基本信息出版社：Minotaur Books
页码：240 页
出版日期：2007年10月
ISBN：0312349114
International Standard Book Number：0312349114
条形码：9780312349110
EAN：9780312349110
版本：1st
装帧：精装
正文语种：英语
内容简介
Unlike quite a number of people, Agatha had not given up on Christmas. To have the perfect Christmas had been a childhood dream whilst surviving a rough upbringing in a Birmingham slum. Holly berries glistened, snow fell gently outside, and inside, all was Dickensian jollity. And in her dreams, James Lacey kissed her under the mistletoe, and, like a middle-aged sleeping beauty, she would awake to passion once more....
Agatha Raisin is bored. Her detective agency in the Cotswolds is thriving, but she’ll scream if she has to deal with another missing cat or dog. Only two things seem to offer potential excitement: the upcoming Christmas festivities and her ex, James Lacey. This year she is sure that if she invites James to a really splendid, old-fashioned Christmas dinner, their love will rekindle like a warm Yule log.
When a wealthy widow hires Agatha because she’s convinced a member of her family is trying to kill her, Agatha is intrigued---especially when the widow drops dead after high tea at the manor house. Who in this rather sterile house, complete with fake family portraits, could have hated the old lady enough to poison her?
Agatha sets out to find the murderer, all the while managing a pretty, teenage trainee who makes her feel old and planning for a picture-perfect Christmas, with James, all the trimmings, and perhaps even snow.
作者简介 M. C. Beaton has been hailed as the “new Queen of Crime” (The Globe and Mail). Chosen as the British guest of honor at Bouchercon 2006, she is the author of seventeen previous Agatha Raisin novels, the Hamish Macbeth series, and an Edwardian mystery series published under the name Marion Chesney. Born in Scotland, she currently divides her time between Paris and the English Cotswolds.
媒体推荐 Acclaim for M. C. Beaton and the Agatha Raisin Series
“Beaton’s Agatha Raisin series just about defines the British cozy.”
---Booklist
“Few things in life are more satisfying than to discover a brand-new Agatha Raisin mystery.”
---The Tampa Tribune
“Anyone interested in...intelligent, amusing reading will want to make the acquaintance of Mrs. Agatha Raisin.”
---The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“[Beaton’s] imperfect heroine is an absolute gem!”
---Publishers Weekly
“Outwardly bossy and vain, inwardly insecure and vulnerable, Agatha grows more endearing with each installment.”
---The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
“[M. C. Beaton] is Britain’s successor to Dame Agatha Christie. If you’ve never read an Agatha Raisin novel, it’s time to start.... All of them are cunningly plotted, beautifully written, and more fun than you can imagine.”
---The Globe and Mail
“[Agatha] is a glorious cross between Miss Marple, Auntie Mame, and Lucille Ball, with a tad of pit bull tossed in. She’s wonderful.”
---St. Petersburg Times
专业书评 From Publishers Weekly
The indestructible Agatha Raisin, still at the top of her game in her darkly droll 17th whodunit (after Love, Lies and Liquor), is feeling woefully middle-aged after hiring Toni Gilmour, an endearing U.K.-style Nancy Drew full of teen energy and charm. As Toni takes over the pet recovery end of the sleuthing business, Agatha looks into a mysterious letter from Phyllis Tamworthy, the rich matriarch of the Manor House in the idyllic Cotswolds, who suspects family members of plotting to kill her before she can change her will to disinherit them. Agatha and her friend Sir Charles Fraith attend Phyllis's 80th birthday party, only to see the lady keel over, poisoned by hemlock in her salad. Digging into Phyllis's past yields an even darker mystery. Bestseller Beaton's dry wit enhances Agatha's struggles with aging, men and her most challenging case yet. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
文摘 Chapter 1 Agatha Raisin was bored.
Her detective agency in the English Cotswolds was thriving, but the cases were all small, niggling and unexciting, and yet took a great deal of time to solve. She sometimes felt if she had to deal with another missing cat or dog, she would scream.
Dreams and fantasies, that cushion she usually had against the realities of life, had, to her astonished mind, disappeared entirely. She had dreamed so long about her neighbour and ex-husband, James Lacey, that she would not accept the fact that she did not love him any more. She thought of him angrily as some sort of drug that had ceased to work.
So although it was only early October, she tried to fill her mind with thoughts of Christmas. Unlike quite a number of people, Agatha had not given up on Christmas. To have the perfect Christmas had been a childhood dream whilst surviving a rough upbringing in a Birmingham slum. Holly berries glistened, snow fell gently outside, and inside, all was Dickensian jollity. And in her dreams, James Lacey kissed her under the mistletoe, and, like a middle-aged sleeping beauty, she would awake to passion once more.
Her friend, the vicar’s wife, Mrs. Bloxby, had once pointed out that Christmas was to celebrate the birth of Christ, but Agatha’s mind shied away from that. To her, Christmas was more Hollywood than church.
Christmas advertisements were already appearing on television, and supermarket aisles were laden with Christmas crackers, mince pies and puddings.
But something happened one crisp morning early in the month to take her mind off Christmas.
She was sitting in her office in Mircester, going through the files with her secretary, Mrs. Freedman, wondering whether to handle another dreary job herself or to turn it over to one of her two detectives, Phil Marshall and Patrick Mulligan. Her erstwhile detective, young Harry Beam, was now studying at Cambridge
……