Let me start by saying, I’ve only read one other book by M.C. Beaton, the first in her other series Hamish Macbeth, and found it to be meh. But, she has such a loyal following, and sometimes the first in a series isn’t representative of the whole so…I thought I’d give this latest in her Agatha Raisin series a go. And I’m glad I did because now I know for certain that this author isn’t for me.

Man, I detest writing negative reviews. Usually, I just don’t finish and move it to my DNF shelf. But I felt compelled to give it a fair shake and see it through, and now it feels somehow dishonest to not explain why.

To begin with, the characters are completely unlikeable. Agatha is such a mess it is impossible to find the idea of her being a successful detective even remotely plausible. Perhaps she was more likeable at the beginning of the series and has slowly fallen apart throughout the series, and those who have read from the beginning are not appalled by her terrible behavior and personality because they know her from “back when”. Her employees are mostly ok (that Simon guy though, really?), her “friend” Charles is almost as bad as she is. No, I don’t like the characters one bit.

The story itself seemed less about the actual detective work and more about poor Agatha and her desperation to find a man. And it was choppy. The format of the digital galley may be partly to blame, but only a little. The segues were almost nonexistent. New paragraph with no chapter demarcation and all of a sudden something completely unrelated is going on. The sexual assault plot line was poorly handled and should have been changed to something else. And it feels like in Agatha Raisin’s world, everyone is an arsehole and no one can be trusted. I’m not saying that’s how she feels, I’m saying that is how the world is portrayed. Even her friends are jerks!

I’m afraid I can’t recommend it (unless, of course, you are a huge Agatha Raisin fan, in which case you don’t really need my recommendation anyway, do you?). I wish I had stopped earlier and read something else. But as I said, the upside is, I’ve given both series a go and now I know that M.C. Beaton isn’t my cup of tea.

Agatha Raisin is back! Need I say more? 

Okay, apparently I do. Coming home from an uncomfortable dinner party, vicar Rory Deere and his wife Molly of the village of Sumpton Harcourt discover one of their parishioners hanging from the large and sinister-looking tree in the middle of the town. Called the witches' tree, its dark and spooky image has haunted villagers for years, and now it's become the centerpiece of what the local police are calling a murder. 

While Rory is feeling guilty for letting his parishioner down, his wife is more interested in getting to the bottom of the mystery. And who better to call on at a time like that than private detective Agatha Raisin? A sharp woman with a fondness for strong men and a head for business and finding answers, Agatha has been known to get to the bottom of a murder before, much to the chagrin of the local police. 

It doesn't take long before word gets out that she's on the case, and the threats get too close to home. But that's not enough to dissuade Agatha from finding out what she can from the local villagers, looking into the life of the spinster Margaret Darby and why anyone might want to murder an elderly woman and hang her body from the witches' tree. 

Amid rumors of witchcraft and the eerie atmosphere of the Cotswolds during the raining season, M. C. Beaton's The Witches' Tree is the perfect book to pick up and read in October. Agatha Raisin is captivating, and this is the ideal way to get into that Halloween mood. Very highly recommended for mystery lovers! 

(And then, don't forget to watch the wonderful Agatha Raisin mysteries on Acorn TV as well as on some local PBS stations. It's fantastic, with perfect casting and wonderful performances!)



Galleys for The Witches' Tree were provided by Minotaur Books (St. Martin's Press) through NetGalley.com, with many thanks.

I was disappointed in this book. The mystery was good, but the characters felt different to me. Because of this, I wasn't drawn into to story like I usually am, and I was left feeling a bit unsatisfied.

Agatha finds herself in another dangerous place. After months of lost pets and wandering husbands there is a murder and Agatha is hired to find the guilty party. I love Agatha and always enjoy how she finds a man to obsess over. This time nothing comes of it and the obsession does not last long. However after one murder others occur and Agatha finds herself in danger. Once again Agatha and Charles seem to connect and then disconnect. Small spoiler, Agatha saves Charles from a very bad marriage. A fun addition to the series.

I am a latecomer to the Agatha Raisin series, having discovered them only a few years ago. I was looking for short, undemanding listens and the reviews seemed to fill the bill. I ended up listening to all of the series over time. I often had mixed feelings about them, finding Agatha annoying at times, but entertaining to a greater or lesser degree. The Witches Tree begins with a dreadful dinner party given by the local "wannabe" squire and his flashy wife. The new vicar and his wife, Rory and Molly Devere, can't wait to get home. But their plan is disrupted when they drive by the Witches Tree and see a body hanging from the branches. It's Margaret Darby, an inoffensive elderly spinster and everyone in the odd little Cotswold village of Sumpton Harcourt can't imagine why....or so they say. The Deveres draw Agatha Raisin and her sometimes sidekick, Sir Charles Fraith, into the investigation. Agatha is feeling bored with her usual lost pet and divorce cases, but two more murders and a practicing witches coven add up to almost more than she can handle.

Agatha is a mixture of overconfidence and insecurity, despite great success as a Public Relations executive and now as a PI. She seems to be unable to feel worthy unless she is in a relationship with a man but none of those are ever a success. Her longest relationship has been with Sir Charles, but he is averse to commitment of any kind with the exception of keeping his money pit of an ancestral estate afloat. I admit that I had hopes that he was moving towards realizing how important Agatha is to him, but no such luck. Agatha at least appears to avoid falling for every eligible male she meets in The Witches Tree, which is a welcome development. I do enjoy the sly social commentary that Ms. Beaton injects into all the Agatha Raisin books.

Thanks to St.Martin's Minotaur and NetGalley for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.

RATING- 3 Stars

I am a latecomer to the Agatha Raisin series, having discovered them only a few years ago. I was looking for short, undemanding listens and the reviews seemed to fill the bill. I ended up listening to all of the series over time. I often had mixed feelings about them, finding Agatha annoying at times, but entertaining to a greater or lesser degree. The Witches Tree begins with a dreadful dinner party given by the local "wannabe" squire and his flashy wife. The new vicar and his wife, Rory and Molly Devere, can't wait to get home. But their plan is disrupted when they drive by the Witches Tree and see a body hanging from the branches. It's Margaret Darby, an inoffensive elderly spinster and everyone in the odd little Cotswold village of Sumpton Harcourt can't imagine why....or so they say. The Deveres draw Agatha Raisin and her sometimes sidekick, Sir Charles Fraith, into the investigation. Agatha is feeling bored with her usual lost pet and divorce cases, but two more murders and a practicing witches coven add up to almost more than she can handle.

Agatha is a mixture of overconfidence and insecurity, despite great success as a Public Relations executive and now as a PI. She seems to be unable to feel worthy unless she is in a relationship with a man but none of those are ever a success. Her longest relationship has been with Sir Charles, but he is averse to commitment of any kind with the exception of keeping his money pit of an ancestral estate afloat. I admit that I had hopes that he was moving towards realizing how important Agatha is to him, but no such luck. Agatha at least appears to avoid falling for every eligible male she meets in The Witches Tree, which is a welcome development. I do enjoy the sly social commentary that Ms. Beaton injects into all the Agatha Raisin books.

Thanks to St.Martin's Minotaur and NetGalley for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.

RATING- 3 Stars

I'm a big fan of the Agatha Raisin series. This book had all the the typical ingredients you'd expect in an Agatha Raisin book: friendship, lost love, humor, wacky friends and Agatha's loneliness. After finishing the book, I felt somewhat disappointed. So much of the content was repetitive about Agatha's personal life. The author should consider mixing it up in the next book so that readers don't anticipate the same type of personal stories/outcomes. Not the best book in the series.

Speaking as one who has not been a fan of the Agatha Raisin series I thought I'd give it a try again after watching the hugely entertaining series on Acorn.TV. I am very glad I did. The series is formulaic, to be sure, but the writing is witty and crisp, and the characters are a hoot. Recommended for fans of British cozy mysteries.

Wow! I’ve found a new best friend and it is Agatha Raisin. I know I have come to this series late in its life, but I had no problem reading and thoroughly enjoying this latest addition to the series. I love M. C. Beaton’s books and particularly the Hamish Macbeth series and now this one. I do have to wonder though – does this author not want Hamish and Agatha to have HEA’s. I say that because Hamish seems to go from lady to lady without finding love and the same is apparently true for Agatha.

Agatha is fifty-three years old and has been married twice. To me, she is very depressed, lonely and insecure without a man in her life. I can only assume that is thoroughly explained in earlier books. She’s insecure about her looks and her lovability. She’s also strong, grumpy, sensible, quirky, funny, acerbic, and well – just likable. She is still friends with her last ex-husband – he even lives next door. Agatha also has an interesting relationship with her friend Sir Charles. It would appear that they actually may love each other, but neither of them realizes it or would admit it. I would like to see this relationship grow and come to an HEA for Agatha and Charles because I like both of them. Given the author’s other series though, I wonder if Agatha is destined to remain a lonely old cat lady for the rest of her days.

On a very dark, foggy night the new vicar and his wife are returning home from a very boring dinner party in the next town over. In a quick parting of the fog, their headlights illuminate something hanging from the Witches Tree – it is a body. The police soon determine the victim was murdered – and there are more bodies to come. What a gruesome welcome to the Cotswolds!

Agatha, who has her own private investigation firm, is retained to solve the crime. She’s so happy to do so because she has become very bored and tired of investigating divorce cases, lost cats, etc. This will be a welcome diversion for her.

The book is filled with quirky, interesting characters as most of Beaton’s books are. Everyone has a hidden ‘secret’ and before Agatha is finished, she knows them all. There is a host of suspects and Agatha eliminates them one-by-one and is still baffled – until she finds that one very important question she had forgotten to ask.

Can you believe a coven of witches in a small, beautiful English village in the Cotswolds? Well, there is one and they are a pretty nasty bunch. Agatha is sure they have something to do with the murders, but she isn’t sure what. Are they the murderers or are they just the enablers? You’ll just have to read the book to find out.

I almost didn’t request this book because the description of Agatha Raisin as ‘Agatha Christi like’ just didn’t appeal to me. I decided to request it anyway because I usually like Beaton’s work – and I’m so glad I did. I read the book straight through into the wee hours of the morning because I couldn’t wait to see what Agatha was up to next. I do hope Beaton decides to give Agatha the love she so longs for.

Great read!

“I requested and received this e-book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher.”

Fans of this series will undoubtedly love this new mystery and Agatha adventure. Loved the cover and Agatha is a great character.

I hate to admit it, but I have not only, not see the TV show, but haven't read any books of this series before! But this one sounded quite charming and different, so I thought I'd give it a try. Plus it's Fall season (almost), so a little 'witches' story seemed about right! The mystery and story were interesting, trying to figure out which character from the village could actually be the suspect, and who had the most to hide. But having said that, the characters were a bit 'cartoonish' and admittedly Agatha isn't a heroine that is the most charming. I've read the Hamish McBeth series and liked them, but Agatha is just trying to me. I liked her associates much better, and found her relationship issues to somewhat overtake the story (seriously wanted to just slap her a few times, and tell her to get back to her JOB that she was being paid for and to stop the wallowing). Perhaps it's because this book came late in the series, and 'Agatha' is tired, but I'm not sure this is the best book of the series. It has it's charm, and is a decent read, but Agatha might not be for everyone.

This was a great entry in the Agatha Raisin series. Agatha and the whole gang are all back for another adventure. It seems that, in these later books, Agatha is a bit softer than she was in the beginning, but I'm happy to say she still has a lot of her spunk. Perpetually unlucky in love, Agatha continues to chase after perfect ideals instead of being happy for what she has, but that is something that makes her so unique as a fictional character. She has flaws but remains as endearing as a favorite aunt. Overall, I'm pleased that I have stuck with this series, and I hope to read many more stories about Agatha and her friends. Hopefully, someday she and Charles can live happily ever after!

Didin’t enjoy this book as much as the previous ones. Too many characters were vexed with each other. Story had a lot of diversions that were not explained at the end which was very abrupt. Even with all this confusion and infighting, the book is worthy of a read in order to see if Charles and Agatha relationship develops farther. Will Agatha have the sun shine again for her?

I liked the mystery part of this book, as it reminded me in many ways of the typical Agatha Christie mystery. Small town, lots of characters, lots of dead bodies, etc. The thing I didn't like as well, was the PI Agatha Raisin. She had one guy after another, and fought and got drunk, and whined a lot! Not a very likeable character, and turned me off a bit. However, the mystery part kept my interest, and wanted to see how it ended. Would recommend this book, as the mystery was fun to follow.

Witches, suitors, vicars, gnomes, and murders aplenty. Delightful!

Cute! Nothing earth-shattering but I enjoyed it. Thank you!

Agatha Raisin is at it again. Following a hanging from tree locally infamous as "The Witches' Tree" in a neighboring Cotswold village, Agatha is hired to solve the case.

To those who've been with the series from the beginning, I found this book to be the best in awhile. Over the past few books, I've felt strongly that the changing backstory of a few primary characters (Simon and Charles specifically) was starting to detract from my enjoyment over the series. This time, while both were very present, Beaton left out the details that bothered me.
Additionally, this case truly was solved by Agatha and her agency (she's often accused of bumbling along until she stumbles upon the answer, only to need police rescue for herself as well... definitely not the case in this book).

And one more reason this book got a 5 out of 5 rating from me: Agatha doesn't fall in infatuation in this book. She does date, she does acknowledge that she's happiest when she's in love, but there was no "strong woman becomes blithering idiot" subplot this time.

Characters I wish I'd seen more of: Bill and Alice. Through the last few books, Bill's clearly been distancing himself from Agatha. Hope soon his romance with Alice will grow more and he can resume a more steady role in the books as Agatha's friend.

M.C. Beaton is very adept at developing believable characters, humorous flaws and all. So reading an Agatha Raisin mystery is like visiting old friends in Agatha's Cotswald village. Once again, Agatha uses her keen intuition and professional experience as a former marketing executive and current owner of her private detective agency to discover who has been leaving bodies hanging from a neighboring village's Witches' Tree. This pre-pub NetGalley ebook was another delightful read from Beaton.

A cozy murder mystery, an idyllic village in the lovely Cotswolds, thatched cottages, and legends of a witches' coven swirling around an old oak tree...I couldn't have asked for a more inviting setup! Unfortunately, this charming narrative frame wasn't enough to smooth the choppy edges and afflictions of the book. Would reading the Agatha Raisin's mystery series from the onset help warm up to the leading lady and recurring cast? Maybe...overall, I didn't find in the narrative enough appeal to sustain my interest in future (or backlist) installments. Scene development and flow of events were too bumpy and uneven to keep me focused on the plot, and this is what had me scratch star after star from the my final rating. To quote P.I. Agatha Raisin herself, “the whole case makes me feel as if I’m wading through thick mud.”
Jumping on Agatha Raisin’s band wagon after the mystery novel series has been successfully running for twenty-seven episodes wasn’t probably the best way to enjoy The Witches’ Tree...not enough background story, a huge chunk of the lead character’s arc missing completely, etc. Because I would like you to maximize your reading experience, I’ll bring you up to speed and fill you in on M.C. Beaton’s popular amateur sleuth and humorous mystery novels.


Agatha Raisin is a frustrated, yet endearing , middle-aged public relations agent who moved from London to Carsely in the Cotswolds when she sold her public-relations firm in Mayfair and took an early retirement. She solves murders in each of the earlier books, but in the fifteenth book (Agatha Raisin and The Deadly Dance, 2004) Agatha sets up her own detective agency. The police, and even some of her acquaintances, insist that she solves crimes through accident and luck. Among the permanent cast of characters, police constable and friend Billy Wong; her ex and neighbor, James Lacey; Sir Charles Fraith, Agatha’s on-off boyfriend known for being stingy with his money. In 2014, M.C. Beaton’s mystery series was adapted to the small screen and became a full 8-part tv drama (Sky 1). It aired in the US on PBS (watch a video clip below).


M.C. Beaton is the pseudonym British New York Times bestselling author Marion Chesney reserves for her crime fiction and mystery novels. She is known primarily for the more than one hundred historical romance novels she has published under her own name and under several noms de plume: Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, and Charlotte Ward.

***An e-copy was graciously offered by the Publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.

I've been a big fan of this series for ages and I really had high hopes for this book.
Unfortunately, I was not impressed. The story fell flat, the characters seemed very irritated with each other, and quite honestly, Agatha was on my nerves.
I found myself swiping pages, hoping that it would get better, but it didn't happen.

For some reason this book lacked all the things I've loved about Agatha and I was really disappointed.

I voluntarily read an ARC of this book provided by the publisher and NetGalley.

I am a huge fan of the Agatha Raisin series, eagerly looking forward to each new instalment and I must admit this is one of the best yet, returning to all the charm and wit of the very first books in the series.
I was pleased that the book concentrated more on the mysteries and crimes to be solved and less on Agatha’s romantic crushes and worries about growing old.
M C Beaton writes with a wry eye that can see through much of the fuss and subterfuge of people. She is a keen observer of human nature which she uses to great purpose in creating her characters and in their interactions. This was a really enjoyable read.