Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came by M.C. Beaton

After spending 2 months listening to one audiobook, I needed something light and short to listen to in the car. Hamish MacBeth mysteries have a cult following among some of the staff at BHPL, but I had read them all, so I thought I'd try M.C. Beaton's other series - the Agatha Raisin books.

Agatha is a retired public relations executive living in the Cotswolds of England. She's very prickly and gruff, and at times downright rude, and I like the novelty of a cozy/domestic mystery sleuth who isn't amiable. I didn't really care about "whodunit" in Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came, the 12th in the series - like the Hamish MacBeth mysteries, the victims are easy to dislike and the plot is swimming with red herrings.
What really appealed to me was the idea of retiring to the Cotswolds, having chats with Mrs. Bloxby, the vicar's wife - everyone in the Ladies' Society calls each other Mrs. - and consulting with a baron and a bestselling novelist on the latest developments of a case. Anne tells me that the early Agatha Raisin novels are the best, so I'm going to start at the beginning next time with Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death. If you enjoy listening to audiobooks on an iPod or your computer, ListenNJ.com has most of the Agatha books and even the Agatha Raisin BBC radio dramas.