Agatha Raisin is naturally not pleased to discover that her ex-husband and neighbor James Lacey is getting married. She is invited to the wedding with several of her employees and village friends, and they are all dismayed to find how tacky James’ new in-laws are. But the wedding does not take place as the bride is found murdered, and Agatha is hired by the distraught mother to discover whodunit. Agatha seems to be the prime suspect herself, but soon she finds that there is a lot more to this case than meets the eye.

There is always plenty to enjoy in these books, although this plot (tortuous though it is) is relatively easy to guess and the case itself stops fairly early on. But there is much unfinished business that takes up the rest of the book, taking place in a variety of places and involving various exciting escapades. As usual there is a generous dose of satire too, and a chance to meet up with old friends from the earlier books. For any new readers out there yet to discover the pleasures of Agatha there is a helpful introduction bringing you up to speed on what has gone before. Personally I would recommend starting from the beginning, and to aid this there is a useful list of all the earlier books in order. Maybe there is not much that is new or unexpected in here but then that is not the charm of these books, and as ever, the towering colossus that is Agatha dominates everything with her mixture of humanity, jealousy and bull-headed determination.