Agatha Raisin, PR whizz, gives up her successful life in London, landing with a bang in the quiet village of Carsely with hopes of beginning a new dream life.

Bored, lonely and used to getting her own way, Agatha finds that life in the Cotswolds isn't quite the picture-perfect existence she imagined... and when her highflying city attitude is met with puzzlement and suspicion from country locals, Agatha enlists the few allies she can find.

Among them are DC Bill Wong, a lovelorn local policeman, Gemma Simpson, her suffer-no-fools cleaning lady, and Roy Silver, a faithful former assistant from London. But with her unique brand of feisty truth telling finding little favour, it seems the community is not quite ready for the acerbic Agatha.

In an attempt to ingratiate herself, Agatha enters the annual quiche making competition and inadvertently becomes a suspect in a murder case. As her reputation sinks ever lower, and any hopes of romance with her dashing ex-Army neighbour James Lacey swiftly thwarted, Agatha has no choice but to clear her name and earn the respect of her fellow villagers. Determined to wring out the truth, Agatha sets about solving the mystery of the quiche of death.

Other characters include long-suffering village housewife and Amateur Dramatics devotee Jo Cummings Brown (and her errant husband Andy); hapless DI Wilkes; Agatha's next door neighbour and nemesis Sheila; village vicar Jez and his wife Sarah; husband and wife Ella and John Cartwright; villagers Gail and Gene; a couple called Mr and Mrs Boggle; 'purveyor of quiche' Spiros Eonomides; and Roy's Australian boyfriend Steve.