Agatha Raisin is back again but she is still trying to get away from Carsely and her unrequited love of James Lacey. Deciding that she does not want to spend the Autumn there she rents a cottage in Norfolk and takes herself and her cats off to Fryfam.
But if you know Agatha, you know it is not going to be a relaxing visit, Agatha cannot do relaxing. When some mysterious lights appear at the bottom of the garden, she is rather spooked but all the locals who welcome want her to do is not mention them. It seems moving from one village in the Cotswolds to Norfolk does not change the way the village ladies think and act.
To impress the villagers who are curious a to why she wants to rent a cottage in Norfolk in October, she tells them she is a budding author. To live up to that, Agatha starts to write a novel Death at the Manor, and you know what is going to happen next, don’t you… there is a death at the local Manor and Agatha is the last person to see them alive…Agatha is yet again embroiled in the middle of a murder case and she is going to have clear her name.
All this is going on you would think that Agatha could put James out of her mind, but frequent phone calls back to Carsely just means that Agatha is even more desperate to be with James even if everyone thinks it is a bad idea. She needs to solve not just the murder to make her happier, Agatha needs to solve her love life too.
A formulaic escapism read and these books I can devour in a day and make for a pleasant weekend distraction. I am intrigued though to know how Agatha and James relationship progresses in to the next book. I know what ultimately happens as I have read a few out of sequence, so it will be interesting see how we get there.
The Book Jotter 