Book #37 for 2024: There Goes the Bride by M.C. Beaton
Another review that I couldn't write without dropping spoilers for this and previous titles in the series.
[Spoiler (click to open)]
There Goes the Bride by M.C. Beaton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The previous title in the Agatha Raisin series saw the reappearance of Agatha's on-off lover James Lacey, revealing that he was engaged. This one opens with Agatha going away to Istanbul, only to find herself accidentally following James and his fiansee around, causing him to accuse her of stalking them.
On the day of the wedding, James tells Agatha he wishes he weren't engaged. Later the bride is suddenly murdered, and both James and Agatha become suspects. The family hire Agatha to find out who the killer is, only for the woman's father to insist that the case be handed over to the police.
I wasn't too sure about this book at times, possibly because it went off on a few tangents, with a couple of episodes mostly involving Toni that felt like mini-stories in their own right that distracted slightly from the main plot. Towards the end there was a subplot about Agatha joining a dating agency, and it even had a month-long time cut. Luckily, I didn't have to worry too much, as it did manage to set up an exciting climactic scene, followed by a few codas to the novel that I was not expecting that provided more thrills. I didn't even notice that James hardly featured in the book's later chapters.
I liked the fact that Toni's character was developed a little in this one, and hopefully this will continue in the later books.
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