AGATHA RAISIN AND THE TERRIBLE TOURIST

The marriage of ex-public relations whiz Agatha Raisin to cold, enigmatic James Lacey, who lives next door to her retirement cottage in the Cotswold village of Carsely, has fallen through (Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage, 1996, etc.). James has taken off for Cyprus, the planned site of their aborted honeymoon, and Agatha, incomprehensibly, takes off after him, Soon after her arrival, on a day cruise in the harbor at Kyrenia, she meets an oddly mixed group of tourists—aristocratic Olivia Debenham, her broker husband George, and their older friend Harry Tembleton— spending much of their time in the company of low-class, tarty Rose Wilcox, her hard-drinking husband Trevor, and their elderly friend Angus King. Agatha has tracked down James and, on a platonic basis, is sharing his rented house. They've joined the oddball group at a disco one night when Rose is stabbed to death and Agatha and James are detained and questioned by Detective Inspector Lyall Pamir. A second murder in the group arouses all of Agatha's detecting fervor. She gets background info on them from her policeman friend Bill Wong in England; escapes a couple of attacks on her own life; plays around a bit with vacationing long time acquaintance Sir Charles Fraith; and bemoans James's disappearance just as she solves the case. None of this nonsense can be taken seriously, least of all Agatha's obsession with the thoroughly off-putting James or plotting as full of holes as Swiss cheese. Only the author's blithe and breezy style and some interest in the historic sights of northern Cyprus could inspire most readers to stay the course.