MacCaddon is fine in the role but gives a much more restrained performance than Keith does in the other voices.

To have the perfect Christmas had been a childhood dream whilst surviving a rough upbringing in a Birmingham slum. I enjoyed this book, I like the addition of Tony, and the Christmas dinner made me laugh, especially the snowmachine. And in her dreams, James Lacey kissed her under the mistletoe, and, like a middle-aged sleeping beauty, she would awake to passion once more. When a wealthy widow hires Agatha because she's convinced a member of her family is trying to kill her, Agatha is intrigued---especially when the widow drops dead after high tea at the manor house. In this book Agatha has decided she is going to serve the perfect Christmas dinner, perhaps she has forgotten her attempt to do this before?

Only in the very last chapter do we have an early Christmas party, and it all falls very flat and isn’t festive.

It’s pointed out a couple of times it’s early October, but Agatha occasionally dreams of organising a Dickensian Christmas. After a harrowing night at the residence, protection turns into a murder investigation when her host is found dead. Toni will become a mainstay of the book series until the present day, unlike many of the temporary hires whom Agatha goes through. Agatha Raisin is sharp, witty, hugely intelligent, unfailingly entertaining, delightfully intolerant and oh so magnificently non PC. Eager to soak up every ounce of drama, Agatha puts everyone in the village under a microscope, including the victim’s own children.With DCI Wilkes on vacation, Bill stays on as lead officer on the case, lending Agatha a helping hand. Agatha is determined to have an old fashioned Christmas, complete with friends, decorations, good food, and romance. While bookselling, by chance, she got an offer from the Scottish Daily Mail to review variety shows and quickly rose to be their theatre critic. There is a hint of depth there, a kernel of a much more interesting personality, but it was never developed in this book. it says, ‘The house was small and grey; one of those old Cotswold houses which weather so well that it is hard to determine it’s age’.

Questa autrice scrive gialli leggeri da leggere, economici, con un buon formato Kindle e in un buon inglese per cui ho man mano acquistato e letto tutta la serie per svago e per migliorare il mio inglese. She's looking into a case where a woman thinks her family may try to murder her for their inheritance when she takes on a new assistant, young Toni. Sir Charles is much more of a recurring character and occasional love interest than he is in the screen adaptation and his cheap and chintzy manners are played up quite a bit.All the series characters are here - Sir Charles Fraith, James Lacey, Mrs Bloxby and all the ladies from the Carsely Ladies' Society. She is involved in a case where someone has ostensibly murdered an obnoxious old woman with four obnoxious adult children. Bloxby, and with a new hire at the agency, Toni, and a surprise at Agatha's Christmas dinner, are all quite entertaining and make this one a delightful cozy mystery. The mystery itself is not absorbing or even remotely original, and the motivations of most of the suspects unclear. This year she is sure that if she invites James to a really splendid, old-fashioned Christmas dinner, their love will rekindle like a warm Yule log.