Published: 16th September 2014 (print)/11 February 2016 (audio) 
Publisher: Minotaur Books /Audible
Pages: 294/6 hrs and 18 mins
Narrator: Penelope Keith
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Cosy Mystery
★ ★ – 2 Stars
Even though Agatha Raisin loathes amateur dramatics, her friend Mrs. Bloxby, the vicar’s wife, has persuaded her to support the local pantomime. Stifling a yawn at the production of “Babes in the Woods,” Agatha watches the baker playing an ogre strut and threaten on the stage, until a trapdoor opens and the Ogre disappears in an impressive puff of smoke. Only he doesn’t re-appear at final curtain.
Surely this isn’t the way the scene was rehearsed? When it turns out the popular baker has been murdered, Agatha puts her team of private detectives on the case. They soon discover more feuds and temperamental behaviour in amateur theatrics than in a professional stage show—and face more and more danger as the team gets too close to the killer.
You can really start to see a lack of care in these stories. New characters that can be introduced and removed in one book, no need for backstory or cementing into the established world, simply in and out and on to the next thing. I had to reread this story because I couldn’t recall much of what happens and having reread it I can attest that is because nothing actually happens. It’s a boring story, nothing is memorable and the investigation is filled with a lot of nothing that can’t keep your attention. The plot seems to be random scenes pieced together that have the thinnest connecting thread if any.
Clearly Beaton has given up the complex community of earlier books and now focuses on these extra characters but none of them have any depth. Most pop in an out in one book and they are as shallow and ludicrous as each other. The only characters that keep being included are the detective staff, though less so in this story, and Charles. Beaton includes familiar characters as a reminder that they still exist but they serve no real purpose to the story. James is barely mentioned, Mrs Bloxby has a few scenes but it feels more like a reminder that other people live in this village than actually contribute to the story.
The descriptions are repetitions of the same ones trotted out book after book. Honestly if I hear one more time about Agatha and her long legs and glossy hair I think I might just scream. I have no other image of this woman except long legs and glossy hair. I think somewhere a few books back there might have been a mention of “frumpy” in her lesser moments but what does that even mean? Beaton seems to have found her descriptors and refused to budge. No matter how much time has passed these are the facts of these characters and nothing else will be said of them. Small, bear-like eyes, long legs, glossy hair. Not to mention twenty five books in and Agatha is still in her early fifties.
Beaton’s opinions are out in force again about the state of society as well as whatever the current issues are at time of writing making casual comments about sexual assault and paedophilia, much like the earlier books she jumps to reducing serious issues to crass comments by characters. The mystery almost didn’t matter as a lot of time was focused on Agatha and her “unfortunate obsessions” as they’re called (of which there are many this time around) where she lusts after the latest attractive man she comes across. You’d also think a book that had such a gruesome death would be more interesting but I’ve expected too much.
Moving away from the set cast of characters is a hindrance because there isn’t a lot to keep your attention. New people who haven’t been well developed don’t hold your interest if you aren’t going to include well known characters that can tie things together. It’s another book following the usual formula with the addition of having random scenes added in that serve little to no purpose. It’s a shame Penelope Keith had to keep reading these if I’m honest.
You can purchase The Blood of an Englishman via the following
Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible
Incomer Gloria French is at first welcomed in the Cotswold village of Piddlebury. She seems like a do-gooder par excellence, raising funds for the church and caring for the elderly. But she has a bad habit of borrowing things and not giving them back, so when she is discovered dead, folk in the village don’t mourn her passing too much.
Agatha has fallen in love – again. This time it’s the local gardener, George Marston, she has her eye on. But competition for his attention abounds. With her shameless determination Agatha will do anything to get her man – including footing the bill for a charity ball in town just for the chance to dance with him. 
Winter Parva, a traditional Cotswolds village, has decided to throw a celebratory hog roast to mark the beginning of the winter holiday festivities and Agatha Raisin has arrived with friend and rival in the sleuthing business, Toni, to enjoy the merriment. But as the spit pig is carried towards the bed of fiery charcoal Agatha–and the rest of the village–realize that things aren’t as they seem.
Agatha Raisin has always been ambivalent about holiday cheer, but her cosy little village of Carsely has long prided itself on its Christmas festivities. But this year Mr. John Sunday, a self important officer with the Health and Safety Board, has ruled that the traditional tree on top of the church is a public menace; that lampposts are unsafe for hanging illuminations; that May Dimwoody’s homemade toys are dangerous for children.
Lost in a Good Book 