The Witches' Tree

March 17, 2021 - The Witches' Tree (M.C. Beaton). A wealthy spinster is murdered and strung up from a twisted tree in the Cotswolds. A handsome vicar and his beautiful wife discover the body on their way home from a dinner party. Soon, two more bodies turn up. Agatha Raisin takes the case that's almost enough to make her retire from the private detective business.

I don't really know where to start with this. The murders happen early on – the wealthy spinster, a nosy copper, and the wife of the former ambassador who hired Agatha. After that, the plot is a jumbled mess of Agatha alternating between detecting and trying to decide whether she loves or hates her sometime friend, sometime lover, Sir Charles Fraith.

By the end – which includes a lengthy epilogue – Agatha has sussed out who murdered the wealthy spinster and, we assume, the other two victims. I say assume because the dead copper and the ambassador's wife are never mentioned again.

As for Agatha's personal life, it remains pretty much where it has been for the previous 27 books in the series: All over the place. She wants a husband. She doesn't want a husband. She's committed to her PI agency. She may chuck the whole thing and retire. I don't know, and it's getting to the point where I don't care. There are two books left in the series, so I hope she makes up her mind soon.