Showing results by author "M.C. Beaton" in All Categories

A busman's holiday for Hamish . . . After losing both his promotion and the lovely Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, Hamish Macbeth decides the best cure for a broken heart is a week's break at the charming coastal village of Skag. When he arrives at the Friendly House B&B, however, he finds the...

She's practically perfect in every way! After being nearly killed by both a hired hit man and her former secretary, Agatha Raisin could use some low-key cases. So when Robert Smedley walks through the door of her detective agency, determined to prove that his wife is cheating on him, Raisin...

Winter Parva, a traditional Cotswolds village next door to Carsely, has decided to throw a celebratory hog roast to mark the beginning of the winter holiday festivities and Agatha Raisin has arrived with friend and rival in the sleuthing business, Toni, to enjoy the merriment. But, as the spit...

Daisy Jenkins never expected to be anything more than trespasser on the idyllic lawns of Marsden Castle. Then, suddenly, she was admitted into the magic circle of the Earl and Countess of Nottenstone, to await the arrival of the notorious Lord Chatterton, her father - a stranger whosever name was foreign to her. She was Daisy Chatterton now, adrift in a sea of aristocratic sharks who seemed both to court and mock her.

De retour dans les Cotswolds après de longues vacances, Agatha Raisin découvre que son voisin James Lacey, objet de tous ses fantasmes, est tombé sous le charme d'une nouvelle venue au village. Aussi élégante qu'amusante, Mary Fortune est une jardinière hors pair, et la journée portes ouvertes des jardins de Carsely s'annonce déjà comme son triomphe. Mais une Agatha Raisin ne s'incline pas avant d'avoir combattu (quitte à se livrer à l'une de ces petites supercheries peu reluisantes dont elle a le secret) !

A sudden outbreak of maliciousness strikes the town of Lochdubh in the form of a rash of poison pen letters. Things turn deadly when the local postmistress is found hanged in her room... with a vicious note beneath her dangling feet. Though his superiors call it suicide, PC Hamish Macbeth...

Après un séjour de six mois à Londres, Agatha retrouve enfin ses chères Cotswolds - et le non moins cher James Lacey. Même si le retour au bercail de son entreprenante voisine ne donne pas l'impression d'enthousiasmer particulièrement le célibataire le plus convoité de Carsely. Heureusement, Agatha est très vite happée par son sport favori : la résolution d'affaires criminelles. Comme le meurtre d'une certaine Jessica, qui militait pour le droit de passage de son club de randonneurs dans les propriétés privées des environs.

No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime' Mail on Sunday Amazing news is spreading like wildfire across the Scottish countryside: the most famous of all Lochdubh, remotely nestling in the Highlands, is perfectly anonymous... until well-known TV reporter Crystal French races into town in...

Mrs Gentle has fooled everyone into thinking she is as sweet as she sounds - Gentle by name and gentle by nature. But local constable Hamish Macbeth isn't fooled. He believes this little old lady is actually quite sly and vicious, but he's in a minority of one. Or is he? When Mrs Gentle dies...

Allotment wars! Lord Bellington, Carsely's biggest landholder, has enraged locals by saying he is going to sell off their allotments to make way for a new housing development. So when he turns up dead, poisoned by antifreeze, nobody mourns his passing. On another fine summer's day Agatha visits...

Done, dusted . . . and dead! Armed with a bucket and mop, Mrs Gillespie brings misery into the quiet life of Hamish Macbeth when he wins her cleaning services in a church raffle; she is likely to do more snooping than hoovering. Yet Hamish has more upsetting issues to ponder - his former...

Agatha Raisin a le vent en poupe : les affaires s'accumulent, pas le temps de souffler. Tant mieux, elle a horreur du vide, et fait même des heures sup : elle vient d'accepter d'aider le pasteur d'un village voisin à promouvoir la kermesse de la paroisse. Il faut dire que l'organisateur, un certain George Selby, a le bon goût d'être veuf et... beau comme un dieu.

It seems as if there will be no need to find a husband for Diana, the fifth daughter of Charles Armitage, the hard-drinking huntsman and country vicar. For Diana shares her father's passion for the hunt, secretly posing as a man in order to participate in a sport that is considered too vulgar for a lady in Regency England. Her four elder sisters have married well, but Diana fears she will never be as desirous to wed a man as she is to be one. She was born to have a man's freedom to do and say what she wishes, to move about without restraint - or so she thinks until, disguised as David Armitage, she gets a bitter taste of tawdry town life.

Stabbed and stuffed in a closet... When police constable Hamish Macbeth receives the news that there has been a murder at Arrat House, home of the relentless practical joker Arthur Trent, he doesn't race to the scene of the crime. After all, last time he was called to investigate a death at the...

Agatha Raisin kommt es nach einer aufregenden Zeit ganz gelegen, dass Robert Smedley sie lediglich damit beauftragt, zu beweisen, dass seine Frau ihn betrügt. Agatha übernimmt den Fall mit größtem Vergnügen. Leider scheint Mabel die perfekte Ehefrau zu sein: jung, hübsch und eine regelmäßige Kirchgängerin. Von Betrug weit und breit keine Spur. Aber just, als Agatha den Fall ad acta legen will, wird Robert Smedley mit Unkrautvernichter umgebracht - und seine Witwe damit zur Hauptverdächtigen.

No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime' Mail on Sunday It can be hell in high water! Drowned brides are like buses: nothing for ages, then two come along at the same time . . . ! Abandoned by husband James, Agatha hops on a plane to the South Pacific, hoping to mend her broken heart...

Grime and punishment . . . When Fergus Macleod, Lochdubh's abusive, drunk dustman is put in charge of the local recycling centre and is dubbed 'Environment Officer', Hamish Macbeth smells trouble. Sure enough, Fergus, imbued with his new powers, becomes a bullying tyrant and when his body is...

An untimely death wipes the smile from Hamish's face . . . In Scotland, where thrift and a 'nice set of dentures' are generally admired, Dr Frederick Gilchrist's cheap rates and penchant for pulling teeth have gained him quite a clientele. However, wiser Highlanders - like Hamish Macbeth - opt...

Trouble is afoot in the remote Scottish fishing village of Stoyre, where the inhabitants are acting kind of... fishy. On a routine visit, Hamish Macbeth finds the pub empty, the church unexpectedly full, and the very air permeated with fear. Then an explosion levels a holiday cottage which the...

She couldn't paint to save her life - so someone's given her a lesson by taking it! Most newcomers don't stay long in remote Lochdubh - usually boredom, dampness and nosy locals drive them out. But it looks as if artist Effie Garrard has come to stay. When Hamish Macbeth calls on her he's amazed...