The Blood of an Englishman

Fifty-few-years-old, Agatha Raisin does not believe a private detective should slouch around trying to look inconspicuous. Indeed, she strives always to look her brazen best, dressed to the nines and over and again falling in love with the latest handsome heartthrob to cross her path. In this disarming series Agatha, retired to the country from a high-powered London career, pursues a succession of criminals, usually murderers, to the despair of the local police.

In this newest venture she is talked into supporting a local amateur production of Babes in the Woods. She anticipates boredom but happens on mayhem: a cast member is beheaded under the stage after a grisly practical joke. Agatha is hired to find the perpetrator. The assorted suspects she interviews too probingly in the surrounding villages first claim the victim had no enemies, but eventually admit he was a nasty piece of work. This time, as in earlier adventures, either her ex-husband, ex-colleague, or longtime bachelor friend are on hand when she predictably finds herself in life-threatening scrapes.

Although starting to become a caricature rather than a character, in The Blood of an Englishman Agatha is still a treat with her saucy language and irreverent ways.