M. C. Beaton

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. Then Mr John Sunday, an officer with the Cotswold Health and Safety Board, goes too far when he rules that there cannot be a Christmas tree atop the church tower this year..  Book 21 of series.

The bells of St. Ethelred church are the pride and glory of the village of Thirk Magna, together with dedicated bell ringers, twins Mavis and Millicent Dupin. As the village gets ready for the Bishop's visit, the twins start bullying the other bell ringers, so much so that Joseph Kennell, a retired lawyer, yells at the sisters that he 'felt like killing them'! When the twins' home is broken into, and Millicent is found dead, suspicion falls onto the lawyer... Will Agatha unmask the real killer and clear Joseph's name?.  Book 29 of series.

When wealthy divorcée, Catherine Laggat-Brown walks in, Agatha gets 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.  Book 15 of series.

Agatha, feeling jilted and cross, rents a cottage in the pretty village of Tryfam in Norfolk. Here she hopes to find good fortune and true love. Instead she gets caught up in fairies, murder and theft..  Book 10 of series.

On the day of her marriage, Agatha’s first husband, Jim, whom she thought was long-dead, turns up in time to spoil the day. Her fiancé, not surprisingly, breaks off the engagement. The next day Jim is found murdered and Agatha and her fiancé are the prime suspects..  Book 5 of series.

Mary Forunte is quite superior in every way, and has even ensconced herself in the affections of Agatha Raisin's neighbour, an eligible bachelor. When Mary is murdered and found buried upside down in a plant pot, Agatha seizes the moment to dig up village secrets. But is this wise?.  Book 3 of series.

When she retires PR boss, Agatha Raisin, follows her dreams and buys a Cotswold cottage. Desperate to fit in she enters a quiche baking competition, but is soon branded as a poisoner when a judge dies after eating her shop bought entry. Unless she can expose the poisoner, Agatha's dream of rural bliss will be at an end.  Book 1 of series.

Agatha Raisin travels to Cyprus in search of her ex-fiancé. There they witness the murder of an obnoxious tourist, instead of enjoying the honeymoon they had planned. Agatha won’t rest until she finds the murderer, and the murderer won’t rest until she’s history..  Book 6 of series.

Agatha Raisin has convinced herself that the new village vet is attracted to her, but before romance can blossom he accidentally kills himself! Once more she is forced to be chummier with her neighbour, James Lacey, as they work together to solve the mystery of the vet's death..  Book 2 of series.

After six months in London, Agatha Raisin returns to Carsley where she soon has a juicy murder to investigate. Jessica Tartinck has been bludgeoned to death - could this have been done by someone in her walking group, or one of the landlords she has enraged over the years?.  Book 4 of series.

The village of Anscombe is the epitome of rural charm, but the village is divided into two camps with the arrival of a mineral water company. Tongues start to wag when the chairman of the Parish Council is found murdered..  Book 7 of series.

Agatha is helping out at the church fete, but there's more going on than innocent village fun. Several of the offerings in the jam-tasting booth turn out to be poisoned and the festive entertainment becomes the scene of two murders. Book 19 of series.

Agatha Raisin has arrived with friend and rival in the sleuthing business, Toni, to enjoy a celebratory hog roast at Winter Parva. But as the spit pig is carried towards the bed of fiery charcoal Agatha - and the rest of the village - realise that things aren't as they seem.....  Book 22 of series.

Private Detective Agatha Raisin returns for her 30th mystery. She is employed to investigate a case of industrial espionage at a factory where nothing is quite what it seems. The factory mystery soon turns to murder and a bad-tempered donkey turns Agatha into a national celebrity, before bringing her ridicule and shame. To add to her woes, Agatha finds herself grappling with growing feelings for her friend and occasional lover, Sir Charles Fraith. As a possible solution to the factory murder unfolds, her own life is thrown into deadly peril..  Book 30 of series.

Agatha has fallen in love - again. This time it's the local gardener, George Marston. But when George goes missing, Agatha goes looking for him - and finds he has been murdered, having been bitten by a poisonous snake and buried in a compost heap!  Book 23 of series.

Private Detective Agatha Raisin immerses herself in the glittering lifestyle of the fabulously wealthy when Sir Charles Fraith is accused of murder - and Agatha is named as his accomplice! A high-society wedding, a glitzy masked ball, and an introduction to the world of international show-jumping where the riders are glamorous, the horses are beautiful, and intrigue runs deep, leave Agatha with a list of suspects as long as a stallion's tail..  Book 31 of series.

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 village don't mourn her passing too intently. Parish councillor Jerry Tarrant hires Agatha Raisin to track down the murderer. But the village is creepy and secretive and the residents don't seem to want Agatha to succeed.  Book 24 of series.

When the bride of her former husband is murdered on their wedding day, Agatha is under suspicion - but then the dead bride's mother engages Agatha to take on the case. Soon Agatha's own life is in danger.  Book 20 of series.

Maria Kendall is a dream client - beautiful, impeccably mannered, graceful and extremely well dowered. In short, she doesn't seem to need the Tribbles' help at all. But then the sisters meet her parents and realise that they do have a problem on their hands - not with the perfect Maria, but with her overweening, gauche and socially over-ambitious parents!  Book 5 of series.

No sooner does Miss Pym board her next stagecoach, than she finds herself embroiled in the plight of Miss Belinda Earle, a spirited heiress banished to Bath. When the coach founders near Baddell Castle, and the dashing Marquis of Frenton comes to the rescue, Miss Pym decides to give fate a hand.  Book 2 of series.

In the seeming quiet of the Highlands many secrets are hidden, and when a TV star attempts to further her career by exposing them she becomes the most hated woman around. When she is found dead, Hamish Macbeth has to discover who the murderer is.  Book 17 of series.

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 as prime suspects, each with their own reason for snuffing out the despicable captain, Hamish must smooth ruffled feathers as he investigates the case... and catch a killer, before they fly the coop!  Book 2 of series.

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, drink coffee, and slouch around. And now to spend time with lovely Priscilla. 

But his days aren't as tranquil as his dreams. This might be a good time to find out why Peter Hynd's arrival in nearby Drim was causing so much trouble.

An attractive, unmarried man with an independent income would always attract attention in such a small place. But this time Hynd's arrival seems to have caused bitter rivalry among the women of Drim. Hamish finds their petty fights amusing at first, until death threats, physical abuse, and murder make statistical history in one of Scotland's most picture postcard-perfect towns.  Book 10 of series.

Everyone in the sleepy Scottish town of Lochdubh adores elderly Mrs Gentle. When she dies in mysterious circumstances, the town is shocked and outraged. Hamish Macbeth begins investigating the truth behind this lady's gentle exterior.  Book 23 of series.

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. 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 police sergeant who can get on with his job, not one who's constantly swooning over his pretty young constable.

Yet PC Dorothy McIver quickly shows how determined she is to win over the locals, and she certainly seems to bring out the best in Macbeth. Then comes a brutal murder and the pair find themselves plunged into a tangled web of conspiracy that acquires a sinister strand when the chilling shadow of Glasgow's underworld creeps to the Highlands and the peaceful village of Lochdubh.  Book 34 of series.

Maggie Baird is neither kind or generous, but she is very, very rich. So when her car catches fire, with her inside it, there are five likely candidates for the role of murderer. All five had been houseguests at her luxurious Highlands home - Maggie's timid niece and four former lovers, one of whom Maggie had intended to pick for a husband.

All five are utterly broke and all had ample opportunity to tamper with Maggie's car. So finding out who did it will require all of PC Hamish Macbeth's extraordinary common sense and insight into human nature; especially when the killer appears to be the wrong person entirely...  Book 5 of series.

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 to offer apart from a place of rare beauty called Buchan's Wood, which the clued-up local tourist board director has rechristened 'The Fairy Glen' and has had brochures printed with a beautiful kingfisher rising from a lake on the cover.

It isn't long before coach tours begin to arrive but just as the town's luck starts to turn, a kingfisher is found hanging from a branch in the woods with a noose around its neck. As a wave of vandalism threatens to ruin Braikie forever it is up to Hamish to get involved... and his investigation quickly turns from mistreatment of birds to murder...  Book 27 of series.

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 then a paragon of housewife perfection named Trixie Thomas moves into Lochdubh with her cowed husband in tow.

The newcomer quickly convinces the local ladies to embrace low-cholesterol meals, ban alcohol and begin bird-watching. Soon the town's menfolk are up in arms and Macbeth must solve Lochdubh's newest crime - the mysterious poisoning of the perfect wife.  Book 4 of series.

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 isolated Scottish manor, the 'victim' turned out to be Trent's manservant covered in fake blood.

Thus prepared for another prank, Hamish arrives to find that Trent has been most decidedly murdered and for suspects there is a houseful of greedy relatives, all of whom are more than interested in the contents of the will rather than the crime at hand. And when the Chief Inspector arrives on the scene and his former flame, Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, gets involved as well, Hamish quite clearly has his hands full.  Book 7 of series.

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 inhabited by hostile islanders, many of whom would be more than happy to be rid of the 'Happy Wanderer' and its proprietor.

And the company at the health farm is hardly better. The volatile party includes an ex-husband, an illicit lover, and Morag Todd, an unadulterated snob who criticizes everybody and everything. So when Morag is found lying at the foot of a cliff with a broken neck, no one seems too broken up about the event - leaving it up to Hamish to solve the death of a snob.  Book 6 of series.

It's springtime in the Highlands but storms are brewing for Hamish Macbeth. His life is going to pot. He has - horrors! - been promoted, his new boss is a dunce, and a sinister self-proclaimed gypsy and his girlfriend have parked their rusty eyesore of a van in the middle of the village.

Hamish smells trouble and as usual he's right. The doctor's drugs have gone missing. Money vanishes. And neighbours suddenly become unneighbourly. Nobody wants to talk either, so canny Hamish faces the delicate task of worming the facts out of the villagers.

In the process he uncovers a story so bizarre that neither he nor the locals may ever be able to forget it...  Book 9 of series.

The most hated man in the most dour town in Scotland is sleeping with the fishes, 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.

Exiled to the dreary outpost of Cnothan, Macbeth sorely misses his beloved Lochdubh, but before he can head back home he has to contend with a detective chief inspector who wants the murder hushed up, a dark-haired lassie who is out to seduce him, and a killer who has made mincemeat of his last victim, and will no doubt strike again...  Book 3 of series.

Attempting to win back the family estate that had been gambled away by their father, twins Abagail and Rachel Beverley learn a lesson about love when Abagail sets her sights on Harry Devers and sees his true colors.  Book 3 of series.

A dead employer's legacy of £5000 allows spinster Hannah Pym to resign from housekeeping and find adventure travelling the English countryside by stagecoach. But adventure soon finds Miss Pym in the form of Miss Emily Freemantle, a spoilt violet-eyed beauty fleeing an arranged marriage to a rake she has never met.  Book 1 of series.

Stunningly beautiful, the dazzling Delilah has had plenty of marriage proposals. But having once been spurned by Sir Charles Digby, the only man she has ever loved, she is now a hardened heartbreaker who toys with all her suitors. And so it is up to the eccentric Tribble sisters to teach her the meaning of true love again.  Book 3 of series.

Wealthy and well bred, Clarissa Vevian has been unable to find a suitable husband because of her terrible clumsiness. Her mother has tried to mould Clarissa into a dainty miss - but all her efforts are doomed to failure. And when Clarissa enters the Tribble sister's School for Manners, they fear that their reputation for matchmaking success may be destroyed - along with their carpets and furniture!  Book 4 of series.