole gang. Also, I thought that James was particularly mean and insensitive to Agatha in this one, even disappearing and leaving her to fend for herself when he knew her life was in danger. On the other hand, I learned quite a bit about northern Cyprus, which I knew nothing about before (for some reason, Nicosia always sounds to me like a city in Africa!).

[ChrisGA]

I read the first five which gave me good knowledge of her and some back stories on Bill, James, Charles, Roy and the vicar's wife. I thought THE POTTED GARDENER had one of the most unusual death method I have read. I have read a few other of the later ones. I just finished HISS AND HERS, first reads giveaway. In it she is still Agatha--love-starved, obstinate, putting her foot in her mouth and trying so hard to find acceptance.

[Robin]

That was a good book. It was a tamer, gentler Agatha.LOL

[Robin]

It was a good book to start off with, though.