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

Agatha Raisin's neighbouring village of Ancombe is usually the epitome of quiet rural charm, but the arrival of a new mineral-water company - which intends to tap into the village spring - sends tempers flaring and divides the parish council into two stubborn camps. When Agatha, who just happens...

After a brief and ill-advised dalliance with the Suffragette movement, Lady Rose Summers' debut season in London society turns out to be a complete disaster. Rose's father suspects that her fiancé, Sir Geoffrey Blandon, is a first class scoundrel and calls in Captain Harry Cathcart to...

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

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...

Ignorance is bliss... especially when it comes to murder! Ever since the death of his father, Fellworth Dolphin has slaved away as a waiter to support his miserly, cold-hearted mother. So when she suddenly dies Fellworth is shocked to discover she has left him a fortune. Somewhat confused, Fell...

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.

An unexpected hike to the Other Side . . . 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...

The first book in M.C. Beaton's charming A House for the Season series. Is Number 67 Clarges Steet the unluckiest house in Mayfair? Every Season the beaux mondes of the Regency would hire a house in the heart of London's fashionable West End at a disproportionately high rent for often inferior...

Agatha's former husband James is engaged to be married to a beautiful, young woman and Agatha has been kindly invited to the wedding. To take her mind off this, Agatha decides she has fallen for Sylvan, a Frenchman she met at James' engagement party. To distract her still further she decides...

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...

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...

At age twenty-three, the petite Lady Margery has already graced the rows of wallflowers for many a season. With the one exception of Charles, the Marquess of Edgecombe, the only man who ever dances with her, Lady Margery will have nothing to do with men; what's more, she does not even...

The final book in M.C. Beaton's charming A House for the Season series. Love comes home to A House for the Season! When the Duke of Pelham returns to his town house at 67 Clarges Street he is grimly determined to find himself a suitable wife, and love will have nothing to do with his selection...

When the boy entrusted to an earl is really a girl, the complications are delightful. The 10th earl of Berham does not know what to do. An attractive 32-year-old bachelor, he has been appointed guardian of the young Freddie Armstrong, the 18-year-old grandson of his late father's dear friend. That's bad enough. Then he discovers that the boy is really a girl! It is against all convention and against his personal code to keep a young lady concealed in his own home. He must find a solution.

With little to live on but her romantic daydreams - which frequently starred the dashing Marquess of Fleetwater - Jean Lindsay lived a rather dismal life with her nasty, drunken uncle. Jean was always the object of ridicule, that is, until news of her unexpected inheritance spread. Suddenly, her worn dresses became "quaint" and her forthright manner turned magically to "charming", but to Jean's horror, someone wanted her dead!

The third book in M.C. Beaton's charming A House for the Season series. It's double trouble for poor, put-upon Harriet! Lovely but penniless Harriet Metcalf is horrified when she is named in a nobleman's will as guardian of his two ghastly and snobbish twin daughters. The innocent Harriet...

The sixth book in M.C. Beaton's charming Travelling Matchmaker series. A damsel in distress and a confirmed bachelor - surely a match made in heaven! No coach journey is ever dull with Miss Hannah Pym aboard, and this one proves no exception as she meets the young and beautiful Miss Yvonne...

Fashionable society regards Sir Benjamin Wright with the utmost honour and respect. Yet Lady Emma knows that her husband is, in fact, a drunken jealous brute who delights in humiliating her both in and out of the bedroom. So, his unexpected murder is a blessing, she thinks - that is, until the...

Miss Jennie Bemyss was in a position that any intelligent young lady would envy. The wealthy, worldly Marquis of Charrington proposed a marriage of convenience that would leave him free to pursue his pleasures, and leave Jennie free of his undoubtedly depraved desires. At the same time, handsome...

The haughty Beverley family is obsessed with regaining Mannerling, the exquisite seventeenth-century mansion gambled away by their now-deceased father, Sir Beverley. Three of the six Beverley daughters have failed to win back their ancestral estate - settling for love matches over mere bricks...