Devil's Delight is the the 33rd title in the ever popular Agatha Raisin cozy mystery series. After the death of the author, M.C. Beaton, R.W. Green has stepped in to continue the series. I feel that Green has the tone and characters correct of the series but manages to move forward Agatha and her ways. She is becoming a more well rounded person and finally not being so boy crazy. My one criticism, is Agatha's obsession with her weight and the derogatory way she talks of other people's weight. In today's time, we do not need to criticize someone based on their size. It is fine to criticize their behavior but it's another thing to make fun of their weight. Taking it as for as calling Bill's mom as having a dress big enough to be a marquee tent - that's digusting and insulting to readers.

Most of my encounters with Agatha Raison have been via British TV. Portrayed as a very sleek, well dressed woman with a trademark blonde hairstyle her depiction as a rather petulant, impatient and snarky character in this book came as a surprise. There are naked people walking to and fro, amidst a murder or two and a few other crimes for the team at Raisin Investigations to solve.

Murder, a theft, another murder, getting naked, having an affair or two, another murder, you see how this is going. Not a bad story, not a great one either. As Agatha is wont to say at every turn
“Snakes and bastards” and they abound in this book.

Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for a copy.

I’m an admirer of the fiction of the late M.C. Beaton, and was an early fan of her wonderful Hamish Macbeth series. I was unfamiliar with the back catalog of Ms. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin novels, and this continuation of the series by writer R.W. Green is not a promising place to start. The back story seems to involve the protagonist as a short-tempered middle-aged businesswoman operating a detective agency in the Cotswolds. The premise might conceivably work, but this novel doesn’t. The characters are one-dimensional enablers or adversaries of La Raisin, the situations are unlikely but not to the extent of being amusing, the plot is sketchy, and the dialogue induces drowsiness. I can’t say that this is consistent with the standard set by Beaton, but I somehow doubt it. I don’t think this installment will win over any new readers, and I have some difficulty imagining for whom the series is intended. There isn’t enough sense of place in these pages to appeal to regular Cotswold visitors, and the protagonist is a problem. There is something, perhaps intended, of Mrs. Thatcher in Agatha Raisin, and that could repel a wide selection of readers: most, I might guess. I thank NetGalley.com for the opportunity to review an advance copy of this book.

I’ve been a huge fan of this series but now that M.C. Beaton is not writing them anymore they’ve kind of lost their way some what. They’re kind of getting a little too out there, even for Agatha Raisin! And that’s saying something!
Agatha band Toni are in their way to their friend Bill’s wedding when a naked man comes stumbling out in front of their car. When they stop to help him, he explains that he’s found a dead man in the woods. While the police are called, the man leads Agatha to an ancient stone altar called the Lone Warrior, and when they get there the body is gone and all that is left is a small wet patch- the only proof that the body was even there. Chief Wilkes is infuriated that Agatha is once again in the middle of his investigation, which happens to be taking place at the local naturist club, which they have to join undercover in order to try and solve the murder.
There’s a lot going on in the story and lots of characters to keep up with but it was missing it’s classic Agatha wit and humor for me.
Thanks to Minotaur and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

Devil's Delight Earns 5+/5 Scoops of Ice Cream…Brilliantly Clever; Top Notch!

Raisin Investigations is busy with a few undercover activities: one at a brewery complaining about a rash of thefts, another at a sixth form college that may have a drug problem, and the last, a bit embarrassing is at a naturist society. Edward Carstairs found a dead body positioned on an ancient stone, but when Agatha and her associate go to investigate, it’s gone. No body and no evidence one had ever been there. Oh, how Agatha loves a mystery! It gets more complicated when later a body is discovered with a connection to the Mircester Naturist Society, followed by a stalker, several threats, a car accident, and … ice cream! Could there be a “cover-up” among these “nudies”? Is frozen dessert really a cutthroat business? St. Jude may be the patron Saint of difficult cases, but Agatha is the one that solves them.

Be not leery, although this is the thirty-third Agatha Raisin mystery, it is the third book for R.W. Green who continues to stay true to M.C. Beaton’s original vision of her fashionista title character. The caseloads offers a creative murder mystery, clever details, quirky characters, and a potential for perilous predicament. Agatha’s theories about the murder slowly point to the perp, but the excitement is in “how” the perpetrators are exposed and arrested. Google-worthy elements are added about the Rollright stones, Whispering Knights, the King Stone, and the Lone Warrior, the Italian opera Cavalleria Rusticana, and even unique ice cream flavors…chili peppers? Green’s writing style is definitely entertaining with the descriptive narrative, clever quips, snarky responses, and continued conflicts with DI Wilkes you expect to see. Agatha persists with her pondering relationships of all kinds from close friends to employees, but mostly her thoughts focus on romance, love, and marriage with three varying candidates all with their own pros and cons; no resolution, but with its status quo comes a possible answer. Despite fans of the television show seeing many differences in the book from age to ethnicity to personality and some characters only found in one or the other, it is unique, must read!

I really enjoyed this book in the Agatha Raisin series. I hadn't read one in a while but fell right back into it and had a really good time. The scenes with Agatha as a naturist and accidentally revealing herself to a neighbour made me laugh out loud. I am truly amazed by R.W. Green's channelling of M.C. Beaton's voice in the writing style. I feel that it is spot on, and that can be hard to achieve particularly for a series that has lasted as long as this one has. It is obvious that M.C. Beaton put a great deal of careful thought into choosing the author who would help to carry on the series.

Typically I listen to the Agatha Raisin stories on audiobook, so this is the first one that I've actually read and it seemed to lack a little something I'd come to know and expect from this character. But I can't quite put my finger on it, and don't know whether it's simply something that the narrator lent to the stories or the fact that M.C. Beaton is no longer writing the series.

Either way, I'm grateful that R.W. Green is continuing the stories. Agatha is such a character and it's fun to read a female curmudgeon.

The storyline was engaging and fun. I can't recall ever reading a mystery novel that takes place in a nudest camp before. So that was a unique angle.

I look forward to the next story in the series!

Thank you to R.W. Green, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advance review copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this novel. I encourage you to check this one out! Really solid read.

In this, the 33rd of the series, we join Agatha and Toni and all I could think of - a funny thing happened on the way to the wedding. Funny as in bizarre. Driving along, thinking about the wedding and a naked man comes running down the road. When questioned he claims he has found a dead man at the nudist camp - hence his lack of garments. After the wedding, finding out that the body has vanished, Agatha takes the case.
Along with her investigation which includes spending time at the nudist camp (I'm not going to give any spoilers) Agatha has to deal with her love life or lack thereof; her ex, James. Poor Agatha. Her life is more than a bit complicated. It's what long time readers of this quirky series have come to expect. Each entry is a well written puzzle to solve with a great variety of well developed characters. I'm so glad that R.W. Green has carried on the series and I'm looking forward to #34.
My thanks to the publisher Minotaur and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was a struggle for me from the beginning. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters. The main character Aggie seems a little flighty to me. Her indecision about the men in her life made her look self absorbed. There was more emphasis on Aggie than the mystery. It just wasn’t for me.

Private investigator Agatha Raisin and her assistant Toni were traveling to a wedding when they were interrupted by a man running in the middle of the road. But it wasn’t just any man. It was a naked man. When they stopped and talked to him, they found out why he had been running and why he had been naked.

Edward Carstairs is a member of the Mircester Naturist Society, and he was getting their meeting place ready for their barbecue. That was when he saw the man with his head bashed in sitting on the Lone Warrior stone. When Agatha and Toni take him back to the where he had seen the body, they see nothing on the 3 foot by 6 foot stone. But Agatha believes him anyway. She thinks that he had seen a body and that someone had since moved it.

But in the time it took Agatha and Toni to check out the stone and head back to their car, there were several other society members milling about. In other words, they were surrounded by nudists. And Agatha is determined to get to the bottom of it. Of the missing man, that is. Her detective agency has several other cases going as well. There is a brewery where things are going missing, and there is a posh girls’ boarding school where one of the students has been caught with drugs. But Agatha dispatches her investigators on those while she focuses on the missing body.

Although that doesn’t stop her from also looking into the handsome Italian choir director who is in town helping the local church choir.

But the more she learns about some of the members of the Mircester Naturist Society, the more suspects she comes up with. There is the enigmatic Jasper, who plays the master of ceremonies for a fantasy game about angels and demons. There are the two sisters who Jasper claims as handmaidens. There is the young man who found the body, Edward, who has taken a shine to Toni. And when the police find the body and Agatha figures out who it is, then she finds more connections both in the society and outside of it. Her list keeps getting longer.

In the meantime, Agatha flirts with neighbor and ex James. She asks Charles to help her learn more about the society and about the stone that Edward had found the body on, one of the Rollright Stones, as it turns out, ancient stones that were part of local lore and stood guard over an ancient burial ground. She flirts with one of the local police officers. She accidentally-on-purpose bumps into Jasper again, to learn more about the society. And she finds time to have dinner with the handsome Italian choir director.

And little by little, she learns enough to figure out who the killer is. But not before one of her staff is endangered by one of the suspects and another one ends up in jail. Will Agatha be able to solve the case before she loses one of her own, or even her own life?

Devil’s Delight is book 33 in the beloved Agatha Raisin series. Originally created by M.C. Beaton, these books can go on after her death because she hand-picked the writer to continue Agatha’s stories, R.W. Green, and left behind her notes for some future books. Devil’s Delight continues the series with this charming story filled with surprises, hints of romance, and more than a few naked people.

I have long been a fan of the Agatha Raisin books, and I thought this was another fun installment of the series. It may not have as much substance as some of the other Agatha Raisin books, but I thought the nudist story line was a lovely diversion, and the setting of the Rollright Stones added a lot of texture and atmosphere along with a history lesson. I did struggle a bit with Agatha’s obsession with her looks. I know that it’s on brand for her, but it seemed pervasive in this book. Agatha is more than just the way she looks, and I would have liked a little more balance in her self-assessments.

That being said, I really enjoyed Devil’s Delight. I am so delighted that this series has a way to move forward, and I will always look forward to a new Agatha Raisin book.

Egalleys for Devil's Delight were provided by Minotaur Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Hooray for R W Green! Thanks to him we have a new Agatha Raisin, and who doesn't love Agatha Raisin? Before Marion Chesney died in 2018 R W Green says he spent many hours talking about her books with her, ruminating on plots and characters. There is no telling, of course, how much of Chesney's input is in "Devil's Delight," but even the most discerning reader won't care.

The question is can a reader tell that someone other than "MC Beaton '' is writing Agatha, and the answer is no. As far as this reader is concerned, and I'm the one writing the review, Green's book is exactly how the master herself would have written it. If you didn't know, you wouldn't know.

"Devil's Delight" is an excellent book. It has all of the fun of the usual Agatha Raisin book - the Cotswolds setting, Agatha's friends and employees, a murder without much gore, and the piece de resistance herself, Agatha Raisin. It was a pleasure to read, and fans of Beaton's (and now Green) can look forward with real anticipation to the new Hamish Macbeth which will be published in a few months. I am reading it now, and it is just as satisfying as "Devil's Delight."

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

MC Beaton passed away in December 2019. Fortunately for her readers she chose a successor and collaborator: R W Green, to carry on with her Agatha Raisin series. "Devil’s Delight" is the second book completely written by Green, and it's a good one. There is a lot going on in this book, and all of it is classic Agatha Raisin even if RW Green has put his own touches on it mellowing Agatha’s abrasive personality just a little bit !

All of the " old" characters are in the book, and it was so good to revisit them and catch up. The story, a murder victim displayed at a Celtic stone which is now a nudist gathering place, had plenty of twists and turns, and kept you guessing right until the end. The setting in late spring was nice to read now that it’s turned so cold. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and would recommend it for an entertaining read.

On the way to her friends' wedding, a naked man in the roadway flags down the car. He tells Agatha and Toni that he saw a dead body, but when they get to the spot in the woods the body is gone. While the cops wave the man off since there's no body, Agatha can't let it go. When a few days later a body is found in the lake, she knows Edward wasn't lying.


I enjoy MC Beaton's Agatha Raisin series but it is usually a series I pick up when need to fill in a gap in my reading list as such I usually listen to the audiobooks available at my digital library. It doesn't have many so it's been a while since I read one. So when I saw a new one was coming out I knew I had to read it.

I love that you can pick up any book in the series and just jump right in. There were quite a few new characters since the last book I read but I didn't have any problems figuring out who was who.

The mystery is great. Raisin Investigations is actually involved in two mysteries. The first is the murder and the second is figuring out how drugs are getting into a posh girls' school. I figured out the second mystery before it was revealed but I was kept guessing on the murder.

It was funny that the story involves a nudist club. I have a new Korean friend and we were talking about the Korean Spa (if you've never been to one - you are naked in the jacuzzis and saunas) and she was somewhat surprised that I was okay with it (I went years ago with another Korean friend). It was just an odd coincidence to read a book with a nudist club.

I really enjoyed the story. It is a pretty quick read, too. Whether you are an Agatha Raisin fan or just looking for a new cozy mystery to read, this is definitely a book to get.

My review is published at Girl Who Reads - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2022/12/devils-delight-by-mc-beaton-review.html

a wonderful mystery! complex and interesting characters, lots of twists and turns, murder and mayhem. This is a real page turner and a must read.

Having read many of the early Agatha Raisin mysteries, I thought that I would like to try one again. The mystery starts when a naked man from a nudist society runs in front of their Agatha's car for help. Edward has found a dead man but it was gone when they went to where he discovered it. I received a free copy of this ebook from the publisher through Netgalley. This is my honest and voluntarily given review. I didn't find this book as charming or as amusing as the earlier ones. Agatha is still man crazy, man wary, and concerned about always showing her best appearance. I did like that there was more than one mystery that her team was involved in, but it wasn't difficult to determine who the villains were. This mystery just felt a little flat for me.

Devil’s Delight by MC Beaton and RW Green. Green has taken over this franchise nicely. That can’t always be said after an author dies and leaves a popular series in mid-stream. This episode of Agatha Raisin’s life opens with the wedding of Detective Sergeant Bill Wong and Constable Alice Peters. On their way to the nuptials, Toni and Agatha spied a naked man running toward them in the middle of the road. Surprised, they stopped to ascertain his wellness and he told them he was running from a dead man’s body that he’d seen in the woods. Intrigued, the pair followed him to the site, where they found . . . nothing. No dead man. Concerned about making the wedding on time, they asked several questions and were off. It turns out his name was Edward and he was part of a weekend nudist group. He seemed sane, and Agatha believed him, but shelved the situation for another time, as they had a wedding to attend.

As always Agatha is up to her ears in men. James was at the wedding, his usual taciturn self, but left immediately after for a cruise he would be reviewing. He invited her but she could not just up and leave at the last minute. She missed him but she remembered the disaster their marriage had been. At the wedding she met a nice police inspector named John and they danced the night away. At the church choir practice she met the director, a man named Giovanni and accepted a dinner invitation which led to a surprising night. Of course, there was Charles, but he was incapable of being faithful. At the nudist camp she met a nice man, named Jasper, who convinced her to try nudity. Agatha is a fabulous character, with plenty of foibles, but wicked smart. The mystery is an interesting one and surprisingly interconnected, as they often are. Bad guys cluster. The peripheral characters are ones we know well and love or here just for this story, many of them criminals. Agatha Raisin is always a fun read and this book is just as fun as always. Her antics never get old. Good book.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of Devil’s Delight by St. Martin’s Press, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #StMartinsPress #MCBeaton #RWGreen #DevilsDelight

Agatha Raisin is a fiesty character, who says what's on her mind. She's not a conventional character that you see in most cozy mysteries, which is why this series stands out for me. Some of Agatha's antics are so funny. The mystery in this book was really well done. It was a delight to spend a few hours with Agatha Raisin in her world.

I haven’t read an Agatha Raisin book in a long time. I forgot how delightful they were. I liked that this had nudists involved. Definitely something different.

This is the 33rd book in this favorite cozy series that is always a charming fun read. I was pleased to read this for review as a long time fan of the series who has read all of the series. Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the opportunity for review. My review opinion is my own. it is delightful to return to Agatha Rasin in the Costwolds for a engaging fun mystery adventure.

R. W. Green is doing a great job writing this series now that our beloved M.C. Beaton has passed away. I know the author was her long time assistant and worked on many of her books closely with her before her death. The author has re created our Agatha with all her faults and funny investigative skills. I loved the new theme of this release of Toni and Agatha dealing with nudist which was fun to read and funny throughout. The sleuth was well crafted to conclusion and as always Agatha always solves her case with many funny incidents along the way. All the suppoorting charcters here are well developed to the series and added to the sleuth.

Well done to R.E. Green for giving life to our Agatha and continuing the series we fans love to read. I look forward to the next in series. I highly recommend this wonderful series