Something borrowed someone dead

the long version

Incomer Gloria French is at first welcomed in the Cotswold village of Piddlebury. She seems like a do-gooder par excellence, raising funds for the church and caring for the elderly. But she has a bad habit of borrowing things and not giving them back, so when she is discovered dead, folk don't mourn her passing too much. Parish councillor Jerry Tarrant hires Agatha Raisin to track down the murderer. But the village is secretive. Then Agatha's investigations are hampered by the upset of discovering that her ex, James Lacey, has fallen in love with her young protege.