This is the fourteenth installment in the Agatha Raisin saga. The author,M. C. Beaton, has also penned nineteen Hamish Macbeth mysteries along with a handful of other books. Our feisty, middle aged heroine is retired from a successful career in public relations in London and now lives in the English village of Carsely. Anyone who has read any Miss Marple stories knows that quiet English villages can be very dangerous places to live.In this adventure, Ms. Raisin teams up with her next door neighbor Paul Chatterton , a handsome man-- also middle aged-- who is currently living apart from his wife. Agatha and Paul decide to investigate the newspaper story about an elderly Mrs. Witherspoon, who claims her house is haunted. After a notably unsuccessful night trying to catch a ghost, the two would-be detectives retreat until, sometime late! r, the old woman is found dead. Murder most foul rekindles their curiosity and the chase is on--much to the chagrin of the local police.

Beaton moves the story along at a brisk pace, introducing a cast of possible suspects and other colorful characters as she goes. The author also weaves in an historical manuscript that may tell the location of buried treasure. As the murders mount up, Agatha and Paul amass clues, but readers will have to suspend disbelief as solutions to the various mysteries come, perhaps once too often, out of the blue. Agatha Raisin fans will remember her continuing quest to find (and marry) a man. This theme, wearing a bit thin by now, seems to be taken to unnecessary lengths in this story. Still, Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House will appeal to readers who like a good mystery without too much gore.