THE weather was tropical. And this was England and<br >this was Evesham in the Cotswolds. Agatha Raisin drove into<br >the car-park at Merstow Green， turned offthe air-conditioning，<br >switched off the engine and braced herself to meet the wall<br >of soupy heat which she knew would greet her the minute she<br >stepped out of the car.<br > Like many， she had decided that all the scares about the<br >greenhouse effect were simply lies made up by eco-terrorists.<br >But this August had seen clammy， sweaty days followed by<br >monsoon thunderstorms at night. Most odd.<br > Agatha groaned as she left her car and walked across to<br >the parking-ticket machine. What a hell of a day to decide to<br >get one s hair tinted!<br > She returned to her car and pasted the ticket on the win-<br >dow and then bent down and squinted at herself in the driving-<br >mirror. Her hair was still dark brown but now streaked with<br >purple.<br ><br >