Product Description

The morning of Agatha's marriage to her neighbour James Lacey dawns bright and clear. But the storm clouds of the day before would have been more appropriate when Agatha's first husband, Jimmy Raisin, turns up at the church just in time to keep her from committing bigamy. The ensuing uproar - Agatha tries to strangle Jimmy, whom she had thought long-dead anyway - embarrasses James, who abruptly breaks the engagement. When Jimmy is found murdered the next morning, Agatha and James are the prime suspects. Since the easiest way to clear their names is to find the real murderer, Agatha convinces James to help her investigate. But will their subsequent close proximity - which has them, ironically, pretending to be man and wife - be enough to win James second time around?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #680828 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 420 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The blunt Agatha Raisin, with her stocky figure and "bearlike eyes," makes for an unusual sleuth, and her fifth outing (after Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley, 1995) certainly makes for an unusual adventure. The former public relations powerhouse who left London and a career for a simpler life in a Cotswold country village is about to marry her handsome next-door neighbor. But the wedding ceremony is halted mid-vow by the arrival of Jimmy Raisin, the husband Agatha fervently hoped was dead and has neglected to mention to James Lacey, the fastidious, upstanding citizen currently waiting to tie the knot. Even less convenient than a living husband who interrupts your wedding is one who, shortly thereafter, turns up dead in a ditch in the immediate neighborhood. Naturally, Agatha and James top the suspect list. But the dead Jimmy was a down-and-out alcoholic who had been known to practice a bit of blackmail. Agatha and James track down some of his victims, who have a distressing tendency to die shortly after being questioned by the two. With bodies stacking up and James refusing to marry Agatha (even though she has already sold her cottage), the atmosphere becomes nicely tense. Beaton, who also pens the Hamish MacBeth series, gleefully creates one excruciating situation after another for her indomitable heroine to endure.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Agatha Raisin (as in Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley, LJ 3/1/95) had long presumed her first husband dead when she married her attractive neighbor, but then Jimmy Raison suddenly turns up. When someone murders him that same night, Agatha becomes the prime suspect. A great series.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In the seventh entry in this cozy mystery series, former public-relations woman now Cotswold resident Agatha Raisin is about to be married to her next-door neighbor, James Lacey. Then Agatha's long-absent but undivorced husband turns up. That night he turns up dead. Although Agatha and James agree the marriage is off, they decide to team up, as they've done in the past, to solve the murder and clear themselves as suspects. One of the interesting things about this series is how unappealing the abrasive Agatha can be. She's vain, snide, and self-pitying on a regular basis. All that adds up to a heroine who is also very human, and perhaps that--we identify with her even if we don't always like her--is one of the elements that keeps readers coming back. Another is Beaton's plotting. Like snack food, it's fast, tasty, and leaves you satisfied, if only temporarily. That's all right, though. Beaton is quick; more Raisin should be along shortly. Ilene Cooper

Customer Reviews

Another great pick from the grapevine
With each new book, Agatha becomes a more delightful character (at least to me).

An errant husband reappears and interrupts Agatha's marriage vows almost in midsentence of "I do."

When he is murdered, Agatha becomes the main suspect as well as a scorned fiancee. But while James may not be of a marriage mind with Agatha, he is still of the investigative mind. And so off they go to solve the murder.

The usual secondary characters are back and Bill, the local police officer, even has a love interest.

With little former background on James Lacy, we do discover here that he is very well versed in the art of lock picking, even having his own set of tools.

And a clearer idea of Agatha's age is given on page 101.

That alone is worth the price of the book.

Got me hooked on M.C. Beaton
This was my first Agatha Raisin book, and I loved it. I work at a library, and now I've read nearly all of them. You'll love the village and the recurring characters.

The Case of the Rotten Raisin
When we last left Agatha she was planning for her marriage to the dapper James Lacey, the man of her dreams. Sometimes dreams have a way of becoming nightmares however and for poor Agatha this nightmare couldn't have been worse. Agatha you see has a terrible tendency to try to deceive both Lacey and the rest of the people of Carsely and although she never gets away with it she just keeps on trying.

In this instance she makes the assumption that the husband she left many years ago but had never divorced had certainly managed to drink himself to death by this time. She assures everyone that she is a widow and actually makes it to the alter before the not so dead Jimmy Raisin shows up and halts the wedding. The very proper Mr. Lacey is of course completely disgusted with Agatha and she is sure that she has lost him forever. On the bright side however, she is soon an actual widow after someone murders Jimmy but the bad news is that she is naturally the chief suspect.

To complicate Agatha's life even more, she has sold her cottage to a rather unpleasant woman who refuses to even discuss selling the place back to Agatha. Having calmed down a bit, Lacey tells Agatha that she can stay with him until she finds a place to stay and since he is a suspect also the two former lovers once again begin to work together on the case of the dead Raisin.

As usual, Agatha is feisty and outspoken and neither her nor Lacey have great sleuthing skills but they get the job done. The rest of the characters are again superb and the author has done a fine job of making the little town of Carsely seem not only real but also like a place where the reader would enjoy living. I even felt sorry for Agatha's friend Bill Wong as he chased puppy like after a lady cop who was working the Raisin case. Beaton's writing style is just simply superb.

That said, I must admit that this is not the best book in the series and the mystery is just a little too easy for the reader to solve. Even so, this is a fun read and no fan of warm fuzzy mysteries should pass this book or this series up.