Product Description

After nearly being killed by both a hired hit man and her former secretary, Agatha Raisin could use some low-key cases. So when Robert Smedley walks through the door, determined to prove that his wife is cheating, Raisin Investigations immediately offers to help. Trouble is, Agatha hates divorce cases - especially when she's been hired by Smedley - but she has a business to run now and she's not about to turn away a paying client. Unfortunately for Agatha, Mabel Smedley appears to be the perfect wife, young, pretty and a regular volunteer at church. But just as Agatha is ready to give up, Smedley is poisoned with weed killer, leaving Mabel, the prime suspect, to inherit a fortune. With no one left to pay her, Agatha decides to drop the case...that is until her old friend Sir Charles Fraith turns up again to rekindle her curiousity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20044 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
"* 'Anyone interested in a few hours' worth of intelligent, amusing reading will want to make the acquaintance of Mrs. Agatha Raisin.' - The Cleveland Plain Dealer * 'Agatha Raisin is sharp, witty, hugely intelligent, unfailingly entertaining, delightfully intolerant and oh so magnificently non PC. M C Beaton has created a new national treasure... the stories zing along and are irresistible, unputdownable, a joy. If you buy one book a year, let it be this. Agatha Raisin is The Strongest Link.' - Anne Robinson * 'Beaton's dry sense of humour and her unflattering but affectionate portrait of gruff, often adolescent acting Agatha make this... tale a bloom worth picking.' - Publishers Weekly * 'Engaging' - Booklist"

About the Author
M C Beaton is the author of the highly acclaimed Hamish Macbeth mystery series. This novel begins a new series featuring sleuth Mrs Agatha Raisin. Born in Scotland, Beaton now lives in the Costwolds.

Customer Reviews

Agatha Raisin and the Perfect Paragon
This is a really enjoyable read which is hard to put down.
If you have read other books in the series you will probably enjoy it as much as I did, but if you've never ready an Aggy Raisin book there is still enough information included to get you up to speed on who everyone is.
This is way up on my list of favourites within the series.

More characters, less plot, no interest
Unfortunetly what was once a good series of stories has dipped with the publication of the last two stories - coincidencing with a change of emphasis in the plotline.

Out as gone the bitchy amatuer Agatha and the well developed characters to be replaced with an Agatha who now cares about peoples feelings. For regular readers of the books, they will know that Agatha is not one for mellowing.

The characters which now surround her are at best poorly developed and are just too good to be true. Any obstacle is now easily overcome, any guess now becomes a fact and with it, the interest has vanished.

There is a chance to turn around the padded out plots with book 17 but I doubt we will see it happen. Much the pity, for there is a great character here which is being poorly utilised.

Agatha's Detective Agency Deepens Its Capabilities
Although this is the 16th mystery in the Agatha Raisin series, you could enjoy this book as a stand-alone if you don't want to go back. Of those earlier books, I do especially recommend the first one, Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death.

Agatha Raisin had a rough start to her detective agency in The Deadly Dance. She learned she didn't really know all that much about detecting, that getting and keeping good help are hard, and that the police don't like amateur detectives who set up agencies any more than they like amateur detectives.

As The Perfect Paragon opens, the detective business is operating more smmothly . . . if only there were more business to operate. The money is in divorces, but Agatha has tried to avoid those cases due to having been recently divorced. But when business is slow, she agrees to check on Robert Smedley's wife, Mabel, who has shown an unusual (for her) tendency to act independently of her husband. Who is she buying those new clothes for? At the same time, Agatha has the usual run of missing teenagers and dogs where she normally makes good progress.

Agatha's agency soon makes a hash of the Smedley assignment, and after that she's off the case for other reasons. When a missing teenager turns out to be a murder victim, the obvious suspects seem to be unlikely killers, and Agatha is at a loss to figure out what happened . . . until Mrs. Bloxby gives her a hint as to motive. Before the story is over, crimes are spilling out in all directions.

Agatha adds a new staff member who brings some pizzazz to Agatha's investigations, and Agatha gets occasional help from her old detective partner, Sir Charles Fraith. Being as insensitive as ever to others, she virtually destroys her relationship with Bill Wong in the process of trying to find the killer and accept Bill's hospitality.

The story has a few weaknesses that are unfortunate: The investigation is turned into more of a circus than is really needed to make a good story, agency people make more dumb mistakes than seem likely, and there are a few too many coincidences in how the key facts are turned up.

The actual mystery is better developed and hidden than in many earlier books. And Agatha mostly avoids being her most annoying self.

I think these detective-agency cases will be the saving of this series, even though M. C. Beaton couldn't resist having Agatha fall for yet another handsome man.

Consider all the circumstances if you want to get at the truth!