M. C Beaton

"Toni and Agatha are in the car on the way to Officer Bill Wong's long-awaited wedding when, much to their shock, a naked young man bursts through a hedge on the side of the road and comes running toward them. Terrified, he explains that he has just seen a dead body in the woods. Toni lends him an old t-shirt to cover himself, Agatha calls the police, and the young man takes them to the spot where he saw the body, across from a meadow where the Mircester...

"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...

"When Private Detective Agatha Raisin learns that her friend and one-time lover Charles Fraith is to be married to a mysterious socialite, Miss Mary Brown-Field, she sees it as her duty to find out what she can about the woman. Coming up empty, Agatha--out of selfless concern for Charles, of course--does the only sensible thing she can think of: she crashes their wedding, which ends in a public altercation. Nursing a hangover the next morning, she...

Gentle by name, gentle by nature. Everyone in the sleepy Scottish town of Lochdubh adores elderly Mrs. Gentle--everyone but Hamish Macbeth, that is. Hamish thinks the gentle lady is quite sly and vicious, and the citizens of Lochdubh think he is overly cranky. Perhaps it's time for him to get married, they say. But who has time for marriage when there's a murder to be solved? When Mrs. Gentle dies under mysterious circumstances, the town is shocked...

"Scottish policeman Hamish Macbeth is charged with investigating the death of a maid struck down by a bucket of water"--Provided by the publisher.

Agatha Raisin, snug in her Carsley cottage, is overwhelmed by boredom-until a report of a haunted house sends her to investigate. Suddenly, middle-aged Agatha is aglow with romance and excitement.But the glow fades fast. It turns out the victim of the haunting is a universally disliked old biddy, and the ghost is most likely someone playing a practical joke. Then an old lady is murdered, and, for Agatha, solving a homicide is more fun than hunting...

"Gloria French was a jolly widow with dyed blonde hair, a raucous laugh and rosy cheeks. When she first moved from London to the charming Cotswold Hills, she was heartily welcomed. She seemed a do-gooder par excellence, raising funds for the church and caring for the elderly. But she had a nasty habit of borrowing things and not giving them back, just small things, a teapot here, a set of silverware there. So it's quite the shock when she is found...

Cotswolds inhabitants are used to inclement weather, but the night sky is especially foggy as Rory and Molly Devere, the new vicar and his wife, drive slowly home from a dinner party in their village of Sumpton Harcourt. They strain to see the road ahead--and then suddenly brake, screeching to a halt. Right in front of them, aglow in the headlights, a body hangs from a gnarled tree at the edge of town. Margaret Darby, an elderly spinster, has been...

The Cotwsold village of Winter Parva has decided to roast a pig in the town square. Agatha has arrived with her current rival in the private detection racket, Toni, to enjoy the merriment. But as the pig is carried toward its final resting place, Agatha realizes that things are not as they seem....the pig, in fact, is Gary Beech, a policeman not exactly beloved by the good people of the village. Although Agatha has every intention of leaving matters...

Bossy, impulsive, yet hopelessly romantic, Agatha is dreading the upcoming marriage of her ex-husband, James Lacey. Her best intentions to move on with her life are put on hold when James's young bride is shot to death just minutes before saying I do, and Agatha is named the prime suspect.