Toil and trouble in store for Agatha! Agatha Raisin and the Witches’ Tree is the latest novel by the talented M.C. Beaton.
Cotswolds inhabitants are used to bad weather, but the night sky is especially foggy as Rory and Molly Harris, the new vicar and his wife, drive slowly home from a dinner party in their village of Sumpton Harcourt. They struggle to see the road ahead – but then screech to a halt. Right in front of them, aglow in the headlights of their car, a body hangs from a lightning-blasted tree at the edge of town. But it’s not suicide; Margaret Darby, an elderly spinster of the parish, has been murdered – and the villagers are bewildered as to who would commit such a crime, and why.
Agatha Raisin rises to the occasion, delighted to have some excitement back in her life as, truth be told, she was getting bored of the long run of lost cats and divorces on the books. But Sumpton Harcourt is an isolated and unfriendly village, she finds; a place that poses more questions than answers. And when two more murders follow the first, Agatha begins to fear for her reputation – and her life. That the village has its own coven of witches certainly doesn’t make her feel any better...
"A Beaton novel is like The Archers on speed" - Daily Mail
M.C. Beaton is the author of both the Agatha Raisin and the Hamish Macbeth series, as well as numerous Regency romances. Her Agatha Raisin books have been turned into a TV series on Sky, starring Ashley Jensen as Agatha. She lives in Paris and in a Cotswold village that is very much like Agatha’s beloved Carsely.
Agatha Raisin and the Witches’ Tree is published by Constable and is available online and from all good booksellers.
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