Retired public relations executive Agatha Raisin is wealthy, cranky,
and accustomed to getting her own way without
delay. When,
therefore, a Paris police
detective fails to drop everything to pursue
the pickpocket who stole her wallet and ignores her claim that she is a
detective too, she immediately returns to her Cotswolds home to set up
her own detective agency. Agatha is intent on proving that she is
as good as if not better than the police.
The police at home tend to dismiss Agatha’s earlier success at solving
crimes as amateur’s luck. Mrs. Bloxby, the vicar’s wife, ascribes
Agatha’s success to God-given intuition. However, Agatha sees
herself simply as an intelligent businesswoman, and accordingly sets up
her agency on sound business lines. She starts out by gathering
together talented staff, including retired police and her new next-door
neighbour, Emma Comfrey. Agatha initially hires Emma as her
secretary, but in short order Emma proves herself capable of finding
the lost cats, dogs and teen-agers which, together with divorce cases,
provide Raisin Investigations with its first business.
When Catherine Laggatt-Brown hires Agatha’s agency to protect her
daughter from death threats and Agatha actually prevents a shooting at
the engagement party, Agatha hires retired police detective Patrick
Mullen to help her and draws her friend Sir Charles Fraith in as an
occasional assistant. This is one case Agatha intends to solve
herself.
From the first, Catherine’s unremarkable daughter seems an unlikely
murder target. Even the possible suspects are ordinary, so before
solving the mystery, Agatha must first discern the identity of the
victim. Charles, with his linguistic fluency and connections with
the upper crust is indispensable. It is unfortunate and dangerous
that Agatha treats him so badly, while Emma stalks him with obsessive
dreams of romance and nurses a growing hatred of her employer.
In fact, Agatha has a genius for annoying people. More than one
person wants to kill her and the police almost wish one of them would
succeed. Nonetheless, despite her habit of alienating potential
allies and attracting crazy murderers, she manages to discover the
truth of the Leggatt-Brown murder threats and survive various attempts
on her own life - although not unaided, as she leads the press to
believe.
Luck? Intuition? Genius? The reader has to make up
his own mind. The only certainty is that the tenacious Agatha
Raisin will be back another day to complicate the lives of friends and
police and to annoy her long-suffering neighbours.