Devil’s Delight, an Agatha Raisin mystery, was written by R.W. Green using the characters of M.C. Beaton. This mystery starts with detective Agatha and her protege Toni driving to a friend’s wedding and being stopped by an entirely naked man running out into the road. This young man says he has found a body and could they come and take a look.
No sooner do they get there though and the body is gone. A man with a bashed head is no longer where he had been. So where has the body gone? And why are Agatha and Toni the only people who believe Edward when he says he found a corpse?
And so we find ourselves joining Agatha and Toni as they try to suss out the members of the naturist society. With demons and handmaidens is this just a pastime for the residents of this quiet village or something more? Toni joins the group as Edward’s girlfriend to find out.
The further we get into the plot the more references appear to ice cream men and a rivalry between them. Could this really be about who can sell the most ice creams?
It wouldn’t be an Agatha Raisin story without a bit of man trouble. Agatha has plenty to choose from this time. An early fight with ex husband James sends him packing and Charles doesn’t seem to be saying anything right anymore. So out with the old and in with the new. The attractive leader of the naturist society who is keen for Agatha to join the group, handsome policeman John who Agatha dances with at the wedding and Giovanni the attractive Italian sending hearts fluttering at the local choir group. Who will snap Agatha up? She appears to be more appealing than ever.
There’s a lot going on in this book. It takes a while even to get to the ice cream connection so I did spend some time wondering why there was an ice cream van on the cover on a book about a naturist society. But rest assured it does get to that eventually. And to the devil’s delight.
The end section of the book was very exciting. I read the last hundred pages in one sitting as I just couldn’t put it down. There was so much peril and danger that I had to know what was going to happen to everybody. A really thrilling read.
As ever this is part of a series of Agatha Raisin books (book 33 specifically) so it’s probably best to start at the beginning with Quiche of Death. Once you’ve got the hang of the central characters, who they are and how they interact it’s easy to jump about across the books. I haven’t read them in the correct order. It’s been a case of what copies they had in the library and when. They are easy to dip into out of sequence and there is often a handy introduction at the beginning to provide a brief setup of who is who that is very helpful.
I’m still enjoying these stories even though M.C. Beaton is sadly no longer with us to write these herself. R.W. Green has really captured who Agatha is and the characters still appear to be true to form to me. They are well worth continuing with. An enjoyable and exciting read. It does leave you wanting an ice cream though…
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