Agatha Raisin is lonely. Busy as she is with her detective agency and
the meetings of the Carsely Ladies' Society, she still misses her
ex-husband, James Lacey, so she welcomes his return to the cottage next
door with her usual triumph of optimism over experience---especially
when he invites her on holiday at a surprise location that was once very
dear to him. With visions of a romantic hideaway in Italy or the
Pacific dancing in her head, Agatha goes off happily with James
to...Snoth-on-Sea, in Sussex.
While James may have fond memories of
boyhood holidays there, Snoth-on-Sea has seen better days, as has the
once-grand Palace Hotel, now run-down and tacky and freezing cold. Nor
do the other guests have much to recommend them, especially the brassy
honeymoon couple, Mr. and Mrs. Jankers, who pick a fight with Agatha in
the dining room. But trouble has a way of following Agatha even if
romance does not: Just as she and James are preparing to flee to warmer
climes, Geraldine Jankers is found dead on the beach---strangled with
Agatha's scarf. So much for Agatha's holiday fantasies: Not only is it
time to put her detective skills to work, but the police are not even
sure that she'll be allowed to leave town.
