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

Yuletide overindulgence on the poison front . . . 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...

In dark, wintry Lochdubh, Christmas Cheer is about as welcome as a flat tyre on a deserted road. The Calvinist element in town has always resisted what they view as secular frivolity, so for most of the townsfolk there'll be no carols, feasting, gifts - or even whisky on Christmas Day! And for...

A therapist had moved into the village of Carsely and Agatha Raisin hates her. Not only was this therapist, Jill Davent, romancing Agatha's ex-husband, but she had dug up details of Agatha's slum background. Added to that, Jill was counselling a woman called Gwen Simple from Winter Parva and...

Incomer Gloria French is at first welcomed in the Cotswold village of Piddlebury. She seems like a do-gooder par excellence, raising funds for the church and caring for the elderly. But she has a bad habit of borrowing things and not giving them back, so when she is discovered dead, poisoned by...

No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime' Mail on Sunday Now that Priscilla Halburton-Smythe has agreed to marry him, Police Sergeant Hamish Macbeth can't imagine a more perfect life. There's not much crime in his remote Scottish village of Lochdubh, nothing much at all to do but fish...

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...

James Harrison has recently moved to a restored hunting lodge in Sutherland with his gorgeous private nurse Gloria Dainty. When Hamish visits Mr. Harrison to welcome him to the neighborhood, the old man treats him very rudely. Gloria apologises for her employer's behavior, and Hamish takes the...

A missing person report is not usually something that Hamish Macbeth sees as cause for undue distress. Should a child or a vulnerable person vanish, it's an urgent matter that needs to be treated seriously, but in Macbeth's experience, most other people who go missing tend to turn up again...

Are drugs responsible for a sighting of Nessie's long lost relative? Recovering addict Tommy Jarret has just rented a chalet to check out reports of a sea monster near the village of Drim. But when he turns up dead, apparently from a drug overdose, Lochdubh constable Hamish Macbeth finds the...

The second Hamish Macbeth crime mystery, from internationally bestselling author M.C.Beaton When Priscilla Halburton-Smythe brings her London playwright fiancé home to Lochdubh, everyone in town is delighted. . . except for love-smitten Hamish Macbeth. Yet the affairs of his heart will have to...

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...

No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime' Mail on Sunday 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...

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...

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...

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...

Murder in Paradise... When Jane Wetherby offers PC Hamish Macbeth a holiday at her 'Happy Wanderer' health farm on the isle of Eileencraig, he is more than happy to accept. Unfortunately the visit doesn't prove to be the pampering experience he had been hoping for. Windswept Eileencraig is...

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...