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.
