Oh yes, I, too, get exasperated with Agatha’s obsession with James Lacey. “WHY?!?!?” I cry, along with Mrs. Bloxby and Bill Wong and all the rest.

So, yes, traipsing off to Cyprus after this dreadful man almost buggers belief.

Still, though, Ms. Beaton is SUCH a masterful writer, and her books are such a delight, I am thoroughly in love. And truly, Agatha herself is so expertly crafted, so sympathetically created… I am completely addicted.

Another delicious tale that offered the perfect entertainment and escape and left me licking my chops for more! ( )

Number 6 in the Agatha Raisin series. In this, it seems that Agatha's husband turned up in the previous book in time to prevent her marriage to James - after reading book 2, I can't imagine why he agreed to marry her - and although he was subsequently murdered, James has gone to North Cyprus where the couple were due to honeymoon. Needy Agatha follows him and traipses round until she finds him. The place he was booked into by a long term friend turns out to be a complete dive, so he takes a villa and reluctantly invites her to stay.

Before this, she had been staying at a hotel along with other British tourists and ended up going on a boat trip with two couples, each of whom have a wealthy older man tagging along with them. One couple is posh, the other are stereotypical Essex types. We are told that the Essex woman, Rose, occasionally betrays the fact that she is well read, though we don't see this in conversation and in fact, that is the style with these books, to tell things as info dumps rather than showing them. In fact this book has loads of info dumps about the various historical sites the characters end up going round, in some cases Agatha's 'dialogue' being her reading things out from guidebooks.

James and Agatha end up going along with these people to a disco where Rose is stabbed using a long thin blade of some kind. Subsequently, the two couples and their men friends, plus Agatha and James, are repeatedly grilled by the police. Agatha starts poking her nose in and antagonising some of the British and the local police chief, especially as she has a tendency to blurt out embarrassing questions. James is cold and appears annoyed with her a lot, not helped when she runs into Charles, a baronet who apparently was introduced in a book a couple before this one, where Agatha solved a murder among walkers using his land.

On the rebound from one of many fallings out with James, she is put up by Charles in the spare bed in his hotel room, but they have both been drinking and when he climbs into bed with her, she doesn't repulse him. She subsequently feels guilty and lies to James about what happened, but the police eventually tell him she slept with Charles, at which point James leaves for the Turkish mainland in pursuit of the old friend who had rented him the awful accommodation and who he now suspects of drug running. This is despite the fact that attempts are being made on her life, and should convince her that he cares absolutely nothing for her.

After that she tours various places with Charles, trying half heartedly to solve the murder, mainly because the police have refused permission for them to leave (which James defied) until the culprit is apprehended.

There is a lot of mooning about James and a lot of the character being tearful etc about him and obsessing and hoping he will come back, despite his cold and rejecting behaviour. At one point, Charles says he felt like this about a girl once, and it was called a teenage crush. This seems exactly what it is but in a 50 something woman is grotesque. The story is really mostly about this obsession with the odd bit of detecting if you can call it that shoehorned in, plus driving around and having dinner in restaurants. The most interesting thing was the description of a couple of historical sites visited, and a little bit of the atmosphere of North Cyprus.

The book does show something of the character and emotions and reads less like a synopsis than one I read late in the series (number 22) so it scrapes a 2 star rating.

( )

Started out well but turned boring. Missing the usual humor that is a highlight of this series. Agatha's obsession with James is tiresome, and James himself is beyond rude. But the book does stand out as marking the real beginning of the longstanding relationship between Agatha and Charles, though of course he was introduced a few books back. ( )

Bigamous Agatha chases after her ‘husband’ who has fled abroad to escape her. A fellow tourist is murdered and the couple investigate. Another enjoyable romp with Agatha acerbic as ever.

Oops ! Reading other reviews I should add I’m listening to the Penelope Keith full cast dramatisation, & realise this has left out a lot of the original novel… ( )

2 Stars
This was by far my least favorite book in the series that I’ve read so far. I’ve praised the series for the humor, and there was not a laugh in the book. I’ve also praised the quirky cast of characters and this book had no likable characters at all. Agatha made one bad decision after another and just seemed to feel sorry for herself over and over again. She lost her fire. James acted like an unfeeling idiot. Charles was the least objectionable character in the book. While selfish he at least seems to like Agatha and was a little protective of her. But the main thing the book was missing was the Cotswolds, the oppressive heat of Cyprus and the feeling of being trapped on the island while the investigation dragged out. ( )