Agatha Faces Her Toughest Mystery
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You'll find your little grey cells are put to a significant challenge in finding the murderer in Agatha Raisin and the Case of the Curious Curate. If you can get over your annoyance at Agatha's compulsive need to attract men, you'll find this to be an outstanding novel.
Agatha feels deceived as this book opens. She had written to the French monastery where her ex-husband, James Lacey, was to pursue holy orders . . . only to find that James wasn't there. She decides that James had just used a story about wanting to take on a religious vocation as an excuse to get out being married to her. Her new neighbor, the famous mystery novelist John Armitage, had made a crude proposition that seemed to suggest he had no real interest in her as a person. So Agatha stopped seeing Armitage.
Agatha decides to spend her time doing public relations work and settling into go works with the Carsely Ladies' Society. That intent is quickly subverted when a new curate, Tristan Delon, arrives in Carsely who has all the women agog. He's the most beautiful man any of them have seen in person. Agatha is thrilled to be invited to a gourmet dinner by Tristan and even more delighted when he kisses her at the end of the meal. She's a little put off, however, by his offering to invest money for her, but she fended him off.
By the next morning, someone has killed Delon, and Agatha wants to find the murderer to eliminate suspicion from the vicar, Alf Bloxby in whose study Delon was found. Agatha mends fences with John Armitage, and they become a sleuthing duo again. But Agatha's ire is soon raised by John's taking the lead in interviewing women who are offended by Agatha's blunt questions.
In the investigations, Agatha finds that Delon never met a wealthy person he didn't hit on for money. Wherever the money was intended to go (for charity or for investments), the money went to entertain Delon instead. Someone must have been seriously annoyed in the past because Delon had been beaten up during his prior posting.
When Agatha and John try to find out more about Delon's character and past relationships, they find a lot of angry people. In fact, the detecting duo is warned off by the police. Agatha gets herself in even deeper hot water when she takes her investigations too far . . . and Bill Wong has to bail her out.
On the personal front, Bill Wong thinks he's found the love of his life . . . one who can pass scrutiny at home. Agatha is terribly worried that this young woman isn't going to work out and tries to interfere . . . risking her most reliable male friendship.
As the story goes on, it has many interesting twists and turns that give glimpses into worlds few of us ever enter.
If you try to solve the case before Agatha does, you'll have a worthy challenge. It's not impossible . . . but it's not obvious.
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