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

When therapist Jill Davent moved to the village of Carsely, Agatha Raisin was not a fan. Not only was this therapist romancing Agatha's ex-husband, she dug up details of Agatha's not-too-glamorous origins. Jill also counsels a woman, Gwen Simple, that Agatha firmly believes assisted her son in some grisly murders, although there is no proof. Not one to keep her feelings to herself, Agatha tells anyone who will listen that Jill is a charlatan and better off dead.

Agatha Raisin is bored. Her detective agency in the Cotswolds is thriving, but she'll scream if she has to deal with another missing cat or dog. Only two things seem to offer potential excitement: Christmas and her ex, James Lacey. This year Agatha is sure that if she invites James to a splendid Christmas dinner, their love will rekindle like a warm Yule log. But that fantasy will have to wait for now.

Sergeant Hamish Macbeth--Scotland's most quick-witted but unambitious policeman--returns in M.C. Beaton's new mystery in her New York Times bestselling series. From the author of the Agatha Raisin series. When Police Sergeant Hamish Macbeth hears reports of a haunted castle near Drim, he assumes...

Driving home from a dinner party in the village of Sumpton Harcourt, Rory and Molly Harris, the new vicar and his wife, strain to see the road ahead - and then suddenly brake, screeching to a halt. Right in front of them, aglow in the headlights, a body hangs from a gnarled tree at the edge of town. An elderly spinster has been murdered - and the villagers are bewildered as to who would commit such a crime. Agatha Raisin rises to the occasion (a little glad for the excitement, to tell the truth, after a long run of lost cats and divorces on the books).

The handsome but arrogant Lord Charles Hawksborough desperately wants to catch the infernally insolent thief who held him up at pistol point on the King's Highway and rode off with his family's inheritance and jewels. Hawksborough tries just as desperately to not want the piquant and penniless Miss Amanda Colby when this young lady and her twin brother come to stay at his London townhouse during the height of the social season.

On the coach to Portsmouth, Miss Pym faces her most difficult matchmaking challenge yet. The lovely Miss Penelope Wilkins, daughter of a rich merchant, would be the perfect match for the handsome Lord Augustus, a nobleman whose fortune is almost depleted. Would be, that is, if the two were at all compatible. Though strikingly beautiful, the too-practical Penelope seems to stand on quite the opposite cliff from the carefree Lord Augustus. But when Miss Pym enlists their help in untangling an intrigue, and Lord Augustus steals an astounding kiss from the shocked Penelope, Miss Pym is convinced....

Agatha Raisin’s private detective agency is working flat out on a series of shop burglaries. The break-ins seem to have taken a violent turn when a friend of Agatha’s is murdered during a raid on his shop. Although determined to nail the villains, Agatha still makes time to help Sir Charles Fraith prepare to stage a massive, hugely glamorous, promotional event in the grounds of his ancestral home, Barfield House.

Tongues were set wagging when Elizabeth Markham's glamorous young parents were killed, sinking their only child to the unspeakable class of poor relation. Forced to live with her cruel, miserly uncle Julius, Elizabeth is forbidden to partake in the season's festivities. Marriage is her only escape, and she enacts a daring plan to trick her way into the Duke of Dunster's exclusive house party, to snare one of the eligible dandies sure to dance attendance on her.

Amazing news has spread across the Scottish countryside. The most famous of highland bachelors, police sergeant Hamish Macbeth, may actually marry at last. The entire village of Lochdubh adores Macbeth's bride-to-be. Josie McSween is Hamish's new constable, and she is a pretty little thing, with glossy brown hair and big brown eyes. The local folk think that Josie is quite a catch, but Hamish couldn't be more miserable.

Morag Fleming, the Countess of Murr, had been bride to the most lecherous lord in Scotland - yet this ravishingly lovely girl had never been touched. Needless to say, she had never borne a child; yet as a young widow she came to London with a fine son in tow.

A vengeful ghost comes back to haunt the living? Reports of a haunted house soon have Agatha snooping around, but it turns out the victim of the haunting is a universally disliked old biddy on whom someone is playing a practical joke. And then the old lady is murdered - but for Agatha, solving a...

'A Beaton novel is like The Archers on speed' DAILY MAIL 'The detective novels of M C Beaton have reached cult status' THE TIMES ------------ Feathers are flying in Agatha Raisin's brand new case! Agatha Raisin can think of nothing duller than a lecture on birdwatching... but events take a...

Until the day she saw Lord Philip's photo, she had only fantasized about a mysterious lover whose shadowy features were never quite clear. Now she had a real live nobleman to dream about. Little did she suspect that she would soon meet Lord Philip in the flesh. How could she imagine such a thing? After all, what could justify a daughter of the middle class rubbing shoulders with the nobility?

After a lifetime spent in public relations, one-woman dynamo Agatha Raisin struggles to adapt to life in a quiet country village - but she soon finds that there is murder and mayhem aplenty to keep her busy. Among the cases she has to deal with are a poisoned quiche; a vet who has been ‘put to sleep’; a hanged horticulturist; a murdered rambler and a curate who meets his Maker somewhat sooner than expected.

As the youngest of four unmarried vicar's daughters, Frederica feared her destiny was to die of tedium in the sleepy village of Barton Sub Edge. Her looks deemed "unfortunate", her willful notions damned as "difficult", she never dreamt the arrival of a rake would challenge her fate in the most surprising way.

Destined for Dover, Miss Pym has her matchmaking work cut out for her when she encounters the pretty but hoydenish Lady Deborah Western! Encouraged by an unruly twin brother, the spirited, golden-haired Deborah seems set on dressing and acting the tomboy, much to the dismay of her handsome neighbor, the Earl of Ashton....

When private detective Agatha Raisin comes across a severed leg in a roadside hedge, it looks like she is about to become involved in a particularly gruesome murder. Looks, however, can be deceiving, as Agatha discovers when she is employed to investigate a case of industrial espionage at a factory where nothing is quite what it seems. The factory mystery soon turns to murder and a bad-tempered donkey turns Agatha into a national celebrity, before bringing her ridicule and shame.

She was a lady's maid who longed to be a lady. How else could Lucy Balfour hope to win the favor of Andrew, Viscount Harvey, the toast of the town, who seemed ready to take a bride at last? There was only one way to do it, and that was to command his attention. It seemed an impossible dream; first she had to become the peer of her own mistress, the coldly beautiful Lady Angela, who was determined to claim Andrew as her own.

The local society could only speculate how a pair of turtledoves would cope as the guests of the scandalous Lady Dacey. Surely she would attempt to corrupt them - an act that both Pamela Perryworth and Honoria Goodham would see as welcome entertainment in their rigid, joyless lives. Though Mrs. Perryworth is married - most unhappily - and the young Honoria has a cloying tendency to read too much scripture, the purity and loveliness of both ladies nonetheless inflames the senses of two notorious lords.

The poor relations, those genteel paupers of society who live on little more than their dignity, have banded together and started The Poor Relation hotel, hoping to be bought out by their embarrassed relations - but as the hotel prospered, they began to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Now once more they are in need of funds. To stoop to crime in their days of poverty was one thing, but to turn to it again when they have enjoyed a certain amount of success is quite another. But they all agree: the hotel must go on.