M. C. Beaton
After six months in London, Agatha Raisin returns to her beloved Cotswold village—and her dashing neighbor, James Lacey. Well, sort of. James might not be so interested in Agatha. But soon enough, Agatha becomes consumed by her other passion: crime solving. A woman has been found dead in a lonely field nearby. Her name is Jessica Tartinck, a hiker who infuriated wealthy landowners by insisting on her hiking club's right to trek across their
...Agatha Raisin's neighboring village of Ancombe is usually the epitome of quiet rural charm, but the arrival of a new mineral-water company—which intends to tap into the village spring—sends tempers flaring and divides the parish council into two stubborn camps. When Agatha, who happens to be the PR person for the water company, finds the council chairman murdered at the spring, tongues start wagging. Could one of the council members
...44) Death of a snob
Crankier than ever, Agatha Raisin wants to forget that her husband left her to enter a monastery—a turn of affairs more humiliating than when she caught him with a mistress. She feels abandoned, fat, frumpy, and absolutely furious.
What are her options? She takes an island vacation and joins a Pilates class. But what finally lifts her spirits is finding a corpse. The dead girl was a member of Agatha's exercise class, afloat in a rain-swollen
...46) Death of a spy
When Fergus Macleod, Lochdubh's abusive, drunk dustman is put in charge of the local recycling center, Hamish Macbeth smells trouble. Sure enough, Fergus, imbued with his new powers, becomes a bullying tyrant. When his body is found stuffed in a recycling bin, no one is sorry—including his long-suffering family. But Macbeth is surprised to find that many of the despicable dustman's victims refuse to talk—and when violence strikes again,
...Recently married to James Lacey, the witty and fractious Agatha Raisin quickly finds that marriage, and love, are not all they are cracked up to be. Rather than basking in marital bliss, the newlyweds are living in separate cottages and accusing each other of infidelity. After a particularly raucous fight in the local pub, James suddenly vanishes—a bloodstain the only clue to his fate—and Agatha is the prime suspect.
Determined
...When a fortune teller from a previous case informs Agatha Raisin that her destiny—and true love—lies in Norfolk, she promptly rents a cottage in the quaint village of Fryfam. No sooner does she arrive than strange things start happening. Random objects go missing from people's homes and odd little lights are seen dancing in the villagers' gardens and yards. Stories soon begin circulating about the presence of fairies.
But when
...He was a hairdresser to dye for.
The local ladies all deem Mr. John a wizard, so when Agatha finds a few grey hairs on her head—and the rinse she tries at home turns her hair purple—she makes a beeline for the handsome Evesham hairdresser. And as well as sorting out her hair it soon becomes clear the charming man also has designs on her heart—but their budding romance is cut short when Mr. John is fatally poisoned in his
...53) Sweet Masquerade
Freddie Armstrong, an eighteen-year-old boy, is joining the earl of Berham's household. It's the earl's duty to serve as guardian, even though he doesn't feel enthusiastic about taking on the responsibility. But when he finds out that Freddie is actually Frederica, the...
In this Regency romance series opener by the bestselling author of the Agatha Raisin mysteries, two chaperones must tame a boisterous young lady.
Although they still dream of getting married one day, elderly and impoverished sisters Amy and Effie Tribble must face the reality that they need money. Their plan: to market their skills as professional chaperones. With an advertisement in the newspaper offering to refine “a wild,
...Putting all her eggs in one basket, Agatha Raisin gives up her successful public-relations firm, sells her London flat, and samples a taste of early retirement in the quiet village of Carsely.
Bored, lonely, and used to getting her way, she enters a local baking contest—surely a blue ribbon for the best quiche will make her the toast of the town. But her recipe for social advancement sours when Judge Cummings-Browne not only snubs her
...In this Regency romance novella, a proper young English lady spends her summer getting into mischief by masquerading as a servant girl.
Cassandra, or Cassie to her friends, sticks out like a redheaded weed amidst her family of tidy blooms. At Bramfield Park, Cassie’s prim parents and attractive older sister, Sophia, wish for nothing but an advantageous marriage for their eldest and prettiest—and for Cassie to stay out of
...57) Death of a Hussy
In this delightful mystery from the New York Times bestselling author M. C. Beaton imagine if the rebellious sister from Downton Abbey and her maid got mixed up in murder
When a marriage proposal appears imminent for the beautiful—if rebellious—Lady Rose Summer, her father wants to know if her suitor's intentions are honorable. He calls on Captain Harry Cathcart, the impoverished younger son of a baron, to do some
...When society widow and gossip columnist Lady Jane Winters joined the fishing class, she wasted no time in ruffling the feathers—or was it the fins?—of those around her. Among the victims of her sharp tongue and unladylike manner was Lochdubh Constable Hamish Macbeth. Yet not even Hamish thought someone would permanently silence Lady Jane's shrills—until her strangled body is fished out of the river.
Now with the help of
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