M. C. Beaton

Putting all her eggs in one basket, Agatha Raisin gives up her successful PR 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 entry--but falls over dead! After her quiche's secret ingredient turns out to be poison, she must reveal the unsavory truth... Agatha has never baked a thing in her life! In fact, she bought her entry ready-made from an upper crust London quicherie. Grating on the nerves of several Carsely residents, she is soon receiving sinister notes. Has her cheating and meddling landed her in hot water, or are the threats related to the suspicious death? It may mean the difference between egg on her face and a coroner's tag on her toe...

The Quiche of Death

When society widow and gossip columnist Lady Jane Winter's body is fished out of the river, Lochdubh Constable Hamish Macbeth and Priscilla Halburton-Smythe navigate the choppy waters of the tattler's life to find a murderer. Reprint.

Death of a Gossip

After six gruelling months spent in London, Agatha Raisin returns to her beloved Cotswold village of Carsely - and to her attractive neighbour, James Lacey. True, James is less than thrilled to see her, but Agatha is soon consoled by a sensational murder. The victim, found in a lonely field, is hiker Jessica Tartinck, who spent her life enraging wealthy landowners by insisting on her walking club's right to hike over their properties. And now she has been found in a cornfield, battered over the head. Agatha lures the reluctant James into helping with her informal investigation, and there are so many leads to follow, for Jessica's fellow walkers seem able, even willing, to commit murder. And then there are the enraged landowners. Hope springs eternal in Agatha's breast, and she feels confident that the trail of a slippery killer may also be the road to love... or will it lead to even more deaths?

Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley

Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage continues the tradition in M. C. Beaton's beloved Agatha Raisin mystery series—now a hit show on Acorn TV and public television. After her first husband, Jimmy Raisin, stops her wedding and she is left jilted at the altar, he is found strangled to death, and Agatha Raisin must prove her innocence along with that of her intended. Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage is a mystery filled with murder and mayhem, from bestselling author M.C. Beaton.

An Agatha Raisin Mystery

Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage

Beloved author M.C. Beaton has delighted readers and fans alike with her Agatha Raisin mysteries. Now here is the second novel in the series that started it all... 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's single and good-looking. Although Agatha's tabby hasn't a thing wrong with him, Hodge endures having a thermometer shoved up his bum in the name of romance. Unfortunately his sacrifice is all for naught when the vet is soon found dead next to a high-strung horse. The police call the vet's demise a freak accident, but Agatha convinces the hard-to-get James Lacey, who's also bored in the Cotswolds, that playing amateur detective might be fun. Unfortunately, just like curiosity killed the cat, Agatha's inept snooping is soon a motivation for murder... "Anyone interested in a few hours' worth of intelligent, amusing reading will want to make the acquaintance of Mrs. Agatha Raisin." --The Cleveland Plain Dealer "I simply love mysteries that have all the requirements necessary to make them great--the characters, the action, the plots, and that thing we call humanity. Beaton has them all in spades." --Tulsa World

The Vicious Vet

R.W. Green

Beloved New York Times bestseller M. C. Beaton's cranky, crafty Agatha Raisin—the star of her own hit T.V. series—is back on the case again in Down the Hatch. Private detective Agatha Raisin, having recently taken up power-walking, is striding along a path in Mircester Park during her lunch break when she hears a cry for help. Rushing over, she finds an elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Swinburn, in the middle of the green—with the body of an old man lying at their feet. The man, who the coroner determines died by poisoning, was known as "the Admiral," a gardener notorious for his heavy drinking, and Chief Inspector Wilkes writes the death off as an accident caused by the consumption of weedkiller stored in a rum bottle. Agatha is not convinced that anyone would mistake weedkiller for rum but carries on with her work at Raisin Investigations, until she receives an anonymous tip that the Admiral’s death was no accident. Local gossip points to the Swinburns themselves as the killers, spurred by a feud at the club where they, as well as the Admiral, were members. Distraught at this accusation, they turn to Agatha to clear their name, and she takes the case—despite the warnings of Chief Inspector Wilkes. Agatha encounters one suspicious character after another, becoming further enmeshed in the Admiral’s own dark and shady past. And when she's run off the road, narrowly escaping with her life, and then another attack occurs, it becomes clear that someone doesn’t want the case closed—and will stop at nothing to prevent Agatha from solving it.

Down the Hatch

New York Times bestseller M. C. Beaton's cranky, crafty Agatha Raisin—now the star of a hit T.V. show—is back on the case again. 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. To add to her woes, Agatha finds herself grappling with growing feelings for her friend and occasional lover, Sir Charles Fraith. Then, as a possible solution to the factory murder unfolds, her own life is thrown into deadly peril. Will Agatha get her man at last? Or will the killer get her first?

Beating About the Bush

After a home dye job ruins her hair, Agatha Raisin, the prickly yet lovable amateur sleuth, turns to the wonderful new hairdresser in the neighboring town for help. And as Agatha soon learns, Mr. John is as skilled at repairing her coiffure as he is at romancing her heart. But the charming Mr. John isn't all he appears to be. According to gossip around the salon and the village, some of his former clients seem to be afraid of him. Could Mr. John really be a ruthless blackmailer? When a murderer strikes at the busy salon, Agatha must discover the truth and the killer's identity before it's too late.

Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham

When a prominent village resident is found murdered, Agatha Raisin ignores the talk of fairies and supernatural happenings and begins to search for an all-too-human killer. Reprint.

Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam

Marion Chesney

Exposing a suitor's dishonorable intentions toward the daughter of a new client, Captain Harry Cartwright is hired by a wealthy marquis to solve a house party murder, a case that is complicated by the host's determination to preserve discretion, in a mystery set in the Edwardian era. Reprint.

An Edwardian Murder Mystery

Snobbery with Violence

Hamish Macbeth, the laid-back constable of Lochdubh, Scotland, has a new Land Rover to drive and a Highland summer to savor, but as fast as rain rolls in from the loch, his happy life goes to hell in a handbasket. The trouble begins when his beloved Priscilla Halburton-Smythe returns from London . . . with a fiancé on her arm. His miseries multiply when clouds of midges (the diabolical Scottish mosquito) descend on the town. Then a paragon of housewifery named Trixie Thomas moves into Lochdubh with her lapdog husband in tow. The newcomer quickly convinces the local ladies to embrace low-cholesterol meals, ban tobacco, and begin bird-watching. Soon the town's fish-and-chips-loving men are up in arms. Now faced with the trials of his own soul, Macbeth must solve Lochdubh's newest crime-the mysterious poisoning of the perfect wife.

Death of a Perfect Wife

Murder Most Fowl When Priscilla Halburton-Smythe brings her London playwright fiance home to Lochdubh, everybody in town is delighted...except for love-smitten Constable Hamish Macbeth. Yet his 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 for snuffing out the despicable captain, Hamish must smooth ruffled feathers as he investigates the case. When the hidden culprit strikes again, Hamish will find himself trying to save Priscilla from a miserable marriage-and catch a killer before he flies the coop.

Death of a Cad

Eccentric amateur detective Agatha Raisin stumbles upon a corpse near the natural spring in a Cotswold village and becomes involved in the heated local debate over the fate of the springs while searching for a killer. 25,000 first printing.

Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death

Agatha Raisin Has Finally Married The Man Of Her Dreams. But Now Her Life Is Nothing Short Of A Nightmare... The honeymoon is most definitely over for Agatha Raisin and her new husband, James Lacey. It's only been a short time since their wedding-and already they aren't getting on. But his wandering eye and her God-awful housekeeping are the least of their problems. Just days after a very public, very ugly marital row, James disappears-and when his mistress is later found murdered, he's the prime suspect. Agatha just doesn't buy it. Sure, he's a liar and a sneaky, low-down cheat. But a murderer? That's bloody impossible! And as some speculate on the role Agatha may have played in his vanishing, the forever-feisty Mrs. Raisin must piece together the most unsavory parts of the dead woman's past to clear James's name-and her own...

Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell

After being shaved bald during a previous case, Agatha Raisin goes to a seaside resort and enlists the aid of a local witch to grow her hair back, putting her right in the middle of things when the witch is found dead. Reprint.

Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden

Returning to the humdrum routine of her home, Agatha Raisin finds herself falling for charming new neighbor Paul Chatterton and becomes involved in the investigation into a believed-haunted house and its murdered owner. Reprint.

Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House

The most hated man in the most dour town in Scotland is sleeping with the fishes, or-more accurately-dumped into a tank filled with crustaceans. All that remain of the murdered victim are his bones. But after the lobsters are shipped off to Britain's best restaurants, the whole affair quickly lands on the plate of Constable Hamish Macbeth. Exiled with his dog, Towser, to the dreary outpost of Cnothan, Macbeth sorely misses his beloved Lochdubh, his formerly beloved Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, and his days of doing nothing but staring at the sheep grazing in a nearby croft. Now the lawman has to contend with a detective chief inspector who wants the modus operandi hushed up, a dark-haired lass who has an ulterior motive to seduce him, and a killer who has made mincemeat of his victim-and without doubt will strike again . . .

Death of an Outsider

With her husband in France, training to become a monk, a depressed Agatha Raisin decides to escape her dreary Cotswold village for a holiday on a remote South Pacific island paradise, and becomes involved in an investigation into strangely similar crimes that took place half a world apart involving the mysterious death of young blond women. Reprint.

Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came

Revenge is a dish best served warm...

High-flying public relations supremo Agatha Raisin has decided to take early retirement. She's off to make a new life in a picture-perfect Cotswold village. To make friends, she enters the local quiche-making competition - and to make quite sure of first prize she secretly pays a visit to a London deli.

Alas, the competition judge succumbs after tasting her perfect quiche, and Agatha is revealed as a cheat and potential poisoner. Definitely not the best start. So Agatha must turn amateur sleuth - she's absolutely got to track down the real killer and clear her name!

Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death (Agatha Raisin #1)

Bored with the routine cases coming her way, Agatha Raisin finally gets an intriguing case after the poisoning death of a wealthy widow, Mrs. Tamworthy, who had sent Agatha a letter warning that she believed that someone in her family intended to kill her

M. C. Beaton

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