Abandoned by new husband James, Agatha Raisin hops on a plane to the South Pacific in the hope that an idyllic holiday will bring some consolation. There, she befriends a honeymooning couple but, tragically, the young bride is accidentally drowned. Returning home to the Cotswolds, Agatha finds herself involved in a strangely similar situation—a woman, dressed in a wedding gown, is found floating in the river. The police say suicide, but Agatha sets out to prove them wrong. - (EBSCOhost)

Crankier than ever, Agatha Raisin wants to forget that her husband left her to enter a monastery—a turn of affairs more humiliating than when she caught him with a mistress. She feels abandoned, fat, frumpy, and absolutely furious.

What are her options? She takes an island vacation and joins a Pilates class. But what finally lifts her spirits is finding a corpse. The dead girl was a member of Agatha's exercise class, afloat in a rain-swollen river, dressed in a bridal gown, and clutching a wedding bouquet. Agatha's policeman friend Bill Wong suggests she leave this macabre murder to the Worcester CID. Pah! What do they know? Once she enlists the aid of the bachelor mystery writer next door, puts on a disguise, and interviews some likely suspects, Agatha will be her brash, redoubtable self again—unless she becomes the killer's next victim first …

Booklist Reviews

Beaton's Agatha Raisin series (this is her twelfth) just about defines the British cozy: she gives us an individualistic sleuth working out of a thatched cottage in an achingly picturesque Cotswolds village. Agatha Raisin deviates from the sensible Miss Marple norm, however, in being thin-skinned, prickly, and annoying, but this difference spices up the formula. Agatha's latest adventures begin when her husband runs off to join a monastery in France. Agatha seeks solace in an island vacation. During her getaway, she notices a newlywed couple; within days, the groom drowns the bride. On her return home, during a dramatic flash flood, Agatha sees another dead bride, wearing a white gown and clutching a bridal bouquet, sweeping past on the river. Agatha swings into action, pestering the locals and enlisting the aid of her new neighbor, a mystery writer. Very improbable detective work, but a satisfying read nonetheless for cozy lovers. ((Reviewed July 2002)) Copyright 2002 Booklist Reviews