Showing results for "MC Beaton" in Women Sleuths

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 thrilling turn when an angry interloper storms the stage at the Carsely Ladies' Society and threatens the three bird fanatics. When Agatha walks in on the trio of women in the middle of a blazing row, her detective instincts start 'twitching'. And when one of the birdwatchers is found dead, she can't resist investigating. Her first lead comes from the victim's brother, who believes his sister was murdered by her fellow twitchers.

At home alone for the holidays, Agatha Raisin decides to host a dinner party for the elder residents in her Cotswold village of Winter Parva. Agatha's never been much of a homemaker, but she's dead set on making this the perfect holiday for the 'crumblies', as she affectionately calls them. She's decorated a tree while fending off her cats, Hodge and Boswell, and even made a (lumpy) Christmas pudding in between swigs of rum.

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!

Can the feisty Agatha 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 walks in wealthy divorcee Catherine Laggat-Brown, and Agatha is given her first real case. Death threats, blackmail and physical attack soon follow, and once again Agatha is off scouring the countryside for clues and showing friends and enemies alike what Raisin Investigations can do!

Agatha Raisin's detective agency has become so successful that she decides to take time off for rest and relaxation. But as soon as she does, she remembers that when she does have time on her hands, she doesn't know what to do with it. So it doesn't take much for the vicar of a nearby village to persuade her to help publicise the church fete - especially when the event organiser, George Selby, turns out to be a handsome widower.

Agatha Raisin thinks she's in for a treat when her ex-husband James Lacey invites her on holiday but - horrors! - his idea of an idyllic break is the small, run-down resort of Burryhill-on-Sea. And from there on things go from bad to worse, so when a fellow guest in their hotel is found murdered, Agatha herself is chief suspect - and has to solve this case from a locked police cell!

Agatha Raisin's private detective agency is working flat out on a series of burglaries which take a violent turn when a friend of Agatha's is murdered during a raid on his antiques shop. Although determined to nail the villains, Agatha still makes time to help Sir Charles Fraith prepare to stage a massive, hugely glamorous event in the grounds of his ancestral home, Barfield House.

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 crime is much more fun than hunting a ghost! Very soon she's up to her usual tricks, involving the villagers, local police, and, of course, her handsome new neighbour . . .

In this sixth entertaining outing Agatha leaves the sleepy Cotswold village of Carsely to pursue love - and finds a murderer. Spurned at the altar, she follows her fleeing fiancé James Lacey to Cyprus, where, instead of enjoying the honeymoon they'd planned, they witness the killing of an obnoxious tourist in a disco. Intrigue and a string of murders surround the unlikely couple, in a plot as scorching as the Cypriot sun!

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. But there she meets a happy honeymooning couple, for whom disaster strikes when, tragically, the bride drowns. Back home, alarm bells start ringing for Agatha when a woman, dressed in a wedding gown, is swept down river. The police say suicide, but Agatha, spurred on by recent memories, particularly her own disastrous marriage, sets out to prove them wrong.

Love, like hell, is a four-letter word for Agatha . . . No happily ever after for her! Recently married to neighbour James Lacey, Agatha quickly finds that love is not all it's cracked up to be - soon the newly-weds are living in separate cottages and accusing each other of infidelity. Then, after a fight down the local pub, James vanishes - a bloodstain the only clue to his fate. Naturally, Agatha is Suspect Number One. Determined to clear her name - and find her husband - Agatha begins her investigation and promptly discovers a murdered mistress . . .

During the dark, grey days of early December Agatha is obsessed by two things - the looming festivities, and her ex, James Lacey. In order to drive the latter from her thoughts, Agatha concentrates on planning the perfect Christmas for her friends. Even the murder of a Mrs Tamworthy, poisoned with hemlock, does little to distract her and yet it should, as Mrs Tamworthy had written to Agatha, telling her that one of her family wanted to see her dead before the year was out. So slightly guiltily (and belatedly), Agatha sets out to solve the case before the 25th rolls around.

After time away, Agatha Raisin returns to her beloved Cotswold village of Carsely - and to her handsome neighbour, James Lacey. True, James seems less than thrilled to see her, but Agatha is soon distracted by a sensational murder. The victim, found in a field, is young hiker Jessica Tartinck, who spent her life enraging landowners by insisting on her right to roam. Hope springs eternal in Agatha's breast as she lures the reluctant James into her investigation. There are so many leads to follow, for Jessica's fellow walkers - not to mention the landowners - all seem able to commit murder.

Even though Agatha Raisin loathes Christmas panto, her friend Mrs Bloxby, the vicar's wife, has persuaded her to support the local am dram society in their festive offering. Stifling a yawn at the production of Babes in the Wood, Agatha watches the baker playing an ogre strut and threaten on stage until a trapdoor opens... followed by a scream and silence! Surely this wasn't the way the scene was rehearsed? When it turns out the local baker had been murdered most horribly, Agatha puts her team of detectives on the case.

Retired PR boss Agatha Raisin is enjoying life in her pretty Cotswold village of Carsely. It even seems likely that the attractive new vet, Paul Bladen, has taken a shine to her. But before romance can blossom, Paul is killed in an accident with Lord Pendlebury's horse. Only the circumstances are rather suspicious.

Left with bald patches thanks to the wicked doings of a murderer from a previous investigation, Agatha flees to coastal Wyckhadden to re-grow her lost locks. With hair tonic supplied by a local witch, Agatha's tresses begin to flow - but the witch is found bludgeoned to death. The odd elderly residents of Agatha's elegantly faded hotel seem innocuous, but as she delves deeper she discovers secrets best left and powerful motives for revenge.

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 Carsley's allotments where everything looks peaceful and perfect: people of all ages digging in the soil and working hard to grow their own fruit and veg. Agatha feels almost tempted to take on a strip herself . . . but common sense soon prevails.

Cotswolds inhabitants are used to bad weather, but the night sky is especially foggy as Rory and Molly Harris, the new vicar and his wife, drive slowly home from a dinner party in their village of Sumpton Harcourt. They struggle to see the road ahead - but then screech to a halt. Right in front of them, aglow in the headlights of their car, a body hangs from a lightning-blasted tree at the edge of town. But it's not suicide; Margaret Darby, an elderly spinster of the parish, has been murdered - and the villagers are bewildered as to who would commit such a crime, and why.

Agatha's former husband James is engaged to be married to a beautiful, young woman and Agatha has been kindly invited to the wedding. When the bride is murdered on her wedding day, naturally Agatha is Suspect Number One - but then matters are turned on their head when the dead bride's mother engages Agatha to take on the case of her murdered daughter! And very soon Agatha's own life is in danger while she tries to solve the mystery of the corpse bride while fighting off (halfheartedly) the advances of a very attractive and determined Frenchman!

Agatha Raisin has never been one for enforced holiday cheer, but her friendly little village of Carsely has always prided itself on its traditional Christmas festivities. But this year the bells will not be ringing out Silent Night as Mr John Sunday, an officer with the Cotswold Health and Safety Board, has chosen Christmas as the time to crack down on what he sees as gross misconduct by every man, woman and child in the vicinity.