Agatha Raisin and the Case of the Curious Curate (Agatha Raisin Series #13)

by M. C. Beaton

Overview

Agatha Raisin and the Case of the Curious Curate continues the tradition in M. C. Beaton's beloved Agatha Raisin mystery series—now a hit show on Acorn TV and public television.

Agatha Raisin is feeling miserable—and with good reason. Her ex-husband, James, has abandoned her, and she's been humiliated by an unseemly proposition from John Armitage, her handsome neighbor. So complete is her devastation that Agatha has given up on makeup and taken to wearing the loose cotton dresses and flat, sensible shoes she has always abhorred.

But there is light at the end of this dark and lonely tunnel, and its source is Carsely's beatific new curate, Tristan Delon. With his golden hair, large blue eyes, and perfect mouth, Tristan has attracted the interest of more than a few of his female congregants. And to her surprise, he seems to have taken a special interest in Agatha.

Despite his charms, however, there is something odd about the curate, and after he's found dead in the vicar's study, it's up to Agatha and John to investigate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250121196
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/17/2004
Series:	Agatha Raisin Series , #13
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

M. C. Beaton (1936-2019), the “Queen of Crime” (The Globe and Mail), was the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Agatha Raisin novels — the basis for the hit series on Acorn TV and public television — as well as the Hamish Macbeth series and the Edwardian Murder Mysteries featuring Lady Rose Summer. Born in Scotland, she started her career writing historical romances under several pseudonyms and her maiden name, Marion Chesney.

In 2006, M.C. was the British guest of honor at Bouchercon.

Editorial Reviews

Few things in life are more satisfying than to discover a brand-new Agatha Raisin mystery.” —Tampa Tribune-Times

“What makes readers love Agatha Raisin? Is it her jealous rages? Inability to quit smoking? Beady little bearlike eyes?... Somehow this cranky middle-aged dame's many flaws only make her more appealing.” —Booklist

From the Publisher

Beaton's grumpy, depressive heroine (Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came, 2002, etc.) has little reason to be cheerful when the curtain comes up this time around. Abandoned in the village of Cardely by her ex-husband James, she's left with no male company save her neighbor John Armitage, a novelist who seems at first unmoved by their proximity. But things brighten with the arrival of vicar Alf Bloxby's new assistant, movie-star-gorgeous curate Tristan Delon. Church attendance naturally soars, and Agatha is even more thrilled when Tristan offers himself as a skilled money manager. The morning after their dinner, however, Tristan is found stabbed to death in the vicar's study. When his murder is followed by the killings of two more women from the village, Armitage thinks he and Agatha should investigate-despite warnings from detective Bill Wong to stay out of it. Their queries take them to London and to business mogul Richard Binser, whose worshipful secretary Miss Partle discloses the news that her boss fell for an expensive scam of Tristan's. Before it's all over, Armitage will have moved to London and Agatha become the target of yet another murder attempt in an absurdly melodramatic denouement. Beaton, never as convincing in this cartoonish series as in her tales of Hamish MacBeth (Death of a Village, 2002, etc.), goes way overboard in one of Agatha's lesser puzzles. Even so, things keep moving fast enough to hold the faithful's interest.

Kirkus Reviews

Beaton has a winner in the irrepressible, romance-hungry Agatha.”

praise for the series Chicago Sun-Times

At the core of every village cozy is a pinch of arsenic. In the Agatha Raisin Cotswold cozies, the arsenic is Agatha herself, a pushy, whiny, unsociable, self-pitying sort who investigates murders in the tiny village of Carsely the way other women might shop, as a distraction from boredom…Beaton revives a fairly routine plot with a whiff of Dorian Gray here.”

Booklist

Anyone interested in a few hours’ worth of intelligent, amusing reading will want to make the acquaintance of Mrs. Agatha Raisin.”

praise for the series Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Miss Marple-like Raisin is refreshingly sensible and wonderfully eccentric.”

praise for the series Buffalo News