As the Pig Turns
(Libby/OverDrive eAudiobook)

Agatha Raisin and her friends attend a bonfire and roast, only to discover that it is not a pig on the spit but parts of a murder victim. Those parts belong to hated policeman Gary Beech, whom Agatha had threatened. When the victim's ex-wife hires Agatha's detective agency to find the killer and then becomes a murder victim herself, the team realizes Beech had far-reaching sinister dealings. Soon enough, Agatha and the other detectives become targets. Tough Agatha is shaken enough to avoid the case and send her team off on holiday, only to have one member threatened in Las Vegas. While there is nothing cozy about Agatha herself, with her meddling ways, acid tongue, and bad choices in men, Beaton proves again her mastery of the genre by weaving in gripping plots among the idiosyncrasies of British small-town life. The series stays fresh and fun even in this twenty-second entry (so does Beaton's other series, starring Scottish village copper Hamish MacBeth).--Alessio, Amy Copyright 2010 Booklist

At the start of Beaton's entertaining 22nd Agatha Raisin mystery (after 2010's Busy Body), Agatha has a run-in with an overzealous policeman, Gary Beech, who tickets her for basically nothing on a clogged road outside her Cotswolds village of Carsely. After Beech tickets her a second time for slightly exceeding the speed limit, Agatha announces in the village store: "I'd like to kill him.... May he roast slowly over a spit in hell!" When Beech turns up dead, his decapitated body substituted for the pig that was supposed to be roasting over a fire as part of a post-Christmas celebration on a neighboring village's green, Agatha falls under suspicion. Meanwhile, she must cope with, among other personal problems, uncertainty about the men in her life, including her ex-husband. That even in a heavy fog those basting the "pig" fail to notice that it's a human being may strike some as less than credible. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

A post-Christmas pig roast goes horribly awry when the "pig" on the spit turns out to be a local policeman. Agatha's agency investigates, of course, in this long-running series (The Skeleton in the Closet). [Library marketing.] (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Agatha Raisin and her friends attend a bonfire and roast, only to discover that it is not a pig on the spit but parts of a murder victim. Those parts belong to hated policeman Gary Beech, whom Agatha had threatened. When the victim's ex-wife hires Agatha's detective agency to find the killer and then becomes a murder victim herself, the team realizes Beech had far-reaching sinister dealings. Soon enough, Agatha and the other detectives become targets. Tough Agatha is shaken enough to avoid the case and send her team off on holiday, only to have one member threatened in Las Vegas. While there is nothing cozy about Agatha herself, with her meddling ways, acid tongue, and bad choices in men, Beaton proves again her mastery of the genre by weaving in gripping plots among the idiosyncrasies of British small-town life. The series stays fresh and fun even in this twenty-second entry (so does Beaton's other series, starring Scottish village copper Hamish MacBeth). Copyright 2011 Booklist Reviews.

A post-Christmas pig roast goes horribly awry when the "pig" on the spit turns out to be a local policeman. Agatha's agency investigates, of course, in this long-running series (The Skeleton in the Closet). [Library marketing.]

At the start of Beaton's entertaining 22nd Agatha Raisin mystery (after 2010's Busy Body), Agatha has a run-in with an overzealous policeman, Gary Beech, who tickets her for basically nothing on a clogged road outside her Cotswolds village of Carsely. After Beech tickets her a second time for slightly exceeding the speed limit, Agatha announces in the village store: "I'd like to kill him.... May he roast slowly over a spit in hell!" When Beech turns up dead, his decapitated body substituted for the pig that was supposed to be roasting over a fire as part of a post-Christmas celebration on a neighboring village's green, Agatha falls under suspicion. Meanwhile, she must cope with, among other personal problems, uncertainty about the men in her life, including her ex-husband. That even in a heavy fog those basting the "pig" fail to notice that it's a human being may strike some as less than credible. (Oct.)