"As the Pig Turns" by M.C. Beaton: Book Review

"As the Pig Turns" by M.C. Beaton
Minotaur, 292 pp., $24.99
Reviewed by David Marshall James


Give Agatha Raisin a coffee (or a brandy) and a cigarette, and she's ready to rule the World.

Or, at least to tell it where to get off, and how.

Nevertheless, the fiftysomething British (multiple) divorcee is as job-qualified to run for U.S. president as some of the current candidates.

Mrs. Raisin-- please, keep the "Aggie" to yourself-- worked her way up from sparse beginnings to found a successful London P.R. firm. Following an early retirement to a picturesque (is there any other kind?) Cotswold village cottage complete with thatched roof, the ever-restless Agatha was soon nosing into nearby mysteries.

From that, she segued from P.R. to P.I., opening an agency in the closest city, Mircester.

Well, lucky in business, not-so-lucky in love. The men in her life realize she's far too driven to settle down into any sort of relationship in which compromise is involved. Domesticity just isn't her thing, either. Agatha would just as soon pitch a "frozen curry" into the microwave, or head over to the local pub-- for lasagne and chips!

Still, she can be fun for an evening, or in otherwise smal doses.

Men-- and women-- best beware, or she'll run their lives, as her attractive young assistant at the detections agency, Toni Gilmour, has come to discover in aces, deuces, and spades. Indeed, Toni's had it, and is looking at other agencies.

Thing is, Agatha can be intrusive, can be controlling, and can be manipulative. However, she's more often than not spot-on in her judgments.

This latest Agatha Raisin mystery-- they now run to more than twenty volumes-- by British author (born in Scotland) M.C. Beaton immerses the titular figure in plenty of hot water, as the gruesome murder of an abrasively corrupt cop entangles her (and all her employees and close associates) in an ongoing web of criminal activities.

Trouble is, Agatha always appears to be behind the latest crime in that web; therefore, the police are sniffing about her more than she is around them, for quite a change.

Yet, never fret: This lively story is played for fun whenever possible, largely owing to the foibles and follies of Mrs. Raisin.

Let's let her have the last words: At a fancy hotel banquet, she tells a woman named "Fairy" that she ought to have been named "Troll." To which Fairy replies, "Why, you b---- !"

"Yes, that's me," Agatha responds. "Pass the wine."

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