Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley

The newest Agatha Raisin adventure is quietly humorous but thin in plot. Finishing up her stint at a London PR firm, which she agreed to in Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener (1994), the acerbic 50-something retiree happily returns to her Cotswolds cottage--and her bachelor neighbor and sleuthing partner, James Lacey. Shortly after Agatha's return, Jessica Tartinck, the confrontational leader of a walking group, is murdered in nearby Dembley. When Sir Charles Fraith becomes the chief suspect (he and Jessica had argued about the walkers' right-of-way through his fields), Agatha is asked by a village friend to investigate. Ever eager, Agatha and her cohort James move to Dembley and, posing as man and wife, infiltrate Jessica's walking group. But, as Beaton's readers have learned to expect, Agatha's jubilation is short-lived, and her pseudo-marriage to James doesn't go at all as she hopes. Wending their way through circuitous misadventure, however, the pair solve the murder and forge a deeper relationship than they'd enjoyed before. (Apr.)