Love, Lies and Liquor

Agatha is the spunkiest gal around. Her pursuit of James is a side issue to me. Agatha is always after one guy or another. What makes the series and this book enjoyable is the dry humor and the total shallowness of Agatha. Sure she shows brief times of having some real feelings but they are short lived and quickly scotched. This series is fast paced and funny. I buy all of M. C. Beaton's books on audio and each listen I hear some funny quips I missed before. The real pleasure with Agatha is, she is out spoken, takes no *#% from anyone and says whats on her mind. She's shallow, self centered and goodness just like so many people I know. Except most people lack the guts to really say whats on their minds. I love the way she tells people to get buggered. lol

Let's see. Did I like this? My husband gave it to me for Xmas. I've bought every single paperback since the beginning and just re-read Love, Lies and Liquor. I love this series!

I am an absolute MC Beaton fan, but especially a fan of her character Agatha Raisin! She is flawed in such an appealing, vulnerable way, that you can't help to love her despite her vanity and desperate need for the attention of a man. She's smart, strong, and independent in a way that throws others off. This book is a wonderful continuation of her personal growth (particularly as it applies to her relationship with her ex-husband James) and that of her detective agency. If you haven't read any other books in this series, you will still love this one, and it will only make you want to go back and read them all.

The title "Love, Lies and Liquor" reminds me of the "Murder She Wrote" paperbacks, most of which had similar generic titles, and which were clumsily written and riddled with facts that contradicted the television show and other books in the series. When a character becomes so beloved, does the author get lazy or even turn the series over to a ghostwriter? I love Agatha Raisin now, but will I grow to distain her as the formula becomes less and less fresh? "Love, Lies and Liquor" started out slow, and proceeded slowly for quite a ways. Finally, the book picked up and I grew interested, and even had a few laughs, but I felt a little let down compared to the delight I once felt when I got my hands on a new Agatha Raisin. I enjoyed "Love, Lies and Liquor", but hope for more edge in the next book.

In Carsely, James Lacey invites his former spouse Agatha Raisin to attend a barbecue hosted by his friends, David and Jill Hewitt in nearby Ancombe. Agatha, hoping to reconcile with James, readily agrees so she drives them to their nearby destination. The barbeque is a disaster so Agatha leaves without a word, vowing never again to get involved with James. Agatha completely cuts James off who becomes concerned when she fails to come around as she always does and his rival Charles Fraith arrives at her cottage. To make up for the dreadful barbecue James invites Agatha on a seaside vacation, which she accepts dreaming of the Riviera or Mediterranean, etc. He drives them to Smoth-on-Sea in Sussex where they stop at the dilapidated Palace Hotel, which he fondly remembers as luxurious. However, a mix-up occurs in booking which leads them to drive towards Dover until Smoth-on-Sea CID DI Barret pulls them over to bring Agatha in for questioning as the prime suspect in the murder of Geraldine Jankers, a woman she got into a public argument with in the hotel's restaurant and threatened to kill. Agatha knows she better meddle in this investigation because the police are looking only in one direction, hers. As impossible as this might seem, Agatha Raisin seems crustier, more bristly, and much more aggressively impatient with others than ever before starting with the barbeque where she smokes a cigarette even after her host asked her not to in "a smoked-free zone" and continues during Barret's interrogation and her investigation. The story line is obviously vintage Agatha though this time her meddling is personal as she assumes the locals will gladly throw away the key once they incarcerate her. The whodunit is fun to follow and the epilogue leaves the audience like an addict wanting more. Harriet Klausner