Review, AGATHA RAISIN and THE QUICHE OF DEATH, M.C. Beaton

This is a 2 CD set of 2 radio plays based on the Agatha Raisin stories: THE QUICHE OF DEATH, and THE VICIOUS VET. So I guess it is not the same as reading the full book really.

Nevertheless they make good listening. The cast is headed by Penelope Keith in each case. I've had unkind things to say about Agatha Raisin books in the past, to the point where someone felt they had to contact me by email to tell me I wouldn't know a true cozy if I fell over it. Perhaps I've turned the corner!

THE QUICHE OF DEATH is set just after Agatha Raisin has left her PR business in London and retired to the quiet life in a Cotswold's village. It is typical of Agatha to want to make her mark, so she enters the village quiche baking competition. But of course she can't really bake to save herself so she enters a bought quiche. She doesn't win, but the judge takes her quiche home to eat for his dinner. The next morning he is dead. Agatha is convinced his widow isn't sufficiently grief stricken.

THE VICIOUS VET is set a year later. Agatha has had a spell of PR work back in London but has been defrauded by someone she thought was a friend. So it's back to the village and the quieter life. She has a new neighbour, James Lacey, a retired colonel who simply wants to get on with writing a military history. When the local vet dies, hoist on his own syringe, and then his death is followed by that of one of his clients, then Agatha drags the unwilling James into what she is convinced are two cases of murder.

So now I've read 5 Agatha Raisins, and I actually have one more book out from the library. I have met Mrs Bloxby the Vicar's wife, Bill Wong the policeman, and Roy, Agatha's London friend. I'm not yet rescinding all of my earlier criticisms, but I certainly enjoyed these two tales. Would I have enjoyed them as much if I had not been listening to them being read I wonder?

My rating: 3.9