Free Agatha Raisin Companion by MC Beaton Page B

meetings, when Agatha is about to crack the case of the poisoned quiche, lead him to believe that she is completely mad. When she meets his attractive sister, Agatha initially
assumes that they are an item.
    As book two, Vicious Vet, opens, Agatha is returning from the Bahamas with a ‘tan outside and a blush of shame inside’. She had spent a fortune on flattering clothes, slimmed
down for a bikini, and travelled halfway across the world to find that he was nowhere to be seen. Eventually, she phones Mrs Bloxby to be told that he changed his mind at the last minute and went
to stay with a friend in Egypt – after finding out that Agatha was planning a trip to Nassau.
    Studiously avoiding him to start with, she feels that James becomes more interested after she has a flirtation with the local vet, who is then murdered.

    In Potted Gardener, it’s Agatha’s turn to be jealouswhen James is revealed to have had an affair with Mary Fortune, the beautiful divorcée
who is murdered after the village horticultural show. As the pair investigate the murder of a rambler in Walkers of Dembley, Agatha suggests they pose as man and wife and is thrilled that
‘for a brief period she was to be Mrs Lacey, albeit in name only. But who knew what delights that could lead to!’ Indeed, while their brief period of cohabiting is rocky, James finally
warms to her and the pair make passionate love. The next day, he pops the question for real and an ecstatic Agatha accepts.

    Something of a cold fish, James never talks about his past or his feelings. Even in the run-up to their wedding, Agatha worries that she knows little about him and asks him, ‘Do you love
me, James?’ His typically insensitive reply is, ‘I’m marrying you, aren’t I?’ and he then tells his fiancée that she has been watching too much Oprah Winfrey.
‘I’m not a talking-about-feelings person, nor do I see the need for it.’
    Murderous Marriage sees Agatha’s dream of happiness dashed once more when her ex-husband, Jimmy Raisin, turns up at the wedding. A horrified James, furious that Agatha had told him
Jimmy was dead, says he will never forgive her. However, when Jimmy is killed, he does return to help her find the real murderer, thereby clearing their names.
    An uneasy friendship does eventually end in marriage when Agatha returns from a long spell in Norfolk to a pining James, who proposes. The marriage is a disaster, with constant fights,jealousy and criticism and, after developing a brain tumour, James flees to a monastery in France. Agatha pursues him there, only to be told he is taking holy orders and
selling his cottage. When she discovers he has changed his mind and left the monastery, she believes his new-found religion was merely a plot to get rid of her.
    After a lengthy period of absence, James makes a surprise return and moves back into the cottage next to Agatha’s in Love, Lies and Liquor. A disastrous barbecue with his
incorrigibly rude friends helps Agatha feel that she is finally over him. James, however, is never keener than when he is being snubbed, so he wins her round with a promise of a mystery holiday.
When they end up in a grotty seaside town in the rain, and Agatha finds herself accused of murder, the relationship takes a turn for the worse. Once more, James leaves her in the lurch and drives
to France.
    By the end of Kissing Christmas Goodbye, Agatha appears to be genuinely over her former paramour. When he kisses her passionately at her Christmas dinner, she feels nothing and her
indifference, as usual, fuels his own feelings for her. In a missive from Arles in France, he invites her join him and even signs off, ‘Miss you’, but Agatha is unmoved and ignores the
plea.

    Although she appears to be free of her obsession, Agatha is horrified to receive an invitation to James’s engagement party, barely a month after his last letter.
    On the day of the wedding, however, his bride is murdered, leaving Agatha, once more,