M.C. Beaton Love, Lies and Liquor

Love, Lies and Liquor

M.C. Beaton

St. Martin's, Sep 2006, $24.95

ISBN: 0312337469

In Carsely, James Lacey invites his former spouse Agatha Raisin to attend a barbecue hosted by his friends, David and Jill Hewitt in nearby Ancombe. Agatha, hoping to reconcile with James, readily agrees so she drives them to their nearby destination. The barbeque is a disaster so Agatha leaves without a word, vowing never again to get involved with James.

Agatha completely cuts James off who becomes concerned when she fails to come around as she always does and his rival Charles Fraith arrives at her cottage. To make up for the dreadful barbecue James invites Agatha on a seaside vacation, which she accepts dreaming of the Riviera or Mediterranean, etc. He drives them to Smoth-on-Sea in Sussex where they stop at the dilapidated Palace Hotel, which he fondly remembers as luxurious. However, a mix-up occurs in booking which leads them to drive towards Dover until Smoth-on-Sea CID DI Barret pulls them over to bring Agatha in for questioning as the prime suspect in the murder of Geraldine Jankers, a woman she got into a public argument with in the hotel's restaurant and threatened to kill. Agatha knows she better meddle in this investigation because the police are looking only in one direction, hers.

As impossible as this might seem, Agatha Raisin seems crustier, more bristly, and much more aggressively impatient with others than ever before starting with the barbeque where she smokes a cigarette even after her host asked her not to in "a smoked-free zone" and continues during Barret's interrogation and her investigation. The story line is obviously vintage Agatha though this time her meddling is personal as she assumes the locals will gladly throw away the key once they incarcerate her. The whodunit is fun to follow and the epilogue leaves the audience like an addict wanting more.

Harriet Klausner