High Season: English for the Hotel and Tourist Industry - Keith Harding

Advantages: first book in the series to be set outside of the UK
Disadvantages: one dimensional characters

...Agatha Raisin has just solved the mystery of who murdered her estranged husband and decides to go after James Lacey who has fled the Cotswold after their broken engagement. She arrives in Cyprus and checks into a hotel deciding that she must try to find her errant ex fiancé and try to repair the damage caused by recent events. She manages to eventually track him down along with some other British tourists who are basically not the sort of people she would want to associate with but when one of them drops dead right in front of their eyes Agatha feels she has to step in and investigate as she is herself under suspicion. It's also a great opportunity for her to get close again to James or is it? Also who else should turn up on the holiday as well but Sir Charles Fraith whose life Agatha saved not long ago during the Dembley Walkers murder... Read review

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Advantages: Crazy, black humour, but with a deeper agenda
Disadvantages: Could be a little too crazy for some

...-football champion, a Seminole Indian and an American of Cuban roots who sees himself as Cuba's freedom fighter. All have mixed reasons for wanting to terrify the people of Miami; but the primary reason seems to be to get rid of the tourist industry and return Miami to its natural environment. Brian Keyes takes on the arduous task or trying to stop Las Noches before the situation spirals out of control… The main characters Brian Keyes is almost an anti-hero. He was a journalist for the Miami Sun until he had to leave after a distressing murder that he had been working on. He then applied to be a private investigator, dealing primarily with divorce cases. That is until he becomes involved with Skip Wiley, the psychopathic leader of Las Noches and he is forced unwillingly into a world of complete nutters who will stop at nothing to achieve their aims... Read review

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Advantages: An insiders tale of the life of a professional cricketer
Disadvantages: Non sports fans won't find much to interest them

...A Lot of Hard Yakka - Simon Hughes Simon Hughes may not be the most familiar name in cricket; he never played for England, nor was he ever seriously contemplated for selection. He retired in the mid nineties having spent a decade and a half at the top of the domestic game but only the most dedicated of cricket fans would have been able to put a face to the name. While Hughes may not have had the most glamorous of careers he still lived the life of a professional sportsman and in this book he provides an unequalled insight into that life. The eighties were an exciting time for English cricket, from Botham's heroics in the '81 Ashes through victories at home and away there were any number of larger than life characters around and Hughes came into contact with most of them. This is not a biography as such, we don't learn much... Read review

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