On the HahaFiction shelf

The Quiche of Death

by M.C. Beaton

Agatha Raisin Mysteries · Book 1 · 1992

Agatha Raisin has retired from running a London PR firm to a cottage in Carsely. She wants the village to welcome her, and a baking contest seems a useful way in. She buys a quiche and enters it as her own. When the judge dies after eating it, Agatha has a reputation to rescue and a death to investigate.

Mystery Amateur sleuth Cozy mystery Situational comedy

From the author’s blurb

“Agatha has never baked a thing in her life!”

Read the full description at M.C. Beaton author website synopsis

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What makes it funny?

The woman who built a successful business can't cook the dish meant to win over her neighbors. Her shortcut leaves her trying to save face over a poisoned quiche. Readers in book groups single out Agatha's personal failings and the scrapes they cause; one reader specifically praises this opening mystery for its humor.

The comedy at work

Agatha approaches village approval as something she can arrange, then discovers how little control she has over her neighbors' opinions. Her need to impress them keeps interfering with the competence she brought from her working life.

Try this if…

For readers who like village mysteries with an abrasive amateur sleuth and plenty of social embarrassment. Agatha's difficulties settling in receive as much attention as the crime at times, according to Publishers Weekly.

Good to know

Readers recommend beginning the series here. Some readers of later volumes grow impatient with Agatha or find her annoying, so her difficult personality is part of the appeal to weigh before continuing.