Dead on Target is the latest in the series of Agatha Raisin novels first written by M.C. Beaton and now continued by her friend R.W. Green after her recent death.
Agatha finds a man in the woods with his trousers round his ankles and an arrow sticking out of his chest. Unfortunately for her he had just approached her about hiring her detective agency to look into a problem for him, without giving her the details of what he wanted investigating. As such her old rival Inspector Wilkes will do everything he can to try to get her convicted of the murder. Or at least he will when he accepts it wasn’t an unlucky accident.
Those of you who have read the Agatha Raisin books before will know that Wilkes does not represent the intelligent face of modern policing. He’s arrogant, rude and has it in for Agatha since she has shown him up too many times before with her excellent detective work. She does however have the support of her good friend and policeman Bill Wong and her new man John Glass, also a policeman.
The book starts off lightly with some comedy as we find out that Agatha’s new love interest John is a morris dancer. He’s in attendance at the community fair dressed in his dancing clothes with bells on his legs and dancing around with sticks. Agatha also almost manages to almost shoot a Labrador puppy with an arrow during an archery demonstration and it is with the puppy that she will later find the body.
There are as ever a range of interesting suspects to choose from and back stories to discover. Genuine peril hits the village part way through with an accident happening to a regular member of the characters from the village and another visiting old favourite also gets themself into a nasty scrape. It’s quite an emotional outing for Agatha this one.
The subplot of the men in Agatha’s life rolls on as she thinks through how she feels about all of them. James, Charles and John. Who will turn out to be the one who captures Agatha’s heart?
Whilst M.C. Beaton may sadly have left us, she did leave Agatha in good hands. Green does a wonderful job of being true to Beaton’s vision of the characters. There’s the occasional moment that doesn’t feel quite right but he has captured the essence of the characters as they were and keeps providing us with their unique charm.
Another good instalment in the Agatha Raisin series. An enjoyable read set in the picturesque villages of the Cotswolds with the excitement of a murderer to track down, a gangster to thwart and Agatha’s reputation to save.
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