DLauren

A shocking death at St. Michael's Church pitches Detective Sergeant Kathleen Doyle into a confusing case - one where the motive for the crime is not at all clear and only becomes less so as the investigation unearths a massive criminal enterprise. Why was the murder of such a famous man necessary? And why does Doyle have the sense that the killer had to steel himself to commit the crime?

This homicide case featured aristocrats as far as the eye could see, between the Russians and the Spaniards, and Acton, of course, who was supposedly investigating the others, but seemed a little too deferential for Doyle's taste. Why wasn't her husband moving in on the killer?

Agatha Raisin's neighboring village of Ancombe is usually the epitome of quiet rural charm, but the arrival of a new mineral-water company - which intends to tap into the village spring - sends tempers flaring and divides the parish council into two stubborn camps. When Agatha, who happens to be the PR person for the water company, finds the council chairman murdered at the spring, tongues start wagging. Could one of the council members have silenced the chairman before he could cast the deciding vote?