Busy Body

The comic premise here is sharp: a Health and Safety officer systematically bans every Christmas tradition in a Cotswold village, making himself the most hated man in town — and then turns up stabbed. M.C. Beaton mines the bureaucratic villain angle for good satirical laughs while keeping the mystery ticking. At book twenty-one in the Agatha Raisin series, the characters are lived-in and warm, and the British village atmosphere is exactly what cozy mystery readers come for. New readers may miss some character history around Agatha's ongoing storylines and her protege Toni, but the core whodunit stands on its own. Murder is present but handled with the light touch the genre requires. No graphic content. A reliable, witty entry for fans of the series.