During her time in Carsely, Agatha has had little trouble finding murderers, but far more difficulty finding true love. While James often appears on the horizon for Agatha’s heart, there has always been something keeping the two apart. Fortunately for her, a new piece of man candy has entered the village: Paul Bladen, a dashing veterinarian.

Sharing a practice with fellow veterinarian Peter Rice, the duo has experienced a rapid influx of clientele upon opening up shop. However, it doesn’t seem like animals are sick, rather the women around Carsely have become intoxicated by Paul’s tall,  dark and handsome ways, not to mention his undeniable charm.

With her supreme confidence and ability to stand out amongst the crowd, Agatha makes a fast impression on Paul, leaving a flock of ogling ladies to twiddle their thumbs in the waiting room. Once Agatha’s in the treatment area with Paul and her cat, Hodge, the flirtatious banter begins to fly. A connection is easily formed and the pair agree to go on a dinner date.

While Agatha’s heart is pulsating with excitement, poor Mrs. Josephs’ heart is breaking, as she learns through Paul that her cat needs to be put down.

Off the clock, Paul is late for his date with Agatha. When Agatha called to find out where he was, someone claiming to be his wife answered the phone, leaving her furious and ready to leave. But, once Paul arrived, he excused the whole thing away be stating that his sister was in town and just playing a cruel joke on him. Agatha, while sceptical, opts to give Paul the benefit of the doubt.

After many drinks, Agatha and Paul stagger back to his place and he attempts to instigate a kiss. Not interested in moving too fast, Agatha makes up an excuse to leave and heads out into the night.

By the next morning, Paul is back to his animal rescuing ways: this time, he is tending to a horse. As Paul prepares to operate, he hears a strange noise behind him. When he turns around, a fist swiftly hits him the face. Once on the ground, Paul is fatally stabbed in the heart by one of his own tools. As it turns out, it was a horse tranquilizing serum getting injected into his body.

Even though it was briefly suspected that Paul accidently injected himself, that notion soon fades. Why, or how, could a man with Paul’s experience inject himself? Surely, this wasn’t something Paul did to himself – someone wanted him dead. But, who could that be?

Now, it’s likely that Paul had some potential enemies: lovesick housewives, jealous husbands, or someone of the like. However, when it is learned that he lied about having a sibling, Agatha can’t help but wonder what other untruths or secrets got Paul into trouble.

As Agatha’s wheels begin to turn, James offers to assist her in this investigation. Together, they first visit the scene of the crime: a horse stable on the land of Lord Pendlebury. Here, Pendlebury explains that he didn’t expect Paul on the day he appeared at the stable and thus, no one from the property was around to assist him. What makes Agatha and James’ conversation with Pendlebury all the more intriguing was the distaste he appeared to have for Paul.

On their way out, James runs into an old friend, Cecilia, the attractive daughter of Pendlebury. You can sense a bit of jealousy in Agatha.

Not letting jealously hold her back, Agatha visits the veterinarian office to speak with Peter about Paul’s passing. During their conversation, Peter explains that the horse, Cherokee, has respiratory issues and needs surgery. Unfortunately for Pendlebury, the surgery would’ve left Cherokee unable to mate for some time, therefore unable to make him any money. Perhaps Pendlebury killed Paul to keep his horse fund from running dry? We shall see.

At a social gathering, Mrs. Josephs speaks rather cryptically to Agatha about Paul. In not so many words, she suggests that he got what was coming to him. Seeing as several other people were within earshot of them, Mrs. Josephs tells Agatha to meet her the following day, promising to spill the beans about, perhaps, what led to Paul’s passing.

When Agatha goes to meet Mrs. Josephs at her home, she is found dead. Traumatized, Agatha is initially assured that Mrs. Josephs had passed away naturally. But, after Agatha begins to tell Bill about the cryptic conversation had with Mrs. Josephs, it is decided that an official statement would be required.

As Agatha makes her statement and wonders aloud if Mrs. Josephs was in fact murdered, DCI Wilkes attempts to stonewall her theories. But, once Bill covertly flips his notepad across the table to Agatha, James and Gemma, his notes suggest that murder was a possibility.

Together, Agatha, James and Gemma explore the area around Mrs. Josephs’ home and discover a discarded bottle of epinephrine (adrenaline) that she was very likely to have been injected with – possibly causing a heart attack. Even if this were to be a smoking gun, the hope of that goes out the window the moment James abandons the evidence for a meeting with Cecilia. You see, when police came by to pick up this piece of evidence, it was mysteriously gone. Once Agatha gets wind of this, she rushes to the restaurant to confront James. He’s apologetic, but the immediate fear is that someone in the restaurant may have heard James talking about the bottle and acted fast to get rid of it.

One person who may have heard James speak about it was Chloe, a secretary from the veterinarian’s office. After humorously tracking her down at a dance club, Agatha and the team find out some fascinating truths about Paul.

First and foremost, Paul was desperately seeking funds to build a hospital for small, to medium animals. Chloe reveals that Paul would do just about anything (and we mean anything) to get extra money. Clearly, a transaction along the way must’ve went south, correct? Well, not so fast.

Upon returning home, Agatha is greeted with a frightening note. Written in it is a threat that if she didn’t stop snooping around, her cat would be killed.

Following a rough night, Agatha is greeted the next morning by flowers from her sympathetic residents of Caresly. As she rests her hand on a single flower, a residue attaches itself to her finger. Interestingly, it matches up to a residue found on the envelope in which the threatening note came in.

Immediately, Agatha sets her sights on Josephine, a florist who was plenty of money at her disposal and someone who may have been jealous of the other women who caught Paul’s eye. To find out what’s going on with Josephine, Agatha and Roy tail her to a fancy country club. Here, she is seen romantically engaged with Paul’s veterinary partner, Peter. Now, Agatha suspects that Peter may have had a major role in Paul’s passing.

Leaving Roy to keep an eye on Peter and Josephine, Agatha breaks into the veterinary clinic to do some digging. Unfortunately, once Peter gets wind from a waiter that Agatha had appeared at the club, he immediately drops out of Roy’s sights and races out for his office.

At the office, Agatha is digging around as Peter enters. During their verbal back and forth, Peter admits to killing Mrs. Josephs and Paul. With Paul, Peter didn’t appreciate his professional tact (or lack there of) and his poor dealings with Josephine. Thus, he needed to be stopped.

With Agatha now aware of everything, Peter violently attempts to inject her with a fatal serum. Fortunately, this is when James and Gemma enter the room and knock Peter out of commission. This was a very close call.

Later on, Agatha is at Mrs. Josephs home, in tears over her passing. James, with perfect timing in hand, enters the room and consoles Agatha. It is here that pair engage in a much anticipated kiss destined to both complicate and enhance their relationship. We can’t wait to see what happens from here!

-Adam Grant