In a post of a few weeks ago I asked you all if you could make suggestions of future crime series that I might enjoy and I was delighted to receive so many suggestions, all of which have been noted and thank you for these.
Before I start on any in this list, I have been given three books by an author called MC Beaton whose lady detective is Agatha Raisin. A middle aged, rather plain divorcee, who has sold her business in London and bought a cottage in the Cotswolds, she is not exactly a conventional heroine, in fact, is rather bossy and unpleasant at first with a foul temper, who finds she has a talent for solving mysteries. The first in the series, Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death sets the scene after Agatha has moved to the country and is finding that she is lonely and bored. She decides to enter the local Quiche competition but she cannot cook to save her life so nips up to London to her favourite patisserie, buys a quiche and enters it into the competition with her name on, fully 
expecting to win. Local politics being what it is, she does not and furious, she stalks off leaving the quiche behind. This is taken home by the soi disant posh lady of the village and given to her husband for supper. He promptly dies and the police find that he was poisoned.
Of course, Agatha soon finds the local constabulary on her doorstep and to prove her innocence has to admit that she is a cheat. She then decides to take matters into her own hands and find the murderer. All very dotty and very silly and great fun. The odd thing was that as I was reading this book I kept trying to remember where I had met Agatha before. Well I couldn't have done as this was the first to feature her (there are now over 14 I find so jolly good) but she was very familiar with her vaguely off putting personality, and yet at the same time, one felt sorry for her as she was a misfit who did not really fit in anywhere. It kept nagging at me and then I remembered. She was just like a character in a series of totally potty Regency novels I read about 25 years ago, all about two middle aged ladies who took difficult girls and put them through their paces and the London Season, for money, and who spent their entire time fighting and squabbling and trying to attract a husband as well as those young ladies who were in their care. They never succeeded and were rather sad and pathetic but they were also very very funny.
There was one scene in the Agatha Raisin story which I am currently reading where Agatha gets dressed up to the nines in order to attract her new next door neighbour, a handsome retired colonel who has moved into the village, and who flees in fright when he spots her predatory tactics. This mirrored exactly another incident in one of the Regency books of this writer of many years ago, one Marion Chesney. I felt the coincidence was very strong so did a bit of googling and lo and behold Marion Chesney and M C Beaton are one and the same. Amazing that I can remember those two Regency ladies for so long and recognise the characteristics in Agatha. Obviously, they were strongly enough written that I did not forget them.
As I said, these books are delightfully funny and I already love Agatha and feel that I am going to enjoy reading the lot. The blurbs tend to go on about Agatha being another Miss Marple which I suppose is to be expected, but the only similarity is the fact that all the murders take place in a country village, they are not in the same league as Mrs Christie's creation.
Mark you, the heroine being named Agatha is probably not a coincidence.....
