A treat of an offering, with complex cross-currents of conspiracy and dastardliness. Intriguing new beginnings with the new next door neighbor, and Agatha's usual foibles and insecurities on full display.

More and more, I am finding Mrs. Bloxby as one of my favorite people, and wish Ms. Beaton was still around to create some stories starring this quiet, very perceptive woman.

Liked the bits about Robinson Crusoe island, too. Very interesting way to set up the tale. Looking forward to What Happens Next to our dear Agatha. ( )

I thought at first this would be similar to number 6 in the series which I've just read, set in North Cyprus, but although at the start Agatha goes off to an island off the Chilean coast for a holiday to take her mind off her depression, she is back in her home village by page 15. James, her former husband - as it transpires after about 10 pages that they are actually divorced - has supposedly gone to France to become a monk, though this seems increasingly unlikely as various people question how he can be accepted as a non Catholic, especially in view of his divorce.

While on the island, Agatha saw a newly married couple and sensed all was not well, and on her return, an email from a family who befriended her confirms that the husband has been arrested for pushing his bride from a boat. Meanwhile, while visiting the nearby town of Evesham, she saw a young couple who are soon to be wed, and something about them reminded her of the couple on the island.

Soon, floods beset Evesham which she is visiting for Pilates classes among other things, and she spots a drowned woman floating in the swollen river: a woman dressed in a bridal gown who turns out to be the same young woman she had seen on her earlier visit. So far, so complicated. Agatha then launches into an investigation of the various colleagues and employer, ex boyfriend and prospective husband-to-be of the dead woman, Kylie. The police work out early on that Kylie was murdered as she shows signs of having been kept in a freezer for a while, although there is some suggestion that she self administered a heroin overdose.

Agatha's investigation is rather farcical as she disguises herself in wig and glasses in case her fame as an amateur investigator would give the game away, accompanied either by Roy Silver, who used to work for her when she had a public relations business, or her new neighbour John Armitage a crime writer who has bought James' cottage. The cover story is that they are researchers for a possible TV programme into the young people of the Midlands and their entertainments, though they always work the questions around to Kylie, the dead woman. This does become rather repetitive after a while as they go back to various people more than once, and some of these are hard to keep clear in the mind, as none of the minor characters are particularly well characterised.

Agatha doesn't fancy the new neighbour and they manage a workmanlike relationship though eventually he does spoil it, plus she misses James and also Charles who has recently married. Charles does eventually put in a brief appearance, but James is absent throughout, which is just as well as the previous ones I've read where he is present result in Agatha behaving like a lovestruck teenager rather grotesquely. As before, the only character in the books who is likeable and shows insight is Agatha's friend, Mrs Bloxley, the vicar's wife.

Although Agatha shows some signs of moving on and maturing, the inclusion of chapter 1 of the next book shows that she severely backslides before too long. The occasional info dump informs us that her manner is down to her lack of self esteem due to her upbringing in the Birmingham slums, and she certainly does have a chip on her shoulder throughout the series because of this. Thankfully there is not so much use of 'howl' to describe how people speak as there was in one of the volumes I read earlier. By the end, the Detective Inspector plans to write to her and suggest she start her own detective agency, which explains why she is running one in book 17 of the series which I read previously. Anyway, quite a dull mystery and rather repetitive.



( )

Un’altra intrigante avventura, una lettura piacevole, simpatica e di tutto relax. ( )

Agatha and the Drowned Bride
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (January 2013) of the original St. Martin's Press Minotaur hardcover (July 2002)

The Day the Floods Came finds Agatha Raisin investigating the apparent accidental drowning of a bride before her wedding day. Most of the regular gang are on hand except that James Lacey's cottage is now occupied by a new tenant, a mystery writer named John Armitage. Agatha has her eye on him as well but for different reasons. Armitage becomes her main investigating partner for this book.

I'm continuing to enjoy the fun of these cozies which are somewhat different from the TV-series which I saw first. Sir Charles is much more of a recurring character and occasional love interest than he is in the screen adaptation and his cheap and chintzy manners are played up quite a bit. The narration by regular reader Penelope Keith is always excellent in all voices. Keith is as perfect a voice fit for the audiobooks as Ashley Jensen is to the TV role.

Most (28 of 32) of the Agatha Raisin audiobooks are free on Audible Plus. A posthumous Book 32 Down the Hatch is yet to be released, and is expected to be published in October 2021.

Trivia and Link
The Day the Floods Came was adapted as Episode 6 of Series 1 for the currently ongoing Agatha Raisin TV series (2016-). A trailer can be seen on YouTube here. ( )

Alone and unhappy after her divorce from James, Agatha goes on vacation to escape her life. She returns home to find she's let her grooming slip and decides on a make over of sorts. While at the salon she crosses paths with a girl who will become a murder victim and Agatha just can't not investigate a murder. Her new neighbor, John, a mystery writer, is intrigued also and tags along on the investigation. Will Agatha solve the murder? Of course she will! Will she hold on to her newly found self worth and refuse to fall for John?

So much fun! These are always so much fun. ( )