Cooking and food are so much a part of many cozy mysteries that culinary cozies are their own subgenre. (Maybe the choice of “Raisin” as a surname for her character was a nod to this by the author, as she deliberately made her a non-cook.) Home cooking is one of the homespun, homebody virtues that Agatha thinks she is going to develop now that she’s retired from city life. Indeed, she bought a collection of cookbooks and has every intention of becoming the best cook in the village – when she can find the time. Meanwhile, she relies for her meals on pub food and, if the pubs are closed, frozen, single-serving entrees heated up in the microwave.
Holier-than-thou home cooks who would consider it beneath them to serve a microwaved entree are just one of many groups of people that the Agatha Raisin books poke fun at. A lack of cooking skills is something Agatha is alternately embarrassed about and doesn’t give a damn about. In addition to eating greasy pub food too often, her other bad habits include smoking, consuming alcohol, casual sex, dessert, swearing, self-aggrandizement, and white lies. The author said in an interview that she had an “ongoing irritation with political correctness.” The character of Agatha Raisin is both irritable and irritating. Finding her endearing requires a real effort of will that at first only the saintly Mrs. Bloxby, wife of the stuffy village vicar, can make.
I just found out that the author Marian Chesney died last month at the age of 83, so it looks like the last Agatha Raisin book might be #30, Beating About the Bush, published in December.
I’m only on #7, Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death, so it will be a while before I have to say goodbye to Agatha Raisin.
The New York Times obituary reports that the idea for the first Agatha Raisin book, Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, came to her when her son’s school requested some of her “home baking” for a fundraiser and she didn’t want to let her son down so she bought a couple of quiches and put them in her own wrapping. I would never have the nerve to pull something like that off, so maybe that’s why I admire the feisty Agatha and the crisp, no punches-pulled writing style of author M.C. Beaton.
In honor of Agatha Raisin, check out the winning recipes of the Great New England Quiche Cookoff. If you’re a talented home bread baker, you may want to look up the details of how to enter this year’s contest: The Great New England Savory Free-Form Bread Competition, sponsored by King Arthur Flour and Red Star® Yeast. (No fair buying a loaf from a bakery or copying a recipe off of the Internet!)
Happy Weekend Cooking!
Linked to Weekend Cooking, a weekly feature on Beth Fish Reads. Click/tap image for Weekend Cooking posts from other bloggers.
I didn’t know Marian Chesney died, she was a prolific writer. It’s been awhile since I read any Agatha Raisin books but I had followed the series for a long time. Agatha is indeed prickly! But isn’t it nice to have a main character who doesn’t sport long legs, have a gorgeous figure and looks like a model?!
That sounds like a really amusing series of books to read! One think I wondered was if the bake sale sold the quiches (that’s the IRL sale) for more than the commercial bakery charged for them. A problem with bake sales is always that the donors might be better off if they contributed the price of ingredients instead of the finished product. But thanks for the book tip!
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
I know, right? That’s why I almost never watch TV shows or movies based on books I’ve read. The actors are never not gorgeous! I didn’t know that Marian Chesney started out writing historical romances. Developing the character of single, self-sufficient Agatha — always unlucky in love — under the pseudonym M.C. Beaton must have been very satisfying after that!
That’s so true! I think bake sales may be a thing of the past now in schools, anyway? Probably much to the relief of many a non-baking parent!
I’ve enjoyed her feisty un-p.c. Agatha character, but have gotten off the wagon recently and will be remedying that. Sad to hear there will be no more.
visiting through Weekend Cooking. I don’t know, I think it depends where you are in relation to how popular bake sales are with schools.
You’re right! And my kids are way past that age now, so I’m out of the loop!