Hot to Trot is the 31st (!!!) Agatha Raisin mystery featuring the iconic characters created by M.C. Beaton who sadly passed away in late 2019. Released 17th Nov 2020 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's Press imprint, it's 256 pages (print edition) and available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats.
As this is (I believe) the first book in the series written entirely by R. W. Green, I truly tried to read it as objectively as I could. I suspect it's partially a failure on my part since I deeply regret the loss of one of the perennial gems of my reading list to which I always looked forward eagerly, and partly the fact that no two authors (however well meaning) can ever truly seamlessly take over for one another. I could feel the differences throughout the book. Real Agatha constantly battles against her own compassion and sympathy for people and sense of justice (which she tries to bury under a snarky prickly exterior). This Agatha just seems that little bit more exasperated, snarky, and unsympathetic. Her employees and the ensemble cast feel different in this installment and there were some small (but annoying) continuity problems which probably won't bother most readers - but yanked obsessives like me out of the storyline.
That being said, this *is* a funny and exuberant and ever-so-slightly mad cozy mystery and the plotting and denouement work perfectly well as a standalone. It's good, but it didn't feel like a real Agatha Raisin story. There are, admittedly, several scenes which made me grin or chuckle out loud.
Three and a half stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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