Joan Leotta Reviews: Killing Time: An Agatha Raisin Mystery (Agatha Raisin Mysteries)

Please welcome author Joan Leotta back to the blog today…

  

Killing Time: An Agatha Raisin Mystery (Agatha Raisin Mysteries) Hardcover – October 8, 2024

by M. C. Beaton (Author), R.W. Green (Author)

Review By Joan Leotta

 

Yes, M.C. Beaton, aka Marion Chesney, did leave this world for the next in 2019. However, she wanted her two series protagonists, Agatha Raisin, and Hamish MacBeth to continue to have adventures and  solve mysteries even after she would no longer be able to wield a pen. To that end, late in her life, she invited R.W. Green to become the author of these mystery series. She put Green through rigorous training in the ways and whiles of her characters and her various plot techniques..

 

This fourth Agatha Raisin installment by Green—Killing Time—shows he has indeed mastered

the elements readers expect while also developing the characters in directions true to their Beaton-given nature, but with a bit of his own experience to further enrich our entertainment and their arc.

Raisin is an especially difficult character to write because she requires a delicate balance of feisty, hard-nosed, irascible, yet with enough vulnerability to elicit enough empathy from readers to make them care about what happens to her and even cheer her on in her adventures. 

This entry into the canon takes Agatha temporarily out of the Cotswolds to Pollonsea in Mallorca, for her to meet with her newest love interest, a retired cop turned cruise line dance instructor, John Clarke. Never fear,  Killing Time is stepped in Cotswold lore and the hiatus at the sea is not a diversion, but also proves to be another important strand in the unraveling of the mystery. 

The novel begins with an ordinary investigation into robberies in the area. Then, ever susceptible to flattery, Agatha, in spite of a full schedule, is talked into managing an area-wide festival for charity in support of  an old friend’s winery venture. After deciding that a charity auction would attract large spenders, Agatha approaches a local  antique dealer who takes Agatha to an auction. At the auction Agatha falls in love—with a clock. After a viscous bidding war,  she purchases a gaudy antique clock,  paying far more than it’s evaluated worth. Learning that the clock does not work, the dealer offers to take it to his shop for her to have his brother, a clock savant of sorts to examine it for her. 

The situation takes an urgent turn and the pace of the novel ramps up when that same antique dealer is murdered, and her clock is the only thing missing from his shop. In the usual wonderful way of these novels, Agatha, with the help of the ever-lovely Toni and others from her Detective agency staff, finds connections between various people, the clock, and other events in the area. In the midst of the action,  wanting to take a break from all the stress, Agatha decamps for a brief jaunt to Mallorca to meet John, her new love interest when his ship docks and he will have a few days off from his dance instruction duties. However, upon landing there, her hopes for a continuing and true romance with ex-cop John are shattered and she decamps to the lovely Pollonsea in another part of the Island until it is time for her to return home.

The plot process and action along with some occasional petulance on Agatha’s part are  a delight as always. I reveled in the descriptions of this new place in Mallorca as well as the usual entanglements and hijinks and was totally captivated by the ending. And yes, the antique timepiece at the center of the mystery becomes  a character in itself—well done, Mr. Green!

All of these threads are skillfully embroidered into the fabric of the tale with a solution that covers all of the crimes, and the issues Agatha had with John. As always, Agatha’s sharp mind is the needle that works out the solution from these seemingly disparate threads.

Is there a happy conclusion? Well, I will leave that for you to discover but I will say this--future tension  with her old beau Charles this time leaves promising himself to try to win Agatha back instead of the more often seen reverse situation.

In short, this is fast -paced and fun read. I finished this installment on one dismal afternoon and put it down with a smile. If you crave a mystery with a side of smiles, seek out the Raisin Mysteries. Agatha plows ahead with all her usual intelligence, cupidity, and bluster even after her creator’s demise. Although I always enjoy a series in order, this book works as a single read so pick up Killing Time if you have some time on your hands. Note well: if you possess a gaudy antique clock, you might want to start researching its history.

Five stars 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/416SiKb

 

Joan Leotta ©2025

Joan Leotta plays with words on page and stage. Her poetry, essays, cnf, short stories, and articles are widely published. Mysteries are favorite things to read.. short and long.. and to write.