N Reads's Reviews > Agatha Raisin and the Dead Ringer

Unsettling. Dark in so many ways.
Agatha spends most of her time pining after one man after another. Falls for a married man, breaks it off, and then sort of reconsiders because she doesn't want to be alone. She wastes too much time lamenting that facts that she is unmarried, alone, and unhappy. She doesn't see the reason for this is because she is just too mean spirited. Too much back and forth of should I ask Charles to marry me. He spends too much time going back and forth considering whether he should ask Agatha to marry him.
The most disturbing things about this book were the underlying violence that had never been present in the other Agatha Raisin books to this extent. Too many people were punching others in the nose with no provocation. And Agatha was just too aggressively nasty. She wasn't nice to anyone unless she needed something from them. She even sassed Mrs. Bloxby so much that the very reserved Mrs. Bloxby talked back.
I'm not sure what the plot line was. She lamented over and over again that she was not being a thorough investigator, but then spent too much time investigating a murder she wasn't getting paid for. The rest of the staff was mostly missing in action, except for a few minor plot lines. Two missing girls? The dead ringer? Hmmmm.
The plot was very disjointed. Big chunks of plot line were either missing or edited out. Case in point: at one point Roy Silver was headed back to London. What? When did he arrive? Why? How long had he been there? This was never addressed, as well as other small inconsistencies.
This is clearly not the writing of M. C. Beaton. Her Agatha was sharp-tongued, fun-loving and confident. This Agatha is a mess, and ready for a nervous breakdown.
If you have to read this one, get it through the Library. Don't waste your money.