Golden Age of Detective Fiction

The Agatha Raisin series, written by M. C. Beaton (also known as Marion Chesney), is a popular collection of cozy mystery novels featuring the eponymous amateur detective Agatha Raisin. The series is set in the picturesque Cotswolds village of Carsely, England, and follows Agatha as she solves various crimes and navigates the complexities of village life.

Plot

The Quiche of Death is the first novel in the Agatha Raisin mystery series by M. C. Beaton. The book introduces readers to Agatha Raisin, a middle-aged and slightly curmudgeonly woman who retires early from her successful career in public relations and moves to the picturesque village of Carsely in the Cotswolds, England.

The plot revolves around a baking competition held in the village. Agatha, eager to impress the locals and establish herself in the community, decides to participate. However, she lacks cooking skills and buys a quiche from a high-end London quichery (is this a thing? I have never seen one in America), passing it off as her own creation.

Agatha’s spinach quiche fails to win her first place and in a huff she stamps away from the competition, her neighbor, Mrs, Cummings-Browne, asks Agatha if she wants to take her quiche home, but Agatha tells her to throw it away. Mrs. Cummings-Browne, scandalized that a perfectly good quiche would go to waste take it home to serve to husband for dinner.

When Mr. Cummings-Browne, takes a bite of the quiche, he collapses and dies shortly afterward. The quiche was poisonous, and Agatha quickly became a suspect in the murder investigation. Determined to clear her name and find the real killer, Agatha launches her investigation. As Agatha delves into the lives of the villagers, she blunders into a web of secrets and rivalries. She learns that many residents had a motive to poison Mr. Cummings-Browne.

Along the way, Agatha faces numerous obstacles: repairing her reputation after the store-bought quiche she entered into the village competition and navigating village loyalties when she steals her neighbor’s charwoman. Agatha encounters quirky characters, including the charming vicar’s wife, her acerbic neighbor, who becomes her reluctant partner in crime-solving. Together, they navigate through the idyllic yet deceitful world of village life.

As the investigation progresses, Agatha’s life becomes endangered , and she realizes that the killer is determined to stop her from uncovering the truth. With her reputation and life on the line, Agatha must race against time to reveal the identity of the murderer before she becomes the next victim.

The Review

I did not enjoy the Quiche of Death. I found Agatha Raisin, a thoroughly unlikable protagonist. I am pretty surprised no one attempted to poison her before she moved to the Cotswold. She’s an oily woman whose desire for praise is matched only by her blind stupidity. Her numerous faults are not ameliorated by any growth during the book.

Also, Agatha Raisin is a terrible investigator. She doesn’t listen to extract information or use her cleverness to tease out secret truths; she has the emotional quotient of a gnat and is so self-involved that I think it would be impossible to understand the psychological motivations behind anything, let alone a crime. Agatha succeeds in discovering the murderer because it’s so glaringly obvious from the start that I can’t figure out how the policeman in the novel couldn’t piece it together.

The one aspect of The Quiche of Death that I enjoyed was the passive-aggressive and mild hazing the villagers put Agatha through. She is wholly ignorant of small-town village life- which M.C. Beaton describes in vivid accuracy; Agatha’s hubris makes her blunder into social faux pax after social faux pax, which was funny to me.

I didn’t enjoy this book enough to dip my toes back into the Agatha Raisin series.