Book #58: Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wickhadden by M.C. Beaton
Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden by M.C. Beaton
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
The ninth book in the Agatha Raisin series involves Agatha visiting a self-proclaimed "witch" selling herbal remedies and tells fortunes, while on holiday. It was easy to tell that the witch would end up being the first of the two murder victims in this story, and unfortunately this wasn't the best book in the series.
There was a lot of promise in this book, which had Agatha staying in a hotel with a quite eccentric group of people, which felt that it could be the setting for an Agatha Christie novel, but it became increasingly clear that the book was more about its main character's love life than solving the murder itself.
So, this book gave Agatha a new love interest; a Police Inspector called Jimmy. I found myself increasingly distracted by the sudden presence of Agatha's on-and-off crush, James Lacey. There's something that I find really tacky about having characters with very similar names in a book, and this book shows precisely why most authors avoid this.
The real disappointment came with the resolution of the murder, which came out of almost nowhere, and seemed very rushed, before the final chapter was entirely about Agatha's relationships. The humour that characterises the series was at least present, although it seemed excessively dark at times. Also, once again there was a character who seemed so nasty it felt unreal, and she showed up in the last chapter.
There were a few hint at the end about where the series' romantic subplots are heading, and I can only hope that the next title in the series is written better than this one.
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