M C Beaton

Amateur sleuth Agatha Raisin is going through a man-hating phase after being left by her husband, is bored with tottering around Carsley, and wishes men would just sod off, so she is unmoved by news of a captivating new curate. But when she meets the golden-haired, blue-eyed Tristan Delon, she is swept off her feet—along with every other female in the village. She is positively ecstatic when he invites her to dine with him, but the next day Agatha is left with a hangover from hell—and the curate is found dead. Carsley is whisked from time-warp monotony to a hotbed of murder and intrigue, and Agatha Raisin is back on track. As the corpses multiply, ever-obstinate Agatha trails clues from Lilac Lane to London, unmindful that someone wicked is arranging that Mrs. Raisin's cats never again hear their mistress' footfall on the path.