M. C. Beaton - "Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener"

Thoroughly enjoyable - again...

M C Beaton – “Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet”

I discovered Agatha Raisin at GB’s and have been delighted to find that Pensby Library has a few of her adventures in crime solving in her little Cotswold village. Outspoken, occasionally coarse and far from a Miss Marple but nonetheless a delightful character.

This is the second in the series – looking forward to the next one already.
Agatha Raisin
1. Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death (1992)
2. Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet (1993)
3. Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener (1994)
4. Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley (1995)
5. Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage (1996)
6. Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist (1997)
7. Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death (1998)
8. Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham (1999)
9. Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden (1999)
10. Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam (2000)
11. Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell (2001)
12. Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came (2002)
13. Agatha Raisin and the Case of the Curious Curate (2003)
14. Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House (2003)
15. The Deadly Dance (2004)
16. Agatha Raisin and the Perfect Paragon (2005)
17. Love, Lies and Liquor (2006)
18. Kissing Christmas Goodbye (2007)
19. Agatha Raisin and a Spoonful of Poison (2008)

“...No one here was obviously feeling the recession, for no one had ever got to any point from which to recess to.”
“Who was it who said that the reason the puritans were against bear-baiting was not because it gave pain to the bear but because it gave pleasure to the crowd?”
“I’ve not time for Americans....” said Miss Webster. “It’s not their fault.” said James, “ They feel that they have to protect themselves. a lot of people think American tourists are made of money. Now that couple saved all their lives for this one trip. They have to budget very carefully, and they’ve probably been told back home that all foreigners are out to cheat them.” “But we’re not foreigners,” said Miss Webster. “We’re British.”

M.C. BEATON is a psudonym used by Marion Chesney - see my earlier blog posting.

John Sandford – “Invisible Prey”

Good American detective story. Worth my while trying to find some more of his work. Since this is the seventeenth crime novel with the same hero, Lucas Davenport, it is safe to assume I may find one around somewhere..
Lucas Davenport
1. Rules of Prey (1989)
2. Shadow Prey (1990)
3. Eyes of Prey (1991)
4. Silent Prey (1992)
5. Winter Prey (1993) aka The Iceman
6. Night Prey (1994)
7. Mind Prey (1995)
8. Sudden Prey (1996)
9. Secret Prey (1998)
10. Certain Prey (1999)
11. Easy Prey (2000)
12. Chosen Prey (2001)
13. Mortal Prey (2002)
14. Naked Prey (2003)
15. Hidden Prey (2004)
16. Broken Prey (2005)
17. Invisible Prey (2007)
18. Phantom Prey (2008)



JOHN SANDFORD is a pseudonym of John Camp, born 1944, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist.

NOT READ - John Updike - "Terrorist"

It is not often that I start a book and don't finish it. When this happens I don't usually bother mentioning it in this blog. Perhaps I should. Perhaps it could be seen as a service to others to warn them what to avoid!
I gave up on this book on page 21 of 310. Perhaps it was something to do with the 157 word sentence that I had just read. At least, I think it was 157. It rather depends up whether hypenated words (since when has teenager been hypenated!!!) count as one or two...
Let this be a warning to you...

Simon Brett - "The Body on the Beach"

A wonderfully elegant English murder mystery. Not the most imaginative of plots in the whodunnit sense (I guessed fairly early on) but more than made up for by its two contrasting heroines, its humour and its terribly British South Coast setting. Simon Brett introduces a sparkling new crime series starring the redoubtable Carole Seddon and her worldly wise accomplice, Jude.
Very little disturbs the ordered calm of Fethering, a self-contained retirement settlement on England's southern coast. Which is precisely why Carole Seddon has chosen to reside there. So the last thing Carole expects to encounter in Fethering is a new neighbour with but one name and an obviously colourful past. 'Jude' was not really Fethering . . . but neither was the body Carole found on the beach. A body, it has to be said, that has disappeared by the time the police arrive. Only Jude is ready to believe what her neighbour says she saw - and from that moment on, the two women are resolved to turn detectives. This is one of a series of ‘Fethering’ novels. I must find more...



SIMON BRETT – Brett, born 1945, was a radio and tv producer before taking yup writing full time. He lives in an Agatha Christie style village on the South Downs. As well as the Fethering Mysteries series, he is also the author of the TV series ‘After Henry’, the radio series ‘No Commitments’ and ‘Smelling of Roses’, and the best-selling ‘How to be a little sod’. His novel ‘A shock to the system’ was filmed starring Michael Caine.

Some quotes...
....Fethering is its own little world of double-glazed windows and double-glazed minds.
...Allinstore had become an outlet for the National lottery, thus enabling the residents of Fethering to shatter their hopes and dreams on a weekly basis.
The architect who’d designed the new supermarket (assuming such a person existed and the plans hadn’t been scribbled on the back of a n envelope by a builder who’d once seen a shoebox) had placed two wide roof-supporting pillars just in front of the main tills.
...The room was like the nest of a kleptomaniac magpie.
...The local news had just started. It was fronted by the kind of gauche female newsreader who makes you realize that, bad though network presenters may be, there remain unimaginable depths of the television barrel yet to be scraped.