M. C Beaton
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 Investigations immediately offers to help. Unfortunately for Agatha, Mabel Smedley appears to be the perfect wife: young, pretty, and a regular volunteer at church. But just as Agatha is ready to
...At age twenty-six, Agatha Raisin has already come a long way. She has clawed her way up since leaving the Birmingham slum where she was born. She's lost her Birmingham accent, run away from her drunken husband, and found a job at a public relations office as a secretary. Then her boss asks Agatha to go to the home of Sir Bryce Teller to tell him that he is soon to be arrested for the murder of his wife and that the agency no longer wants to represent
...New York Times bestselling author M. C. Beaton's cranky, crafty Agatha Raisin―now the star of a hit TV show―is back on the case again.
The idyllic Cotswolds village of Thirk Magna is best known for the medieval church of St. Ethelred and its bells, which are the pride and glory of the whole community.
As the bell-ringers get ready for the visit of the dashing Bishop Peter Salver-Hinkley, the whole village is thrown into a
...Can the feisty Agatha Raisin cut it as a private investigator? She soon learns that running her own detective agency in the Cotswolds is not quite like starring in a Raymond Chandler movie. But then in walks wealthy divorc├®e Catherine Laggat-Brown, who presents Agatha with her first real case. Death threats, blackmail, and worse quickly follow, and once again Agatha is off scouring the countryside for clues and showing friends and enemies
...89) Death of a Cad
When Priscilla Halburton-Smythe brings her London playwright fiancé home to Lochdubh, everybody in town is delighted, except for love-smitten Constable Hamish Macbeth.
Yet Hamish's affairs of the heart will have to wait. Vile, boorish Captain Bartlett, one of the guests at Priscilla's engagement party, has just been found murdered—shot while on a grouse hunt. Now with many titled party guests as the prime suspects, each with a reason
...90) Death of a Laird
A wealthy laird's guests are trapped in his estate during a furious storm—but when the laird turns up dead, Scotland's amiable and quick-witted policeman, Hamish Macbeth, is on the case, in this delightful new short story in M. C. Beaton's New York Times bestselling series.
When Sergeant Hamish Macbeth is sent to investigate reports that the wealthy new laird of the remote Naglar House has disappeared, northwest Scotland is hit by the
...Almost bigamy and absolute murder—Agatha Raisin's life is never dull.
The morning of Agatha's longed-for marriage to James Lacey dawns bright and clear. But her luck runs out in the church when Jimmy, the husband she had believed long dead, turns up large as life and twice as ugly. Agatha has a go at strangling him. It's all too much for James, who breaks off the engagement. So when Jimmy is found murdered the next day, Agatha and James
...A little friendly competition for the attention of a handsome neighbor turns deadly in this third installment of the popular Agatha Raisin mystery series.
When Agatha Raisin returns home after a sojourn in the capital, she finds a new woman ensconced in the affections of her attractive bachelor neighbor, James Lacey. The newcomer, Mary Fortune, is superior to Agatha in every way, especially when it comes to gardening. With Carsely Open Day
...It's a purr-fect crime in the Cotswolds.
Former London PR agent, Agatha Raisin still hasn't adjusted to village life, where the only prospect for a hot evening out is a meeting of the Ladies Society. And since her overtures toward James Lacey, the retired military man next door, have failed, Agatha jumps at the chance to visit the new vet, who is single and good-looking. Although Agatha's cat hasn't a thing wrong with him, Hodge endures having
...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
...Lochdubh constable Hamish Macbeth's life is going to pot. He has—horrors!—been promoted, his new boss is a dunce, and a self-proclaimed traveler named Sean and his girlfriend have parked their rusty eyesore of a van in the middle of the village. Hamish smells trouble, and he's right, as usual. The doctor's drugs go missing. Money vanishes. Neighbors suddenly become unneighborly. The tension only explodes after the itinerant Sean is
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