Agatha Raisin and the Witches’ Tree: M.C. Beaton has done it again. My favourite laugh aloud village crime author has, I think, a slightly, but only slightly darker touch in this latest offering, and it’s still wonderful.
Rory and Molly Harris, the new vicar and his gorgeous wife, drive slowly home from a dinner party and see in the gloom a body dangling from the branch of a tree. It is Margaret Darby, an elderly spinster who, despite appearances, hasn’t killed herself. Indeed no, someone else has taken it upon themselves to do the deadly deed. But why? As the bodies mount, witches raise their heads, and disparate characters begin to reveal themselves, Agatha Raisin and her team of private detectives finally arrive at the answer. But not without Aggie, as politically incorrect as ever, almost becoming a victim, and misreading Charles’ feelings for her. Who is Charles? Oh come on, read it and find out. Lovely jubbley.
M.C. Beaton is the author of the Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth series. Both have been turned into TV successes.
Agatha Raisin and the Witches’ Tree by M.C. Beaton. pub Constable. hb £16.99. Also availabe as an eBook
The Prime of Ms Dolly Greene: by E.V. Harte
One hot day Dolly reads the Tarot cards for Nikki, a client. Nikki knows how to share herself about, shall we say, but as Dolly reads the cards she sees a vision of blood, bruises – could it be death? When a body is washed up on the banks of the Thames does she do as Aggie would do, and bustle and thump her way into the crime scene – or not? I do like these less than dark crime novels. Such a relief from the ones you read and have to check the curtains are drawn in case there’s some awful murderer waiting to pounce and do unimaginable things to you. Another to enjoy. Tarot cards, crime, and a warm heart. What’s not to enjoy. (Nifty title too)
The Prime of Ms Dolly Greene: by E.V. Harte. Pub Constable. pb. £8.99. Also available as an eBook/digital audio download.
Different genre but just as much a page turner, one not about to rip your heart out but leave a thoughtful warm glow:
Fanny Blake’s: Our Summer Together.
Is it ever too late to begin again?
Just begin this novel, why don’t you. You will find you are turning the pages late into the night. Warmhearted and amusing Our Summer Together explores how someone can find themselves again, or even for the first time, after a lifetime of being someone’s daughter, mother, grandmother, wife, a progression set in stone, until suddenly ditched by a husband of many years standing.
What are you going to do? Go to bed with a box of tissues and a large helping of woe is me, perhaps a bottle of gin? Probably for a while, but what then?
Read this and see how a meeting with a younger man can help you re-asses, help you find just who you really are.
(If only they grew on trees)
Our Summer Together by Fanny Blake. Pub Orion. pb £7.99 and eBook.
Reviewer Milly Adams is an author with Arrow. Her latest novel is The Waterway Girls. She also writes for Arrow as Margaret Graham