An Agatha Raisin Short Story (Agatha Raisin Mysteries)

This short Agatha Raisin mystery was a fun read for the holidays in true Agatha style. I like that she never changes making you say to yourself, "Oh, Agatha!" She's still a charmer and showed some of her often times hidden benevolent side which was nice for Christmas time. An enjoyable read.

Good ole Agatha. Poor ole Agatha. She's gone and done it this time and she was genuinely trying to do good during this Christmas season.
"There are a lot of crumblies in this village. I mean sometimes the Cotswolds feel like God's waiting room. Come in, number five, says a voice from the heavens. Your number's up. I'll give them a slap-up Christmas dinner." A follower of the Agatha Raisin series knows, just KNOWS, after reading this, that events will spiral downhill for Agatha. Isn't that why we love her?! A must read for the Christmas season, if no other time.

i like agatha raisin as i'm even older than her and understand her
very well.....she's fun, vain, childish and has good legs. what more
could you ask for? I thought it was a short story and didn't mind
really as its holiday time and i don't have time for a long long book.

I love MC Beaton and have read and thoroughly enjoyed practically all her books. However, this one was a disappointment. I was just getting in to it and thinking what a good read it was when the story ended. I knew that it was a novella because I had read the previous reviews but even so I wasn't prepared for it to finish so abruptly and so unsatisfactorily. I thought my ereader had made a mistake and I was frantically searching for more pages. This story would do well in a book of short stories but shouldn't stand on its own as a Christmas book. Please write another Christmas story next year Ms. Beaton but please make it longer!!!

Christmas Crumble - another Agatha Raisin adventure!!!! The characters were very believeable. This book is a hoot!!
Agatha always gets into the funniest predicaments. I actually couldn't put the story to rest until I finished it.

Love M. C. Beaton books. Her characters are ones I can relate to. Just average people with quirks and foibles but still likeable. Light entertainment plus I enjoy books with the British Isles as the setting. Enjoy reading about life in a small English village. Fun escape reading.

Loved this little Agatha Raisin vignette. I only wish it was longer...can never have enough Agatha! Beaton has an endless assortment of village characters she brings to life in this series, in this book, she has a cast of 'cast-offs' that Agatha takes in, with disasterous results. However, as it is a Christmas fable, there is a happy ending.

A short story that captures the essence of Agatha Raisin and the main people around her. If you're not familiar with her character, this might be a good place to get a 'taste' of the full-length stories.

I have not found an M C Beaton book that I didn't like. However, this one had a too abrupt ending and left me hanging. I would hope that she would continue the story--I was just getting into it--and it stopped.

i enjoy M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raison and Hamish MacBeth very much, but this was disappointing, I know these Christmas stories are just that, but somehow I expected a little more, and didn't get it. I would not buy one of these Christmas tales again.l

I tried three times and never could get the entire book to download to my kindle. I only received about a fourth of the book. I was unable to get this book from my library so I guess I will never know what happened. That is a shame as I have read every one of the books in this series and loved them.

I needed a quick A.Raisin "fix" and bought this book....it was like a draft of a book that never made it past revision 2. It was OK..but only just so. It was very repetitive and Agatha seemed a bit "off".

Another cozy mystery with Agatha Raisin, my favorite sleuth. A great fun read and most recommended. She will forever have me rolling my eyes and groaning and chuckling. A terrific "series" not to be missed.

I needed a quick A.Raisin "fix" and bought this book....it was like a draft of a book that never made it past revision 2. It was OK..but only just so. It was very repetitive and Agatha seemed a bit "off".

Another cozy mystery with Agatha Raisin, my favorite sleuth. A great fun read and most recommended. She will forever have me rolling my eyes and groaning and chuckling. A terrific "series" not to be missed.

This short story can be read in one sitting and yet reads like a full book. The characters aren't fully developed because of the length of the story yet you get enough of each one and Agatha is so Agatha. Might be a good choice for an airplane flight.

M C Beaton can always be depended on to come up with an entertaining story. Agatha Raisin is fun. The poor soul seems like she's an old friend. Beaton's descriptions of the weather and surroundings are the best and play a big part in making the cozy mystery the coziest.

Love M. C. Beaton. CC was like a tiny present. All the things i enjoy about Mrs Raisen were there. Her grand dreams and great falls. Agatha's old crumblies were all hiding their truer nature, with Agatha paying the price for her grand Christmas Dinner. Thank you for thinking of the Fire reader.

It was good till it lasted with an intersting premise which sadly wasnt developed. It felt like an interesting idea which for sone reason wasnt developed further and was wrapped into a novella format for a quick holiday reading. Not among her better work.

This is not a full length novel it is a novella, so if you only like reading novel length stories then you will need to steer clear of this one. That said I found it an enjoyable read and it would be ideal for reading after Christmas dinner - I decided not to wait that long before reading it.

Agatha is wondering what to do at Christmas and decides while talking to Mrs Bloxby to invite six elderly people for Christmas lunch. So far so good but regular readers of this series will immediately hear alarm bells ringing when they realise that Agatha is going to make the Christmas Pudding herself.

I liked the portraits of the six elderly but quite different guests, they are an interesting collection. The dinner itself is amusing and the unexpected death - of course there has to be one - is well done. If you want an amusing story to relax with at any time then try this - it takes about an hour to read.

I just finished reading my first Agatha Raisin book, Quiche of Death. Agatha was not likeable. She was rude and short tempered.
At the end of the book there was what I thought was an excerpt from the next book in the series. After reading a couple of things that hadn't(to me)happened yet, I went back to the beginning and realized that this was a new story following the last 20 Agatha Raisin books.

Soooooooo, in 20 books she still doesn't know how to cook, yet tries to make a complicated dish with a lot of ingredients. She is obviously an intelligent professional, but cooks like an idiot.

SPOILER* When she has to put the dish in a cool place, she puts it in the garden shed, where it gets flies on it. Then she sprays it with insecticide to kill the flies(I'm assuming she only sprayed the outside of the bowl it was in.......but still gross!!!!!

Then she lies to the police about what happened to the elderly dead man. I like my main character to be honest and above board.
I won't read another.

All I can say about Agatha is she has got to be the most dysfunctional cook in the world. She really makes you laugh at her concoctions. This year Agatha is attempting to serve a holiday dinner to some local elderly people. Most of the people learn through the night to appreciate what she did for this holiday except for two people one is Len Leech who seems to think Agatha has the hots for him, boy is he far off in that assumption the other is Freda Pinch who has it out for Agatha from the beginning of the book til the bittersweet end.

When Len makes one pass to many Agatha dumps her concoction of pudding and other things in it on Len's head and he winds up taking the swan dive, Agatha finds herself in deep trouble and can't seem to shake what is going on with Freda Pinch who takes it upon herself to damand that Agatha is guilty, and when that fails she decides to sue Agatha.

The really mysterious part was after Agatha was declared not guilty by the police and Freda sues Agatha, Agatha goes to see the women to find something else going on and Agatha's spinning mind won't quit til she solves the mystery.

The only thing I disliked, like most people that the book was too short. Ended before it began, I was glad to find a quick introduction to Agatha and can't wait to read more of her books!

This short story was included after the book The Walkers of Dembley. I really like the Agatha Raisin books but was disappointed with this short story. For one thing, it had spoilers about what happened in other books that I have not yet read. I don't understand why the publisher would include this after this book. Now I sort of already know what happens before even reading the next book in the series. This story should have been placed with a book much later in the series. I didn't realize that until I was into the short story. Also, maybe because it is a short story, it didn't seem up to the previous standard of Agatha Raisin books. That could be because of not enough time to develop a great plot. I will read the next book in the series but am disappointed because I already know what happens between her and James. Enough said.

i love all these book, i have most now either paperback ebook or audio, all give me great joy, a must read from start to finish Agatha has grown into a lovable person throughout the books, highly recommended, "it enveloped his head" a great line made perfect when read by Penelope Keith...

I love agatha raisin and was very disappointed in the length of this story. So just because it was 99 cents means i only get 99 cents worth of a story. Like an agatha raisin promo gone bad....or is it good...because they did get my money.

Fun read! As are all the Beaton books. Filled with lovely recipes, which actually are quite good! Light hearted mystery, quick read but characters you will remember. I have read the majority of Beaton's books and have enjoyed each and every one. Plus, there's always the recipes!!

Not as happy with this book as I am with the rest of the series. This felt as though it was written by someone else. It seemed forced. I am a big fan of the agatha raisin series and this was disappointing. However, it will not stop me from continuing the series

I am a great fan of M.C. Beaton but this book was a disappointment. It was short both in length and in plot development. Character development was shallow. Possibly because the book was so short it was hard to remember who was who as none of the characters were fleshed out adequately.

M.C. Beaton has done it again with Agatha Raisen diving into another Christmas and Carslie murders. Hysterically funny and down to earth how she ends up with all kinds of problems. The creation of Agatha Raisen is wonderfully portrayed in this book and I cherish every adventure and look foward to everyone.