M. C. Beaton. Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam (2000)

     M. C. Beaton. Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam (2000) Beaton is the author of the Hamish McBeth series, so I expected some wit and farce, but this is a perfunctory potboiler. The fairies of the title are mentioned a few times, but have no bearing on the plot, which involves the murder of a wannabe squire by his wife. Agatha has rented a cottage in the Norfolk village of Fryfam to get away from James Lacey, a cold fish of a man with whom she is desperately in love (or lust). Her friend Charles comes down to help her out, but she doesn’t recognise his good qualities compared to James. Nevertheless, the two of them solve the riddle, there is a brief moment of lethal danger, and everything ends more or less happily. The book is clearly part of a series whose connecting thread is Agatha’s love life, but that’s treated as superficially as the crime story. Mildly amusing, if you let your attention wander a bit. Not nearly as good as the Hamish books. ** (2003)