Author: M.C. Beaton, R.W. Green
Expected Publication: December 13th 2022 by Minotaur Books
Format: Kindle, Hardcover, 256 pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Agatha Raisin #33
First Sentence: He was naked. Some people are easily shocked. Agatha Raisin would never count herself as one of those people.
Blurb: Toni and Agatha are in the car on their way to Officer Bill Wong’s long-awaited wedding when, much to their shock, a naked young man bursts through a hedge on the side of the road and comes running toward them.
Terrified, he explains that he has just seen a dead body in the woods. Toni lends him an old t-shirt to cover himself, Agatha calls the police, and the young man takes them to the spot where he saw the body, across from a meadow where the Mircester Naturist Club is due to have its annual summer barbecue.
The young man, Edward, explains that he is the club’s social convenor and had arrived early to set things up. He says he found the body at the edge of the woods, near an ancient stone known as The Lone Warrior and said to have once been used as a sacrificial altar.
When they reach the spot, however, there is nothing on the large, flat rock except a small wet patch. Even that has dried up by the time the police arrive, and Chief Inspector Wilkes accuses Agatha of wasting police time on a prank.
But Agatha and Toni grow suspicious after meeting some of the club’s members, whose diverse interests range from artisanal ice cream to ancient curses. And when another disappearance occurs, it’s up to them to put together the pieces…or end up on the altar themselves.(GoodReads)
My Opinion: R.W. Green has had some mighty large Beaton shoes to fill -- his first book, Hot to Trot was a disaster, Down the Hatch was closer to M.C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin, and now Devil’s Delight seems to be closing in on the books I enjoy.
The paragraph structure is not my favorite, with an extra sentence here and there that doesn’t belong and reads more along the lines of talking down to his audience or a lackluster form of humor; we get it R.W.; we can read between the lines.
I am unsure if Agatha is finally coming into her own since she has always been a force of nature, but there is a change in her. Will this change continue? The reader certainly hopes so, but time will tell if she will fall back into her usual of chasing the wrong men -- at least the newest isn’t named James, Jim, or Jimmy. Then again, how will Agatha handle a relationship with a mature man and not the usual man-child she seems to be attracted to?
Blurb: Toni and Agatha are in the car on their way to Officer Bill Wong’s long-awaited wedding when, much to their shock, a naked young man bursts through a hedge on the side of the road and comes running toward them.
Terrified, he explains that he has just seen a dead body in the woods. Toni lends him an old t-shirt to cover himself, Agatha calls the police, and the young man takes them to the spot where he saw the body, across from a meadow where the Mircester Naturist Club is due to have its annual summer barbecue.
The young man, Edward, explains that he is the club’s social convenor and had arrived early to set things up. He says he found the body at the edge of the woods, near an ancient stone known as The Lone Warrior and said to have once been used as a sacrificial altar.
When they reach the spot, however, there is nothing on the large, flat rock except a small wet patch. Even that has dried up by the time the police arrive, and Chief Inspector Wilkes accuses Agatha of wasting police time on a prank.
But Agatha and Toni grow suspicious after meeting some of the club’s members, whose diverse interests range from artisanal ice cream to ancient curses. And when another disappearance occurs, it’s up to them to put together the pieces…or end up on the altar themselves.(GoodReads)
My Opinion: R.W. Green has had some mighty large Beaton shoes to fill -- his first book, Hot to Trot was a disaster, Down the Hatch was closer to M.C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin, and now Devil’s Delight seems to be closing in on the books I enjoy.
The paragraph structure is not my favorite, with an extra sentence here and there that doesn’t belong and reads more along the lines of talking down to his audience or a lackluster form of humor; we get it R.W.; we can read between the lines.
I am unsure if Agatha is finally coming into her own since she has always been a force of nature, but there is a change in her. Will this change continue? The reader certainly hopes so, but time will tell if she will fall back into her usual of chasing the wrong men -- at least the newest isn’t named James, Jim, or Jimmy. Then again, how will Agatha handle a relationship with a mature man and not the usual man-child she seems to be attracted to?
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