Alexander McCall Smith - Anyone familiar with his books?

[fadedrose]

9. Beaton's books are not like McCall's...

Agatha Raisin is not the heroine you'd find in a McCall book. She is not perfect, either in appearance or behavior. Her love life is a disaster, and everything Beaton gives her, she takes away in the next book.

Agatha is one of the best-developed complicated characters I've met in any book. With all her faults, I like her. She's brash, but human and frail, all at the same time. She develops over time. You need to read a bunch to appreciate her.

And Hamish Macbeth - we all wait for him to marry his longest-lasting love, and Beaton will not hear of it. We get teased in every book about their relationship. Nothing sugary about the other characters either.

There is more sentimentality in the Cotterill books. He always has everything turn out all right at the end, and the characters are devoted to each other. I love him and his books and their characters.