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Kissing Christmas Goodbye (Agatha Raisin Mysteries, No. 18)
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Product Description
Unlike quite a number of people, Agatha had not given up on Christmas. To have the perfect Christmas had been a childhood dream whilst surviving a rough upbringing in a Birmingham slum. Holly berries glistened, snow fell gently outside, and inside, all was Dickensian jollity. And in her dreams, James Lacey kissed her under the mistletoe, and, like a middle-aged sleeping beauty, she would awake to passion once more....
Agatha Raisin is bored. Her detective agency in the Cotswolds is thriving, but she’ll scream if she has to deal with another missing cat or dog. Only two things seem to offer potential excitement: the upcoming Christmas festivities and her ex, James Lacey. This year she is sure that if she invites James to a really splendid, old-fashioned Christmas dinner, their love will rekindle like a warm Yule log.
When a wealthy widow hires Agatha because she’s convinced a member of her family is trying to kill her, Agatha is intrigued---especially when the widow drops dead after high tea at the manor house. Who in this rather sterile house, complete with fake family portraits, could have hated the old lady enough to poison her?
Agatha sets out to find the murderer, all the while managing a pretty, teenage trainee who makes her feel old and planning for a picture-perfect Christmas, with James, all the trimmings, and perhaps even snow.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #415388 in Books
- Published on: 2007-10-02
- Released on: 2007-10-02
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 240 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9780312349110
- Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
- Notes:
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The indestructible Agatha Raisin, still at the top of her game in her darkly droll 17th whodunit (after Love, Lies and Liquor), is feeling woefully middle-aged after hiring Toni Gilmour, an endearing U.K.-style Nancy Drew full of teen energy and charm. As Toni takes over the pet recovery end of the sleuthing business, Agatha looks into a mysterious letter from Phyllis Tamworthy, the rich matriarch of the Manor House in the idyllic Cotswolds, who suspects family members of plotting to kill her before she can change her will to disinherit them. Agatha and her friend Sir Charles Fraith attend Phyllis's 80th birthday party, only to see the lady keel over, poisoned by hemlock in her salad. Digging into Phyllis's past yields an even darker mystery. Bestseller Beaton's dry wit enhances Agatha's struggles with aging, men and her most challenging case yet. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“Beaton’s Agatha Raisin series just about defines the British cozy.”
---Booklist
“Few things in life are more satisfying than to discover a brand-new Agatha Raisin mystery.”
---The Tampa Tribune
“Anyone interested in...intelligent, amusing reading will want to make the acquaintance of Mrs. Agatha Raisin.”
---The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“[Beaton’s] imperfect heroine is an absolute gem!”
---Publishers Weekly
“Outwardly bossy and vain, inwardly insecure and vulnerable, Agatha grows more endearing with each installment.”
---The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
“[M. C. Beaton] is Britain’s successor to Dame Agatha Christie. If you’ve never read an Agatha Raisin novel, it’s time to start.... All of them are cunningly plotted, beautifully written, and more fun than you can imagine.”
---The Globe and Mail
“[Agatha] is a glorious cross between Miss Marple, Auntie Mame, and Lucille Ball, with a tad of pit bull tossed in. She’s wonderful.”
---St. Petersburg Times
From the Back Cover
Be careful what you wish for
Agatha Raisin is bored. Her detective agency in the Cotswolds is thriving, but she’ll scream if she has to deal with another missing cat or dog. Only two things seem to offer potential excitement: Christmas, and her ex, James Lacey. This year Agatha’s sure that if she invites James to a splendid Christmas dinner, their love will rekindle like a warm Yule log…but that fantasy will have to wait for now. A wealthy widow—who sent Agatha a letter before her death saying one of her family intended to kill her—has been found dead. Now Agatha must set out to find the murderer, even though, in her heart, she’s still dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones she and James used to know….
“Beaton has a winner in the irrepressible, romance-hungry Agatha.”—Chicago Sun-Times
Customer Reviews
a paticularly satisfying Agatha Raisin installment
I wholeheartedly concur with the previous reviewers: this particular Agatha Raisin installment is a good one.
It's beginning to look as if the bloom has fallen off Agatha Raisin's obsessive love for her handsome ex-husband, James Lacey. Not that Agatha is about to admit to this. No. she's decided that her feelings if ennui are down to the lack of a really good investigation that she can sink her teeth into. So that when Agatha receives a letter from Phyllis Tamworthy who claims that someone in her family is trying to murder her. Agatha thinks that Phyllis Tamworthy may be a nutter, but something about the letter gives her pause. What if it is authentic? What if Phyllis Tamworthy is in real danger? With visions of Agatha Christie's "Hercule Poirot's Christmas" in mind (Christmas is after all round the corner), Agatha decides to take on the case. Isn't just typical then that all of Agatha's Christie-like visions would come to nothing? Phyllis turns out to be penny-pinching bully to comes her children firmly under her thumb, while Phyllis' children seem to be so colourless and spineless a bunch, that Agatha has a hard time seeing any of them as potential killers. But when Phyllis drops dead after a truly awful tea, Agatha is sure that a very cunning murderer has struck. Quickly Agatha springs into action, determined to discover who murdered Phyllis, and no one, not the hostile police officers in charge of the case or Phyllis' equally hostile relatives or the twinge in her hip are going to stop her...
While the last few Agatha Raisin installments have not been exactly topnotch, "Kissing Christmas Goodbye" will remind fans of the Agatha Raisin installments that shone. Our prickly and acerbic Agatha is in top form as she juggles trying to figure out who murdered Phyllis, sorting out her latest employee's domestic problems and obsessing about giving her friends a truly spectacular Christmas dinner. I enjoyed every single moment of "Kissing Christmas Goodbye," and am truly delighted at being able to recommend it as a good read not only to fervent fans of the series but to anyone looking for a nice British cozy to curl up with. As to the perennial question: how will things pan out for James and Agatha? This installment moves neither backwards nor forwards in answering the question. There are intimations that Agatha may no longer be in love with James; but can we believe this? I'm not too sure and will look to the next Agatha Raisin installment for answers!
Best yet in the series--and by no means strictly a "holiday" book
I'm only giving an opinion, not a review per se, the book jacket says it all. There is a new character that adds a lot of life to the series, very little James (thank goodness) and a dash of Roy, the vicar's wife and Bill Wong all combined with a mystery that for once I didn't figure out before the big reveal. It's light, it's fluffy & it's all Agatha. I loved it so much that I wish M.C. Beaton would slow down on the Hamish McBeth series for a bit & dedicate more time to Agatha Raisin.
Will Agatha Enjoy a White Christmas with James Lacey?
The suspense in Kissing Christmas Goodbye is mostly focused on whether Agatha Raisin will be able to pull off a splendid Christmas party with James Lacey at her side: That's one of her dreams as the book opens. Having grown up as the daughter of two alcoholics in the Birmingham slums, Agatha has always craved a classic Christmas dinner. Her previous attempt hit a major snag when she burned her turkey and had to be bailed out by a last-minute caterer, but everyone had fun.
The detective agency is doing well because Agatha has overcome her scruples about taking on divorce cases, even if everyone on the staff finds them distasteful. But without the fantasy of a man to fall in love with, Agatha finds herself bored by it all. With her Christmas fantasy, she finds a substitute for romantic fantasies.
Life becomes more interesting when Agatha decides to check out an invitation from Phyllis Tamworthy, an elderly woman who claims that her family is about to kill her. Agatha takes on the assignment of preventing the murder and ends up having one of the worst country weekends imaginable. Mrs. Tamworthy is right about one thing: Someone is out to get her. The detecting trail leads Agatha to learn a great deal about this unpleasant woman and her undesirable family.
For me, the best part of the book came in the introduction of a new character, Toni Gilmour, a 17-year-old woman who seems to be a young Agatha Raisin in the making. Toni is hired to do the pet detecting that Harry Beam used to do before he headed off to Cambridge for his university studies. Toni is soon promoted into the front ranks as a detective due to her remarkable insights and good luck. But it's Agatha's reaction to Toni that makes this a good story: Agatha turns maternal, something we haven't seen before. I hope we will see and hear a lot more of Toni in future books in the series.
The story is fun and I would have graded the book higher except that this is a most transparent mystery in terms of who did what to whom. How could I grade a book above average if the mystery is child's play?
But I know this book will bring many smiles to your face.
Merry Christmas!
