Product Description

After six gruelling months spent in London, Agatha Raisin returns to her beloved Cotswold village of Carsely - and to her attractive neighbour, James Lacey. True, James is less than thrilled to see her, but Agatha is soon consoled by a sensational murder. The victim, found in a lonely field, is hiker Jessica Tartinck, who spent her life enraging wealthy landowners by insisting on her walking club's right to hike over their properties. And now she has been found in a cornfield, battered over the head. Agatha lures the reluctant James into helping with her informal investigation, and there are so many leads to follow, for Jessica's fellow walkers seem able, even willing, to commit murder. And then there are the enraged landowners...Hope springs eternal in Agatha's breast, and she feels confident that the trail of a slippery killer may also be the road to love...or will it lead to even more deaths?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13497 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Good Book Guide, June 1, 2005
'A delightful read! ... Light and airy yet with a sharp edge.'

About the Author
M C Beaton is the author of the highly acclaimed Hamish Macbeth mystery series. This is the fourth in a new mystery series, following on from Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death - dramatised by Radio 4 in the spring and featuring Penelope Keith as Agatha. Born in Scotland, Beaton, a former journalist, now lives in the Costwolds and Paris.

Customer Reviews

This sleuth is a cranky, middle-aged British lady.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Agatha Raisin, the sleuth in this story, is an enjoyably cranky middle-aged British lady. She has retired from the high pressure of London business (public relations) to settle in the quiet Cotswolds, only to get caught up in a murder and mystery. Being a rather cranky, middle-aged female myself, I found Agatha charming in her cantankerousness. The writing is amusing without being cloying, and I actually chuckled aloud several times. This was my first foray into murder with Agatha Raisin, and I'll definitely seek out another adventure with her.

Super Charming British cozy
Agatha is at her most endearing and infurating best. I snap up all the Agatha series books as soon as they come off press because I know I'm in for a wonderful read. Anyone who like to take their murders with a dose of good humor will love Ms. Beaton's Agatha series. (Although this title is listed as part of the Hamish Macbeth series, the Agatha Raisin character has never even met Constable Macbeth. Suggestion to the esteemed author: Send Agatha to Hamish's beloved Lochdubh on vacation, knock off some offensive character and have Hamish and Agatha work together to solve the mystery. Your readers will be in for the ride of their lives!!)

A Disagreeable Entry in a Fine Series
The walkers referred to in the title are a rather eclectic and somewhat pathetic bunch who traipse around with a chip on their shoulders just spoiling for a fight with area landowners. They seldom have any trouble finding conflict especially with their pushy, outspoken and obnoxious leader Jessica Tartinc leading the charge. As this book begins Jessica has gone too far even for her followers and she heads off to confront a local aristocrat on her own. When her body is found on said aristocrat's land the suspect list includes not only the gentry but also the walkers themselves. Because one of the walkers is the niece of Mrs. Mason, the President of the Carsely Ladies Society, and has therefore heard of Agatha and her amateur sleuthing Agatha's assistance is requested. Needless to say, this gives a big boost to Agatha's ego but by the end of the book she finds out that maybe the reference that she received wasn't nearly as complimentary as she had thought.

Much to Agatha's delight, the strategy decided upon requires her and her neighbor James Lacey to move into a flat in Dembley and pose as husband and wife in order to infiltrate the group of walkers. Agatha, who has been chasing Lacey since the first book of the series is soon dejected however because her pretend marriage just doesn't work out at all like she had planned. Unknown to her however she is much more attractive to James when she isn't trying to get her claws into him and he becomes more and more fond of her as the book progresses. This part of the plot in fact leads to a bombshell of sorts at the end of this book, which will leave the reader very anxious to get their hands on the next entry in the series.

Despite the bombshell however this is probably the least enjoyable of the first four books in this series. The mystery itself plays a much larger part in this story than in the previous books, which would at first glance appear to be a good thing. Unfortunately the mystery is not suspenseful or for that matter interesting enough to carry the plot on it's own and all of the little side plots that involve the other characters in the book fall very flat. The problem may well be that for the most part the old comfortable characters in Carsely are basically absent from this book leaving only the new characters introduced for this book and quite frankly most of these new characters are fairly wretched creatures. It is really hard to get involved in a story when most every person involved makes your skin crawl. The whole notion of a cozy mystery is sort left by the wayside when there is absolutely nothing cozy about the story or it's characters.

I am a great fan of this series and if you intend to read any of the books following this one then this is a must read because of the interaction between Agatha and James. Just don't be at all surprised if after reading this book you find that instead of feeling all warm and fuzzy, like your supposed to feel after reading a cozy mystery, you just feel numb.