Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage: An Agatha Raisin Mystery

This one was a little harder for me to pay attention to than normal, although I don’t know if that’s because of the book or because of me. I don’t really like Agatha and James together, their dynamic is unhealthy. It was fun and charming as always though, overall!

Agatha was desperate to get married to James unless the bad feeling might be realized before the ceremony. But...she was almost close to commit a bigamy. The damned alchoholic and abusive husband, Jimmy came up alive in the aisle. He deserved to die because he made Agatha's life miserable...even he found to have blackmailed some at the health farm...But, it shouldn't be done by our brave Agatha... I was touched several timed during reading this book. One scene is that Bill and Agatha realized the love and friendship toward each other though the horrible Maddie tried to manipulated Bill (but, one thing I didn't like is that the woman in the police should be womanly. Thus Maddie was out from the investigation. I couldn't like her but the reason she was out should be her cruelty abusing the heart of the person who was nice to her..Well, women are sometimes unbelievablely cruel to men who fall for them). And the second one is that Agatha confessed her miserable youth and the how she got married. I almost empathized, and was moved. And the third thing was that James and the persons found the Agatha's picture in Jimmy's wallet. Jimmy might thought to use Agatha when he decided to get married. But the only picture he kept in his wallet is not the other girls but only Agatha's. He's a villian, but the one who knew how young Agatha was so sweet with full of dreams. Wow...from the first moment I got to read the first one of Agatha Raisin series, I got to like her though she was described to be chubby, mean, tough etc. She has attractions. Originally she's a warm-hearted person. The more books out, the more I got to understand her.

I have enjoyed the character development in this series. It helps to read the Agatha Raisin books in sequence although it is not necessary to enjoy each story. Agatha and James are complex characters and M.C. Beaton does an excellent job in their delineation. The villagers in this cozy mystery are lovable and reading the book is like living in a small village.The plot of this book was interesting and the action well-paced. I couldn't put the book down until I finished it. The relationship of James and Agatha has reached a different level in this story. Being middle-aged, independent and set in their ways, their feelings for each other are bound to be mixed. They are likable and you care what happens to them.

This was my first Agatha Raisin book, and I loved it. I work at a library, and now I've read nearly all of them. You'll love the village and the recurring characters.

Read anything by MC Beaton or Marion Chesney you can get your hands on. She's got great character development in every slim volume that she publishes. What a gem!

With each new book, Agatha becomes a more delightful character (at least to me). An errant husband reappears and interrupts Agatha's marriage vows almost in midsentence of "I do." When he is murdered, Agatha becomes the main suspect as well as a scorned fiancee. But while James may not be of a marriage mind with Agatha, he is still of the investigative mind. And so off they go to solve the murder. The usual secondary characters are back and Bill, the local police officer, even has a love interest. With little former background on James Lacy, we do discover here that he is very well versed in the art of lock picking, even having his own set of tools. And a clearer idea of Agatha's age is given on page 101. That alone is worth the price of the book.