M. C. Beaton

Life is finally looking up for the poor relations. The Prince of Wales' coat of arms gleams over the hotel entrance. All but one of the rooms are filled by the open-handed Prince Hugo and his entourage. The owners have taken on a new partner, Mr. Jason Davy, a popular actor. Even curmudgeonly Sir Philip hasn't uttered anything loathsome for days. They have finally reached a position comfortable enough to allow them to consider offers to buy the hotel. The...

Hamish Macbeth, Scotland's most laconic and low-tech policeman, investigates the death of a woman with seemingly unearthly powers.

British detective Hamish Macbeth travels to Amsterdam and poses as a spiffy drug dealer to find clues to a murder. The victim was a recovering drug addict in Macbeth's village in Scotland.

Recently married to James Lacey, the witty and fractious Agatha Raisin quickly finds that marriage, and love, are not all they are cracked up to be. Rather than basking in marital bliss, the newlyweds are living in separate cottages and accusing each other of infidelity. After a particularly raucous fight in the local pub, James suddenly vanishes-a bloodstain the only clue to his fate-and Agatha is the prime suspect.Determined to clear her name and...

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...

Unlike quite a number of people, Agatha has not given up on Christmas. To have the perfect Christmas had been a childhood dream while surviving a rough upbringing in a Birmingham slum. Holly berries glistened, snow fell gently outside, and inside, all was Dickensian jollity. And in her dreams, James Lacey kissed her under the mistletoe, and like a middle-aged sleeping beauty, she would awake to passion once more...Agatha Raisin is bored. Her detective...

"The picturesque Cotwsold village of Winter Parva has decided to warm the winter months after the holidays by roasting a pig in the town square. Agatha, always one for a good roasting, has arrived with her former protegě and current rival in the private detection racket, Toni, to enjoy the merriment. But as the rotary spit is placed over a bed of fiery charcoals and the pig is carried toward its final resting place, Agatha realizes that things are...

The New York Times—bestselling Travelling Matchmaker series begins with a Regency tale of seductive subterfuge-from the author of the Agatha Raisin novels. A dead employer's legacy of five thousand pounds 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...

The downstairs staff at a Regency London townhouse prepares for another season in the delightful series by the New York Times–bestselling author. The house at 67 Clarges Street in Mayfair has a new pair of renters-pretty, young Emily Goodenough and the silent, mysterious man she calls her uncle. Emily is in London to find a husband-though her awkwardness in society could prove to be an obstacle. The servants led by Rainbird the butler, suspect there...

In the isolated villages of northern Scotland, the residents rely on chimney sweep Pete Ray. After Police Constable Hamish Macbeth finds a dead body stuffed inside a chimney, the entire town of Lochdubh suspects Pete. Then Pete's body is found on the Scottish moors, and the mystery deepens.