Vicious vet by MC Beaton - book review

Next one in the Agatha Raisin series proved to be everything that were noted from the first book. Not sure if I read it in sequence or not, but the pace of storytelling was bit quicker in this one. Agatha, forever pining for the love of James, keeps chasing him, only for him to reject her advances out right. There is a justification also, as to why he is so shy of committing to a relationship, but why not especially with her hasn’t been answered, in this book at least.

This book goes one up on the count of murders from the previous book that I read. One guy gets killed and the lady who speaks to Agatha about that murder, gets killed as well. Agatha, with bit of support from James, investigates and manages to unravel the killer. She almost gets herself killed and like typical movie plots, the police intervenes at the last moment and saves the day. To sum it up, it’s a crime of passion. There are some investigation scenes as well that are reminiscent of hardy boys and famous five. The way the villain, even though he is the one who ends up killed first, goes about philandering and cheating women, not sure which is the time period the story is set. Sounds more Victorian and projecting the women very naïve and delicate. It’s these mismatching sense of identity, that throws one off track. But other than that, the entire story goes at a lulling pace, with each action scene, fitted within the bouts of “he likes me” “he likes me not” scenes between Agatha and James.

There are constant references to her age, on the right side of fifty and appearance as well. Even though she is the central character, Agatha is often projected as vain and low on confidence about her appearance, forever swooning for other good looking guys and James.