Cosy Crime: Gentle Mysteries

Meet Laura Thyme and Rosemary Boxer, two women who come together in the midst of life-changing crises; when Laura's friend Sam is killed in a car crash, and his business partner falls from a balcony, the two women join forces in their search for the truth.

Elspeth sees a man strangling a woman in a passing train. But who will take her story seriously? The indomitable Miss Marple of course.

There's a serial killer on the loose, bent on working his way through the alphabet. And as a macabre calling card he leaves beside each victim the ABC Railway Guide open at the name of the town where the murder has taken place. There seems little chance of the murderer being caught - until he makes the vain mistake of challenging Hercule Poirot to frustrate his plans...

Victor Green is 37, unmarried and the sort of man who irons his underpants. When pruning his tree, he falls from his ladder and kills the pedestrian below - the gangster Tommy 'Gruesome' Hewson. As word spreads of the gangster's demise, Victor is mistaken for Vincent Green, an international hitman, and swept into a turf war between two local gangs. The hapless Victor's life is turned upside down as he inherits Tommy's poodle, gets a girlfriend and is recruited to fight in both gangs, accidentally leaving a trail of bodies in his wake as he tries to figure out what seems to be a horrific misunderstanding.

At a Christmas house party on Dartmoor in 1935, Raymond Gentry's dead body is discovered in a locked room. Obviously not a suicide, so how was the murder committed? One of the guests, crime writer Evadne Mount, is on hand to investigate.

You might be able to explain the necklace and antique pistol being stolen, but the body in the lake is a different matter. It isn’t going to be easy working out who killed whom. Will Inspector Wilkins be able to solve the mystery?  Book 1 of series.

The Earl of Burford throws a party. Guests include a fading Hollywood actor, his producer, an Italian actress, a writer, a painter and an Olympic athlete. A murder takes place in the night, and Inspector Wilkins is called in to investigate.  Book 2 of series.

Understandably, Lord Burford had some misgivings about hosting another house party at Alderley, his beautiful country mansion. It didn't take long for things to start to go wrong. When one of the guests was found dead, Lord Burford had never been so relieved to see Chief Inspector Wilkins - again!  Book 3 of series.

When Cora is savagely murdered, the extraordinary remark she made the previous day at her brother Richard's funeral suddenly takes on a chilling significance. At the reading of Richard's will, Cora was clearly heard to say: 'It's been hushed up very nicely, hasn't it! But he was murdered, wasn't he?’. Hercule Poirot studies the case.

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.

1st Lydmouth mystery. Lydmouth is an ancient town on the Welsh English Borders. In the early 1950's workmen demolishing a building find a baby's body. Jill Francis, a journalist new to the town, finds herself unwillingly drawn into the investigation led by D.I. Thornhill.

Ruth Seabright , governess to Lester Ballard’s son, finds the dead body of her employer, clad in strange attire. Her charge is missing and someone has been searching through her room.

Simmy has been adjusting to life in Windermere, running her florist shop and trying to put her tragic past behind her. But just when she thinks her life is quietly coming together, it starts to unravel at the seams when she delivers a bouquet with a mysterious message attached, that brings sinister secrets to light.

On the way to see a client, Maisie Dobbs witnesses a man commit suicide on a busy London street. Maisie is invited into Scotland Yard's elite Special Branch as an adviser on the case and becomes involved in a race against time to find a man who proves he has the knowledge, and will, to murder thousands of innocent people.

Ten strangers, apparently with little in common, are lured to an island mansion off the coast of Devon by the mysterious U.N. Owen. That evening, one of the guests is found murdered by a deadly dose of cyanide. The tension escalates as the survivors realise the killer is not only among them but is preparing to strike again… and again…

During the annual Sherlock Holmes festival in Meiringen, Switzerland, novelist Gustav Slavorigin is murdered. None of the festival guests are above suspicion. Even amateur sleuth Evadne Mount is unprepared for the twists and turns of the investigation which climaxes at Meiringen’s principal tourist attraction, the Reichenbach Falls.

Inspector Archie Penrose has invited Josephine Tey to his family home in Cornwall. But death clouds the holiday when the local theatre proves to be a stage for real-life tragedy. Archie and Josephine must confront the violent reality which lies beneath a seemingly idyllic community...

Rumpole has two intriguing cases to occupy him. Is there something fishy about a 12-year-old Peter been given an ASBO for playing football in the street? A young bachelor, prime suspect in the murder of a prostitute, protests his innocence, and Rumpole cannot ignore him. On top of this his colleagues are protesting about the cigars and wine he occassionally enjoys in Chambers!  Book 20 of series.

George Surridge, director of the Birmingham Zoo, is a man with many worries: his marrige is collapsing; his finances are insecure; and an outbreak of disease threatens the animals in his care.