Kissing Christmas Goodbye by Marion Chesney (2007, Hardcover)

Marion Chesney, the author is also known as M. C. Beaton. She writes this Agatha Raisin englishwoman sleuth series of books and also the Hamish Macbeth series. She is a wonderful mystery writer, capturing just the right amount of british eccentricity in her main character, a 50 something, lovelorn, crabby yet tender hearted sleuth named Agatha Raisin. Agatha is a handful to the community in the cotswolds that she has settled in, and the surrounding characters are full of a zest for life that is captivating. Their relationships to Agatha are delightfully funny and really capture the life of the community in which Agatha lives. I love this book series as well as her Macbeth books. Marion Chesney along with Deborah Crombie another british mystery writer are the absolute best of the many english mystery writers I have read over the last few years.