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Something Borrowed Someone Dead
Agatha Raisin Mysteries , Book XXIV
M C Beaton

Constable and Robinson Crime
17 October 2013/ ISBN 9781849019743 / US edition is different
Mystery / Contemporary / Gloucestershire, England

Amazon US || UK

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde

A bored Agatha Raisin is feeling the depression bite as cases dry up to a thin trickle, but a murder in a nearby village gets her interested when the parish councillor hires her to discover whodunit. The victim was well off widow and incomer Gloria French, who liked to borrow things and keep them. Somebody has poisoned the bottle of elderberry wine she stole, and surely it must be a local person who knew she kept her back door unlocked?

Business as usual for our Aggie as the series racks up its twenty-fourth title. As Agatha and her minions investigate the village from hell it makes for the usual entertaining read, but I found myself wishing that there was something more here than just that word again the usual. Ms Beaton knows how to pack a short novel with incident as there is no chance of being bored when reading these books, and anybody who is a fan will enjoy hearing about all the series characters. We could do with a change however and a new one of two, maybe even losing a couple of the existing ones. The earlier titles threw up quite a few surprises in this fashion, but of late this has ceased to happen. Still, for all that an engaging enough read with some laughs and a fine sense of the bizarre.

Reviews of other titles in this series

The Agatha Raisin Companion   [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death   [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet   [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener   [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley   [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage   [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist   [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death   [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham   [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden   [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam   [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell    [review 1 ] [review 2]
Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came   [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Curious Curate   [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House   [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Deadly Dance   [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Perfect Paragon   [review]
Agatha Raisin and Love, Lies and Liquor   [review]
Agatha Raisin and Kissing Christmas Goodbye   [review]
Agatha Raisin and a Spoonful of Poison   [review]
There Goes the Bride     [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body   [review]
Agatha Raisin: As The Pig Turns
  [book] [audio]
Hiss and Hers #23 [review]
Christmas Crumble (Novella) [review]
Something Borrowed Someone Dead #24 [review]
The Blood of an Englishman #25 [review]
Agatha Raisin and the Witches’ Tree #25 [review]


Reviewed 2013
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