Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House

So many people have enjoyed and recommended the Agatha Raisin series to me. If my favorite genre is mysteries, then of course I should have read the Agatha Raisin books! After listening to this mantra multiple times, I thought I’d give these books a try and see what was so great about them.

The first book I picked up was Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House. This book is bang in the middle of the series, and not ideal as a start, but this was the only one available in my local library.

What’s the book and series about?

Agatha Raisin is a forty-something divorcée (specifically mentioning her marital status as it plays a big role in this book) living in the Cotswolds. She makes her living as a PR agent, and is also an amateur detective.

From this one book, I gathered that this series is mostly a mish-mash of her romantic adventures, work, local village gossip, and some petty crime.

In short, this series is the type of mystery that is generally called a cozy mystery.

In Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House, Agatha reads about a case of an old woman who is being haunted by a ghost in the local newspaper. The police don’t take it particularly seriously. But Agatha is bored and she decides to use this opportunity to hang out with her hunky neighbor and investigate this haunting. But unfortunately, soon that woman dies mysteriously and a fun light-hearted adventure turns into a murder investigation.

My Review

I like mysteries, but cozy mysteries are not my genre generally. I like my books dark and gritty. So, yes, I didn’t like this book as much as I expected.

But you probably will. If you are ok with books where:

• The personal life of the detective is as or more important than the mystery.
• The detective is pretty dumb. Do you like Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books? Then you might like this less-hilarious, slightly more polished series
• The mystery is a little lightweight where nobody (including you) much cares about the identity of the killer

So, yeah. I didn’t love this book. The mystery was silly, and Agatha Raisin herself somewhat unlikeable. Her romantic fixation with her handsome barely married neighbor was ridiculous. You are either married or not married. And he very clearly informs her that he is married. Agatha Raisin also lies a lot – in a very stupid, always getting caught way – which may be charming in a teenage Nancy Drew type of heroine (even then unlikely), but not on a grown-ass 40+ woman.

Overall, I did not care too much for this book. It had its good parts – loved the whole Cotswolds atmosphere and the gossipy village feel reminded me of the Miss Marple books by Agatha Christie. It was a quick, easy, and somewhat entertaining read. But I didn’t love it enough to continue with the rest of the series. But that’s not because the book is bad. It’s just that it’s not my type.

Do you like the Agatha Raisin series? Are the other books in this series better?