Book Review: A Spoonful of Poison by M. C. Beaton (2008)
Synopsis: When Mrs. Bloxby is approached by a pushy vicar, Arthur Chance, to recruit Agatha Raisin to help promote his church's fête, Agatha agrees to meet him, but only to reject the request in person. However, when she meets one of the organizers, handsome widower George Selby, her habit of chasing men results in her agreeing to help instead.
She is able to make the event a financial success by recruiting a disgraced but still popular pop singer to make an appearance. Unfortunately, things take a dark turn when someone laces jam tasting samples with LSD, resulting in two deaths. Even though some of the villagers blame Agatha for attracting a bad element to their festival, she believes one of the locals committed the crime and investigates.
Review: When I picked up a copy of A Spoonful of Poison from my library Saturday morning, I wasn't expecting to finish the book by Monday morning. However, while my history with reading Agatha Raisin novels has been a mixed bag, this was one I had a hard time putting down. I even skipped my morning movie just to find out how it ended.
The main mystery in the book is surprisingly complex. Since there is no clear motive as to why anyone would drug the jam at a church carnival, it opened the door on a wide range of suspects, making it hard to tell which ones were legit and which would just turn out to be red herrings.
This became especially true when there is a suicide with a vague confession note, there is evidence of someone stealing money from the church, one of Agatha's own detectives is implicated in a crime and her latest love interest, George, predictably proves to be not such a great guy. It was difficult to tell which of the additional things were related to the LSD and which were bad but also completely unrelated.
I also found myself growing even more intrigued about where her relationship with her 18-year-old protege, Toni, is going. Agatha has an interesting mix of caring for Toni like she was her own daughter while also having a steady jealousy, both because of the other woman's younger age and the fact she is clearly a better detective. With this book setting up a situation where they potentially could be professional rivals now too, with backing from another of Agatha's former employees, Harry, I do wonder just how that is going to end.
I am undecided about the James Lacey curveball thrown in about three-quarters of the way through the book, which seems to be setting up the next installment, especially with all the red flags surrounding his new fiancée. I was burned out on him long before he and Agatha were married and then quickly divorced. While I am admittedly a little intrigued by what the much-younger Felicity Bross-Tilkington might be up to and what Agatha might discover about her (especially since I'm guessing they'll be neighbors), I also kind of wish she could have just realized she no longer had any feelings for him, wished him well and moved on from him completely.
Final Opinion: It's an entertaining book with a good mystery and plenty of criminals to choose from as suspects. I enjoyed reading it and would recommend it.
My Grade: A
______________________________________________________________________
Here are some reviews of other Agatha Raisin books:
Book Review: Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden by M. C. Beaton (1999)
Book Review: Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House by M. C. Beaton (2003)
Book Review: Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam by M. C. Beaton (2000)
Comments
Post a Comment