Product Description

To impress her neighbor, James Lacey, Agatha Raisin takes up gardening and plans to enter the prestigious Carsely Horticultural Contest, but the competition is soon threatened by sabotage and murder.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #711951 in Books
• Published on: 1994-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 196 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Stocky, middle-aged Agatha Raisin returns from a long vacation abroad to find the other residents of her Cotswolds village dazzled by a beautiful newcomer. The divorced Mary Fortune has particularly captivated Agatha's neighbor and love interest, James Lacey, sharing, it seems, his passion for gardening. Not to be outdone, Agatha takes up a trowel and, in her determined fashion, wastes no time in buying seedlings while digging for information about Mary. Against Mary's advice, Agatha plants too early; a late frost leaves her with no prospects for the upcoming garden show. A former associate in her London PR firm, desperate to have her back, promises to have her garden secretly replanted if she'll agree to return to work for six months in the fall. As the time for the garden show approaches, malicious pranks wreck the gardens of neighbors who have had run-ins with Mary. Then Agatha finds the newcomer strung up by her heels, her head "planted" in a large pot, and she and James are plunged into another murder investigation. Beaton's dry sense of humor and her unflattering but affectionate portrait of gruff, often adolescent-acting Agatha, make this third tale, following Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet , a bloom worth plucking.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Agatha (Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet, LJ 7/93) returns to quiet Carsely after a lengthy tour to find that a newcomer has supplanted her in the affections of James Lacey, her sleuthing partner and next-door neighbor. This newcomer, a very attractive woman of means, has wriggled her way into the good graces of the villagers. But an upcoming gardening competition reveals hidden animosities and leads to the woman's murder. A simple plot embellished with horticultural manipulations provides the perfect background for the lovelorn Agatha and her unique brand of humor. For series fans and others.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
That intrepid British sleuth-by-default Agatha Raisin returns in a third adventure that's even more cozy, charming, and witty than her previous two. With a name like Agatha Raisin and a tendency toward pugnacious pudginess, Agatha may not seem a likely sort of detective, but when a crime is committed in her adopted village of Carseley, she's first on the scene. Mary Fortune, an attractive divorc‚e newly arrived in Carseley, has raised local eyebrows with her on-again, off-again friendliness, nasty remarks, sharp tongue, and--worst of all--her very public affair with the love of Agatha's life, James Lacey. When several local gardens are destroyed, the villagers believe Mary is involved--until she's found murdered in a particularly nasty manner. The local coppers move too slowly for Agatha's taste, so she dons her detective hat and, through a combination of tenaciousness and curiosity, discovers the identity of the killer. Beaton captures perfectly the tenor of life in a quiet, quaint English village; the Miss Marple-like Raisin is a refreshingly sensible, wonderfully eccentric, thoroughly likable heroine; and the latest Raisin escapade is lively, funny, and entertaining. A must for cozy fans. Emily Melton

Customer Reviews

A Wonderful Departure
I enjoyed this book more than anything I've read recently. The setting is the classic English country village, where doors go unlocked and gardening, tea, and the Ladies Society are the priorities of most of its residents. The real jewel is Agatha Raisin herself; a wonderfully flawed character who makes us laugh and shake our heads sometimes. Some have compared her to Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, but she's really very different. She's middle-aged former P.R. exec who has moved to the country in her retirement, with a heavy crush on her next-door neighbor, who unfortunately doesn't return the sentiment. Agatha returns home from a solitary vacation that wasn't quite as fun as she'd hoped to find that a new, glamorous woman has moved into town and gotten her claws into Agatha's love interest, and in an attempt to thwart the affair Agatha decides to join the gardening club, which both James (the neighbor) and the new woman are avid members of. Soon, the new woman is murdered. It gets hilarious when we find Agatha up to her old tricks - cheating in a contest, going to elaborate lengths to cover it up, but of course it all comes out in the end, including the murderer. This was a great, fun read. Agatha is a real gem! Her flaws and sometimes petty emotions sometimes remind me a little of, well, me!

Agatha Takes Her Place as a Village Character
Like many readers, I found Agatha Raisin to be irresistible as a character when she first appeared in Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death. Here was a blunt, high-powered, but lonely, woman who wanted to start a new life amid her fantasy of what life is like in a Cotswold village. Her pushy instincts in that book worked well (when employed to raise funds for charity) and backfired when aimed at self-promotion (entering a store-bought quiche in a baking contest). Where would M. C. Beaton take this fascinating character?

In Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet, Agatha began to overcome her tendency to pursue James Lacey, her handsome bachelor neighbor, enough to attract him as a sleuthing partner. With Bill Wong as her advisor in the pursuit of the proper male, can she learn to be more reserved?

Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener combines both perspectives into one story. Agatha returns from an extended trip to find that James Lacey seems totally taken with a beautiful incomer, Mary Fortune, who has looks, money, and the same gardening interests as James. Agatha is stirred into action and decides to become a horticulturalist. Naturally, she doesn't know the first thing about what she's doing. Despite a warning from Mary that a frost is coming, Agatha puts out her seedlings. The result is a bare garden. Will Agatha cheat again to get her way?

Before the story is over, there's another murder in Carsely and Agatha is immediately in hot pursuit . . . with James Lacey soon enticed into joining her investigation. Before she's done, Agatha even braves the Boggles (the hard-to-satisfy older couple who like free trips from Quiche of Death) to get information.

This story is a more complex character development than either of the first two books in the series. Agatha becomes much more nuanced in her perspectives and responses . . . and becomes more like a real person rather than a mystery book character. I was particularly pleased to see the careful development of Mary Fortune as a character. It is very well done and adds a lot to the story. Unfortunately, James Lacey is developed in only one dimension, a predictable one. He becomes a bit tiresome before the end of the book.

The mysteries in the book are pretty easy to solve which reduces the book's interest for those who like puzzles. But the crimes themselves are certainly imaginative and enrich the story.

The book's main weakness is that the motives and actions of the characters seemed a little off to me. They didn't quite ring true. See what you think.

Any Agatha Raisin fan, however, would be foolish to skip this book. It's quite entertaining.

Cheaters Never Prosper!
Agatha Raisin returns in the 3rd book in this series. In this book, Agatha returns from a lengthy vacation only to find that a beautiful newcomer, Mary Fortune, threatens to snare James Lacey's affections. It seems that the perfect Ms. Fortune shares James' love of gardening and she plans to enter her property into the local garden show. Agatha's black thumb does not prevent her from entering the garden show herself, but she soon finds herself having to cheat when all of her seedlings are destroyed in a early frost. Agatha turns to the help of Roy Silver, P.R. cohort, to replant her garden with fully grown nursery plants. However, someone in Carsley is destroying all of the neighbor's gardens, and then Ms. Fortune is found "planted" in a pot...dead. It is up to Agatha to solve the murder before the murderer plants her too.

The Agatha Raisin mysteries are a delight from start to finish! I loved Agatha's gruff exterior but warm heart. It is heartening to see a character that has flaws, but that can make you laugh too. Agatha gets more loveable in each book, and really draws readers into her life. With both of M.C. Beaton's series (she also writes the Hamish MacBeth series), she makes the reader want to take a trip to the Cotswolds to meet the characters she has so vividly created.

The first book in the series is "Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death". Enjoy!