Book Review: Something Borrowed, Someone Dead by M.C. Beaton

Today Kerry Hammond reviews M.C. Beaton's Something Borrowed, Someone Dead.

Something Borrowed, Someone Dead by M.C. Beaton is the 24^th book in the Agatha Raisin mystery series set in the village of Carsely in the English Cotswolds (available September 17, 2013).

There’s something about a newM.C. Beaton mystery that reminds me of opening a festively wrapped  Christmas gift.  Both bring a big smile to my face and a little twinge of excitement because I don’t yet know what’s inside. Beaton (whose real name is Marion McChesney) is a very prolific writer, who has several series written under several pen names, in both the mystery and romance genres. It’s no surprise to me that the Agatha Raisin books are one her longest running series. They contain great characters, a picturesque setting, and a murder or two in each installment.

In Something Borrowed, Someone Dead, Agatha Raisin is her usual cranky and insecure self. Business is slow due to the recessio,n and she finds herself without much to work on. She sees a newspaper article about a murder in the small village of Piddlebury, and the bored part of her wants to investigate, but the businesswoman in her realizes she can’t take on an unpaid case. Her business sense wins out and she puts the murder out of her mind.

[But that kind of self-control can't last, can it?] 

This review originally appeared on Criminal Element.