Even though Agatha Raisin loathes Christmas panto, her friend Mrs Bloxby, the vicar's wife, has persuaded her to support the local am dramsociety in their festive offering. Stifling a yawn at the production of Babes in the Wood, Agatha watches the baker playing an ogre strut andthreaten on stage until a trapdoor opens, followed by a scream and silence! Surely this wasn't the way the scene was rehearsed? When it turnsout the local baker had been murdered most horribly, Agatha puts her team of detectives on the case. And they soon discover more feuds andtemperamental behaviour in amateur dramatics than in a professional stage show - and face more and more danger as Agatha and her team gettoo close to the killer. About the AuthorM. C. Beaton worked as a Fleet Street journalist. She is the author of the Agatha Raisin novels the Hamish Macbeth series and an Edwardian murder-mystery series. She divides her time between Paris and the Cotswolds where she lives in a village very much like Agatha Raisin's beloved Carsely.