M.C. Beaton

He was a vicar to die for - and he did! Agatha is going through a man-hating phase and so is unmoved by news of the captivating new curate. But when she meets the golden-haired, blue-eyed Tristan Delon, she is swept off her feet... along with every other female in the village. She is positively ecstatic when he invites her...

There may be trouble ahead... so will Agatha face the music? 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 divorcée Catherine Laggat-Brown, and Agatha is given her first real case. Death...

The morning of Agatha's 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. James breaks off the engagement. So when Jimmy is found murdered the next day, Agatha...

The local ladies all deem Mr John a wizard, so when Agatha finds a few grey hairs on her head—and the rinse she tries at home turns her hair purple—she makes a beeline for the handsome Evesham hairdresser. As well as sorting out her hair, it soon becomes clear the charming man also has designs on her heart. However, their...

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 a field, is young hiker Jessica Tartinck, who spent her life enraging...

Eye of newt, toe of frog . . . and murder most foul! 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...

Every new Agatha Raisin escapade is a total joy — ASHLEY JENSEN No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime — MAIL ON SUNDAY A Beaton novel is like The Archers on speed — DAILY MAIL The detective novels of M C Beaton have reached cult status — THE TIMES Irresistible, unputdownable, a joy — ANNE ROBINSON Agatha Raisin:...

‘Every new Agatha Raisin escapade is a total joy’ ASHLEY JENSEN ‘No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime’ MAIL ON SUNDAY ‘A Beaton novel is like The Archers on speed’ DAILY MAIL ‘The detective novels of M C Beaton have reached cult status’ THE TIMES Nothing could be more relaxing or sedate than a quiet game of bowls...

A visit to the local village fete for a spot of fun and relaxation turns into a nightmare for Agatha Raisin when she discovers the body of the local landowner in the woods - with an arrow in his chest and his trousers round his ankles. At first, her old adversary, Detective Chief Inspector Wilkes, declares the death a tragic...

All Sergeant Hamish Macbeth ever wants is a quiet life in the tranquil surroundings of Lochdubh, his home village in the Scottish Highlands. Although the area he polices is vast, he's happiest when he's working alone, yet the police authorities insist he has an assistant. In the past, they have supplied a variety of problematic misfits, but they surpass themselves...

‘Every new Agatha Raisin escapade is a total joy’ ASHLEY JENSEN ‘No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime’ MAIL ON SUNDAY Agatha Raisin: Devil's Delight follows Agatha and her assistant, Toni, who are on their way to their friend Bill Wong's wedding. En route, they're shocked when a terrified young man comes running down the country lane towards...

Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body by M.C. Beaton follows Agatha, who has never been one for enforced holiday cheer, yet her friendly little village of Carsely has always prided itself on its traditional Christmas festivities. Unfortunately, this year the bells will not be ringing out Silent Night, as Mr John Sunday, an officer with the Cotswold Health and Safety...

'The detective novels of M C Beaton have reached cult status' The Times 'Every new Agatha Raisin escapade is a total joy' Ashley Jensen 'No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime' Mail on Sunday 'A Beaton novel is like The Archers on speed' Daily Mail ------------ Life is never dull in Agatha Raisin's sleepy Cotswolds village! The newest...

Agatha Raisin: There Goes The Bride by M.C. Beaton follows Agatha as she navigates life's unexpected challenges. Agatha's former husband James is engaged to a beautiful, young woman, and Agatha has been kindly invited to the wedding. To take her mind off this, she decides she has fallen for Sylvan, a Frenchman she met at James' engagement party. Seeking further...

Sea, sand - and the slammer for Agatha! Agatha Raisin and Love, Lies and Liquor sees Agatha Raisin thinking 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. From there, things go from bad to worse. When a...

No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime Mail on Sunday Agatha Raisin and a Spoonful of Poison follows Agatha Raisin, whose detective agency has become so successful that she decides to take time off for rest and relaxation. However, she quickly realises that when she has time on her hands, she doesn't know what to do with it....

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 her 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....

'Every new Agatha Raisin escapade is a total joy' – ASHLEY JENSEN 'No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime' – MAIL ON SUNDAY 'A Beaton novel is like The Archers on speed' – DAILY MAIL 'The detective novels of M C Beaton have reached cult status' – THE TIMES Private Detective Agatha Raisin immerses herself in the glittering...

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 PC Hamish Macbeth, there's no holiday from...

Allotment wars! 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...

No one in Lochdubh expects Dorothy to stay for long... She is, after all, entirely unsuitable. She's an uptown girl, used to a fancy lifestyle in the big city of Glasgow. She'll never fit in. And how is that work-shy rogue Hamish Macbeth supposed to get anything done when his new assistant is such a distraction? The village needs a...

'Explosive and engaging' - Booklist A featherbrained scheme to make cold, hard cash... PC Hamish Macbeth can't help but admire the resourcefulness of the Highlanders during the Recession - in tough times they have to lure tourists to their sleepy towns and the quaint village of Braikie has come up with a novel solution. It really doesn't have that much...

There are many ruined castles in Scotland. One such lies outside the village of Drim. Hamish begins to hear reports that this castle is haunted and lights have been seen there at night, but he assumes it's some children or maybe the local lads going there to smoke pot, or, worse, inject themselves with drugs. Hamish says to his policeman,...

When society widow and gossip columnist Lady Jane Winters joins the local fishing class, she wastes no time in ruffling the feathers—or should that be fins?—of those around her. Among the victims of her sharp tongue is Lochdubh constable Hamish Macbeth. Yet not even Hamish thinks someone would seriously want to silence Lady Jane's shrill voice permanently—until her strangled body...

The unconventional Hamish Macbeth finds that his own impetuousness places him at the centre of a murder investigation. Death accompanies a tattooed stranger to a tiny Highland town... Everyone in Lochdubh knows about the Macho Man - a mean bully claiming to be a professional wrestler and part-time explorer. His insults at the pub have caused brawls, while his furtive...

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 lad's demise to be particularly fishy . . . and...

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 before long. So when Kate Hibbert disappears after having last...

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 Agatha firmly believed Gwen to have assisted her son in some...

Amazing news is spreading like wildfire across the Scottish countryside: the most famous of all Highland bachelors, police sergeant Hamish Macbeth, is planning to marry at last! Everyone in the village of Lochdubh adores Josie McSween, Hamish's newest constable and blushing bride-to-be. While locals think she is quite a catch, Hamish has a severe case of pre-nuptial jitters... after all,...

Not bored to death but murder most foul . . . Celebrated author John Heppel is known in Lochdubh as a self-important bore, prone to belittling the scribblings of the locals in his creative writing class. So when he's found dead, his mouth oozing ink, it seems a fitting fate. But for PC Hamish Macbeth the murder is more than...

Trouble is afoot in the remote Scottish fishing village of Stoyre, where the inhabitants are acting kind of... fishy. On a routine visit, Hamish Macbeth finds the pub empty, the church unexpectedly full, and the very air permeated with fear. Then an explosion levels a holiday cottage which the locals call 'an act of God'. Hamish has another theory, one...

A dead witness. A forgotten crime. Hamish Macbeth never had it so hard as in this newest Highlands mystery! Morag Merrilea is working at the Shopmark Fashions factory during her summer holidays to earn some extra cash. But when the art student complains to Hamish about the theft of her sketchbook in the pub, he doesn't take her too seriously....

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 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 so many titled party guests...

A pen pusher from Head Office soon finds himself pushing up the daisies... Local police stations all over the Scottish Highlands are being threatened with closure, and this presents the perfect opportunity for Detective Chief Inspector Blair, who would love nothing more than to get rid of Sergeant Hamish Macbeth. Blair suggests that Cyril Sessions, a keen young police officer,...

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 neighbourhood, the old man treats him very rudely. Gloria apologises for her employer's behaviour, and Hamish takes the plunge and invites her out for dinner. On the appointed evening, Hamish waits...

Mrs Gentle has fooled everyone into thinking she is as sweet as she sounds—Gentle by name and gentle by nature. But local constable Hamish Macbeth isn't fooled. He believes this little old lady is actually quite sly and vicious, but he's in a minority of one. Or is he? When Mrs Gentle dies under unusual circumstances, the villagers of Lochdubh...

No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime Mail on Sunday Amazing news is spreading like wildfire across the Scottish countryside: the most famous of all Lochdubh, remotely nestling in the Highlands, is perfectly anonymous... until well-known TV reporter Crystal French races into town in her bright new BMW. PC Hamish Macbeth, dourly wed to duty rather than the...

Sergeant Hamish Macbeth is alarmed to receive a report from a woman in the small village of Cronish in the Scottish Highlands. She has been brutally attacked and the criminal is on the loose. But upon further investigation, Hamish discovers that she was lying about the crime. So when the same woman calls him back about an intruder, he simply...

'A Beaton novel is like The Archers on speed' DAILY MAIL 'The detective novels of M C Beaton have reached cult status' THE TIMES Feathers are flying in Agatha Raisin: Sugar and Spite! 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...

The most hated man in the most dour town in Scotland is sleeping with the fish, or—more accurately—has been dumped into a tank filled with crustaceans. All that remains of the murdered victim are his bones. But once the lobsters have been shipped off to Britain's best restaurants, the whole affair quickly lands on the plate of Constable Hamish Macbeth....

Returning from holiday, Hamish becomes unaccountably worried—it’s as if he senses a dark cloud of evil hanging over Lochdubh. He soon learns that there is a newcomer to the village, a woman called Catriona Beldame, and that the villagers have decided she is a witch. At first Hamish is charmed by her, but is dismayed when he finds out she’s...

A sudden outbreak of maliciousness strikes the town of Lochdubh in the form of a rash of poison pen letters. Things turn deadly when the local postmistress is found hanged in her room... with a vicious note beneath her dangling feet. Though his superiors call it suicide, PC Hamish Macbeth pronounces it murder. But Hamish is soon distracted by Jenny...

Agatha Raisin: Hiss and Hers sees Agatha falling in love once again. This time, the object of her affection is the local gardener, George Marston. However, she isn’t the only one vying for his attention. With her shameless determination, Agatha is willing to do anything to win him over—even footing the bill for a charity ball in town just to...

Sergeant Hamish Macbeth - Scotland's most quick-witted but unambitious policeman - returns for the latest mystery in M.C. Beaton's New York Times bestselling series. Nobody loves an honest man, or that was what police sergeant Hamish Macbeth tried to tell newcomer Paul English. Paul attended church in Lochdubh. He told the minister, Mr. Wellington, that his sermons were boring. He...

Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death features Agatha Raisin's neighbouring village of Ancombe, which is usually the epitome of quiet rural charm. However, 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 to be handling the...

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 -...

Agatha's away with the fairies . . . And the little folk are causing big trouble for her! Angry at being jilted by new husband James, Agatha follows a fortune-teller's advice and rents a cottage in pretty Fryfam. There, she hopes, true love will come chasing after her. But her romantic notions are dispelled by a series of odd goings-on...

'Every new Agatha Raisin escapade is a total joy' ASHLEY JENSEN 'No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'A Beaton novel is like The Archers on speed' DAILY MAIL The first Agatha Raisin mystery from bestselling author M. C. Beaton Revenge is a dish best served warm... High-flying public relations supremo Agatha Raisin has decided...

Agatha goes digging where she shouldn't... Agatha is taken aback when she finds a new woman ensconced in the affections of her attractive bachelor neighbour, James Lacey. The beautiful Mary Fortune is superior in every way, especially when it comes to gardening — and with Carsely Garden Open Day looming, Agatha feels this deficiency acutely. So when Mary is discovered...

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 friends. Even the murder of a Mrs Tamworthy, poisoned with...

Agatha lets sleeping vets lie... 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. Agatha decides...

She's practically perfect in every way! 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...

The page-turning new mystery in the bestselling Hamish Macbeth series! Sergeant Hamish Macbeth is craving peace and quiet. But visitors to his home village of Lochdubh, nestled in the Scottish Highlands, have other ideas... Hamish and the new love in his life, Claire, have holiday plans. But thoughts of rest and relaxation are rudely interrupted by the arrival of a...

Winter Parva, a traditional Cotswolds village next door to Carsely, has decided to throw a celebratory hog roast to mark the beginning of the winter holiday festivities. Agatha Raisin has arrived with her friend and rival in the sleuthing business, Toni, to enjoy the merriment. But as the spit pig is carried towards the bed of fiery charcoal, Agatha—and the...

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 a bottle of elderberry wine, folk in the...

Hamish Macbeth is savouring the delights of a Highland summer, but as fast as the 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 to Lochdubh with a new fiancé on her arm. His miseries multiply when clouds of midges descend on the town. And...

Cold-blooded murder heats up Agatha's summer holiday! Agatha travels to Cyprus, only to contend with her estranged fiancé, an egregious group of truly terrible tourists, and a string of murders. 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,...

A vengeful ghost comes back to haunt the living? 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...

Annabelle Carruthers can only dream of being kissed by a man as dashing as Lord Darkwood. She remains locked in misery, married to a rakish drunk who gambles their lives into financial and social ruin. His sudden death, accompanied by rumours of spies and treachery, only makes matters worse. Burdened with her dead husband's gambling debts, Annabelle fears that she...

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 girlfriend, reporter Elspeth Grant, is back in Lochdubh...

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 constable's accusing finger points to her as the murderer. But...