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An Agatha Raisin Mystery
by M. C. Beaton
Agatha Raisin has always been ambivalent about holiday cheer, but her cozy little village of Carsely has long prided itself on its Christmas festivities. But this year Mr. John Sunday, a self-important officer with the Health and Safety Board, has ruled that the traditional tree on top of the church is a public menace; that lamp-posts are unsafe for hanging illuminations; that May Dimwoody’s homemade toys are dangerous for children… Things have reached such a desperate pass that the Carsely Ladies’ Society joins forces with the ladies in the neighboring village of Odley Cruesis to try to put a stop to Mr. Sunday’s meddling—only to find that someone has literally put a stop to him with a kitchen knife.
Agatha’s detective agency is on the case, but when a man has made as many enemies as John Sunday, it’s hard to know where to start…
"Starred Review. Terrific...[Beaton], does a brilliant job of depicting Agatha's struggles with aging and keeping her detective agency afloat." - Publishers Weekly
"Testy Agatha, continuing her habit of falling for unsuitable men, scores again with a cunning mixture of satire and mystery." - Kirkus
This information about Busy Body was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
M. C. Beaton has written over twenty Hamish Macbeth mysteries (starting with Death of a Gossip 1985). She is also the author of the Agatha Raisin series (starting with Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death 1992) and is a film commentator on BBC television. She lives in a Cotswolds cottage (mid-west England) with her husband, journalist Harry Scott. A former journalist for daily newspapers, she now devotes her time to writing fiction. Under her own name, Marion Chesney, she also writes Regency romances, and has also written under a variety of other pseudonyms: Sarah Chester, Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Marion Gibbons, Jennie Tremaine, and Charlotte Ward.
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