Book info

• Title The Quiche of Death
• Author M. C. Beaton
• Year 1992
• Genre Mystery

Revenge is a dish best served warm... High-flying public relations supremo Agatha Raisin has decided to take early retirement. She's off to make a new life in a picture-perfect Cotswold village. To make friends, she enters the local quiche-making competition - and to make quite sure of first prize she secretly pays a visit to a London deli. Alas, the competition judge succumbs after tasting her perfect quiche, and Agatha is revealed as a cheat and potential poisoner. Definitely not the best start. So Agatha must turn amateur sleuth - she's absolutely got to track down the real killer and clear her name!

Thoughts

Hmm, interesting one this. I probably wouldn’t have read it if I hadn’t seen the TV show a while back, but even with that I liked the pilot far more than the full series that followed. I couldn’t remember the story going into this, so the mystery itself was still allowed to unfold - and that side of it was quite interesting.

There are two problems I have with this book. Firstly, that Agatha is an inherently unlikable character. She’s not even a character with flaws, she’s just not very nice. And very few of the people in the book are - the villagers, the next door neighbour, the friend from London. The only seemingly approachable character is Bill the policeman, but it’s also inexplicable his desire to keep checking up on Agatha, so it doesn’t quite make sense.

Secondly, there’s a really odd flow to the book. Sometimes, the dialogue is so good it draws you in so you can picture the scene precisely. Other times, it’s so stilted and sentences are so forced that it’s almost like reading a Janet and John. Bizarre.

Rating: 2 / 5