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: #463704 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The newest Agatha Raisin adventure is quietly humorous but thin in plot. Finishing up her stint at a London PR firm, which she agreed to in Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener (1994), the acerbic 50-something retiree happily returns to her Cotswolds cottage?and her bachelor neighbor and sleuthing partner, James Lacey. Shortly after Agatha's return, Jessica Tartinck, the confrontational leader of a walking group, is murdered in nearby Dembley. When Sir Charles Fraith becomes the chief suspect (he and Jessica had argued about the walkers' right-of-way through his fields), Agatha is asked by a village friend to investigate. Ever eager, Agatha and her cohort James move to Dembley and, posing as man and wife, infiltrate Jessica's walking group. But, as Beaton's readers have learned to expect, Agatha's jubilation is short-lived, and her pseudo-marriage to James doesn't go at all as she hopes. Wending their way through circuitous misadventure, however, the pair solve the murder and forge a deeper relationship than they'd enjoyed before.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In an attempt to save a reclusive baronet accused of murder, Agatha "infiltrates" a local walkers' club. Fourth in the popular series (Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener, LJ 8/94).
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Agatha Raisin has returned to her adopted village of Carsely after a brief foray to noisy London, and she's looking forward to peace, quiet, and the pursuit of handsome James Lacey, object of her unrequited passion. But Agatha is barely home a day when she becomes involved in the case of the Carsely Ramblers, a local walking club headed by militant Jessica Tartinck, who hates aristocrats and is determined to trample through the fields of the local gentry. When Jessica turns up murdered in the field of baronet Sir Charles Fraith, Agatha and James persuade the police they should pose as husband-and-wife (much to Agatha's delight) walking enthusiasts (much to Agatha's chagrin) to discover who killed Jessica. By the end of the story, the murderer's been pegged, and Agatha is set to become Mrs. James Lacey. The plot is slightly contrived, and Agatha is a prickly, pathetic, lovesick heroine, but British cozy fans will no doubt find this book an engaging teatime companion. Emily Melton

Customer Reviews

Just barely 4 stars...
I enjoyed this fourth book in the Agatha Raisin series but while reading it, I had a vague feeling of disquiet. It took me a while to figure out what was bothering me and I finally realized that Agatha, in this book, had resorted to namecalling in her insults and some of those names are quite vicious. She has in all the books been quite tart with others but in this one, she is downright vicious.
The leader of a rambling group (a group of people who get together to walk & enjoy the country) from a nearby village is murdered. A friend's niece is one of the suspects and she asks Agatha to investigate. Agatha, naturally, agrees to do so and she & James go undercover as a married couple in the nearby village.
The suspects are plenty and none of them are likeable. Not even any of the secondary characters are that nice.
I would hesitate to pick up the next book in the series if it were not for the cliffhanger ending of this one.

Read Agatha Raisin, but dont start with this book
I love Agatha Raisin. M.C. Beaton has created one of the finest character studies of small provincial towns I have come across. I've found myself laughing aloud several times with each book that I pick up and I bless Beaton for that.

In her previous three stories, the mysteries have stood second stage to Raisin's interactions with people in the town. And that was just fine. But here it seems that Beaton is attempting to turn Raisin into a bumbling Mrs. Marple alluded to in every story. But it doesn't work. Beaton just can't set up a mystery on par with Christy and in her efforts to do so, Beaton sacrifices much of what was so enduring about her first three Raisin stories.

I did not especially like this book though I plan on reading more Raisin novels in the hopes that Beaton once again captures the magic of her past triumphs.

AGATHA IS GREAT!!!!
AS usual I enjoyed another Agatha Raisin doing her thing. Her thing this time also gets her really involved with James Lacey. Agatha has returned to Cotswold village after six months in London. She is not back long before someone murders one of the walkers of dembley, a group that gets together and walks on the weekend. They follow old trails that have since been planted in crops. The farmers, of course, do not like this as it destroys their fields. After one is killed, another is killed. Who could be doing this? One of the walkers, one of the farmers, a lover? Agatha and Lacey keep asking questions until they figure it our. Or do they? I can see the village and the people in my mind as I read. Beaton does an excellent job if you will just let yourself go and feel the writing.