Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist

by M.C. Beaton

Book Overview

Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist continues the tradition in M. C. Beaton's beloved Agatha Raisin cozy mystery series--now a hit show on Acorn TV and public television. Agatha Raisin's marriage... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031216761X
• ISBN13: 9780312167615
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 182 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

I love Agatha Raisin

I love Agatha Raisin and await each new book in the series with great anticipation. Other reviewers criticized this book, complaining about the heroine, Agatha's many and varied imperfections. Agatha, who grew up in the Birmingham slums, managed to claw her way to the top in the London PR world, while always maintaining the dream of one day living in a pretty Cotswold village. Now in her 50s, with a thickening waistline and new hairs sproinging out where they never used to be, she has sold her PR firm and bought her cottage in a sweet little village, and has fallen crazily and one-sidedly in love with her neighbor, James. I just attempted to read a thriller where all the characters were absolutely beautiful, young, sexy, brilliant, and successful. I put it down after reading a few chapters. I just hate books where the heroes are perfect and the only people who have quirks or disfunction are the bad characters or the hackneyed "sidekick" character. I am very fond of Agatha Raisin and also Janet Evanovich's character, Stephanie Plum. I think what makes them so loveable is that they are like many of us who haven't figured out our lives yet, who make mistakes, and are not morally and physically perfect. In other words, real people. The reasons Agatha pursues James are many. He's an attractive, middle-aged man who moved in next door, and Agatha built up a huge fantasy about him before she even saw him. By building that fantasy right away, Agatha set herself up in a situation where she HAD to love him, even once he revealed his cold personality, and would FORCE him to love her, just to make the fantasy come true. When James went out with other women, that only made it more imperitive that he choose her over these other women, because if James preferred other women, it meant Agatha was over the hill or not good enough, and that's a bad feeling. If this seems childish, part of the story is that after Agatha left the Birmingham slums she had no friends or relatives whatsoever, and her only aquaintences were those she manipulated and bullied into doing what she needed from them. She's only just learning in her 50s to have friends and just let things happen, which is what is taking place without Agatha realizing it, in her relationship with Sir Charles, the baronet first introduced in "Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley". In this book, Charles is back. Charles is very like Agatha. Both are "players", not in a cold, calculating way, but because they get into unsustainable fantasy relationships with attractive people they idealize. But Charles knows the real Agatha, and Agatha knows the real Charles, faults and all. I really enjoyed reading this book , which had exotic travel, humorous romance, murder and mystery all in one fun package.

--Murder in Cypress--

Agatha Raisin who had retired to the quiet life in the Cotswold village of Carsley, is finding life to be very boring without the companionship of James Lacey. She's depressed because James, the love of her life has broken off their engagement. Of course, he had a good reason to do so, because Agatha had not told him the complete truth about her husband, Jimmy. She had led him to believe that Jimmy was dead, and both Agatha and James were shocked to have Jimmy appear at the start of their wedding. James is now in Cypress where he and Agatha were to be together on their honeymoon. Since Agatha is wildly aggressive and impulsive, she decides to follow James and try to rekindle their romance.Agatha has some trouble in locating James, and to fill her time, she takes a cruise. On the ship she meets up with a rather odd assortment of English tourists. She also runs into Sir Charles Firth who seduces her and causes more conflict between Agatha and James. When one of the English tourists is killed, Agatha jumps in to investigate, and after a second murder takes place; it appears that the murderer is also after our Aggie, as Sir Charles likes to call her.AGATHA RAISIN AND THE TERRIBLE TOURIST is a little different from the other stories in this series because it takes place in an exotic part of the world. I really enjoyed hearing about the history of Cypress. This is the sixth book in the Agatha Raisin stories.

One of my favorites in the series so far.

We get to go along on vacation with Agatha and James to the warm, inviting island of Crete. But they aren't really together -- or are they? Their relationship has more ups and downs than a roller coaster! And how does that other vacationer from the Cotswolds fit in? And somebody was murdered -- but everybody keeps partying. What are the relationships of all these terrible tourists? This is a nice entry in the Agatha series. And I'm grateful for the nice, warm vacation.

Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist

This book was wonderful. The conflict between Agatha, James, Charles and the new characters was delightful, and I can't wait until the next one! I have read all of the Hamish McBeth and he can't beat Agatha! I love her, she is sooo funny!

Best of series to date. Heartwrenching.

Agatha takes devoted fans through the ringer with her romantic escapades and her perilous adventures. Readers should expect to be starved for more of agatha especially in the James Lacey department upon completion of this book. Despite the severely painful adventures agatha faces in this book, her self esteem seems to be improved.