THERE GOES THE BRIDE

Detective agency owner Agatha Raisin’s ongoing obsession with her ex-husband lands her in the soup.

About to marry the young and beautiful Felicity Bross-Tilkington, James Lacey doesn’t want to see his ex-wife again, especially outside the happy couple’s Crimea hotel. He accuses her of stalking him, a charge Agatha hotly denies. After all, despite her tough exterior and bossy demeanor, she’s once again busy falling for the wrong man. This time it’s suave Frenchman Sylvan Dubois, a friend of the bride’s parents. When Felicity is found shot dead, Agatha and James are high on the suspect list, Agatha for obvious reasons and James because—belatedly realizing that dazzled by youth and beauty, he’d ignored his fiancée’s extreme lack of intelligence—he tried to cancel the wedding. First accused of murder, then hired by Felicity’s mother to find the killer, Agatha has plenty of help from the detectives who work for her agency and a former employee, clever young Toni Gilmour. Always seeking the limelight, Agatha, jealous of Toni’s talent and good looks, had encouraged her to start her own agency. Now in financial difficulties, Toni returns to work for Agatha. Suspecting that the bride’s father and Dubois may be involved in some illegal enterprises, the sleuths delve deeper. As the bodies pile up, Agatha wonders whether she’ll escape her latest misadventure with her life.

Agatha (A Spoonful of Poison, 2008, etc.) is as overbearing and abrasive as ever. But she does have her good points, as does this meandering tale.