Agatha's First Case
An Agatha Raisin Short Story
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3.7 • 133 Ratings
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- $0.99
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- $0.99
Publisher Description
At age twenty six, Agatha Raisin has already come a long way. She has clawed her way up since leaving the Birmingham slum where she was born. She's lost her Birmingham accent, run away from her drunken husband, and found a job at a public relations office as a secretary. Then her boss asks Agatha to go to the home of Brian Devese to tell him that he is soon going to be arrested for the murder of his wife and that the agency no longer wants to represent him.
Brian, impressed with the pugnacious Agatha, asks her to handle PR for him and even offers her an office and tells her she can hire a staff. Certainly the best thing Agatha can do for her first client is to find out who really murdered his wife and clear his name. And with her wits and gumption, Agatha sets out to do just that.
New York Times bestseller M. C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin is beloved by millions and this brand new short story take us back to where it all began with Agatha's first case.
Customer Reviews
Earns 5/5 Clever Quickies…Entertaining!
Agatha’s First Case—Twenty-plus years ago, before her stellar career in public relations, before her early retirement and move to the Cotswolds, and well before her making a name for herself as a amateur snoop and opening Raisin Investigations, twenty-six-year-old Agatha tried hard to rid herself of any stench of the Birmingham slums and distance herself from her dysfunctional parents and a disastrous marriage by working as a secretary for the head of Butterfrick Public Relations, Jill Butterfrick, a woman whose success unfortunately came mostly from connections not competence. She had interviewed elsewhere, but after one meeting, she overheard it was her appearance that just didn’t fit. Agatha vowed to show them! Her chance came in the image of Sir Bryce Teller who was going to be arrested for his wife Nigella’s murder. Jill considered the firm’s reputation to be more important than one of her daddy’s friends, so she sent Agatha to inform Sir Bryce the firm would not be representing him in this matter. Agatha had a different approach which led to quitting her job and accepting Sir Bryce’s offer to fund her own PR firm. She worked tirelessly and surprisingly well to switch the public focus from the husband casting doubt on his involvement, but providing better press and casting dispersions on the police investigation wasn’t enough. Who really murdered Nigella?
“Agatha’s First Case” can be described as an appetizer, an amuse bouche, leading to a fulfilling banquet of Agatha Raisin mysteries. M.C. Beaton’s descriptive narrative and fun banter offered a clever mystery Agatha vowed to solve with a signature perilous conclusion and surprise arrest. Its insights into Agatha’s motivations and eventful beginnings along with glimpses of the ability to manipulate the press, an unbridled curiosity, and her first introduction to the very young and future friend Roy Silver made for an entertaining quickie. But, “Please, sir, I want(ed) more!” There was room to add a little more to explain some of her characteristics later to be the real Agatha, but I still enjoyed this short. This file was updated to include a sneak peek of the first three chapters of “Pushing Up Daisies” (2016).
Excellent
I really enjoy short mysteries.