Showing results by author "M. C." in All Categories

Feathers are flying in Agatha Raisin's brand new case! 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 Carsely Ladies' Society and threatens the three bird fanatics. When Agatha walks in on the trio of women in the middle of a blazing row, her detective instincts start 'twitching'. And when one of the birdwatchers is found dead, she can't resist investigating. Her first lead comes from the victim's brother, who believes his sister was murdered by her fellow twitchers.

Violet is a typical, down-on-her-luck millennial: mid-twenties, over-educated and drowning in debt, on the verge of moving into her parents' basement. When a lifeline appears in the form of a very unconventional job in neighboring Cambric Creek, she has no choice but to grab at it with both hands.

After a lifetime spent in public relations, one-woman dynamo Agatha Raisin struggles to adapt to life in a quiet country village - but she soon finds that there is murder and mayhem aplenty to keep her busy. Among the cases she has to deal with are a poisoned quiche; a vet who has been ‘put to sleep’; a hanged horticulturist; a murdered rambler and a curate who meets his Maker somewhat sooner than expected.

Inspector Betty Church - one of the few female officers on the force - has arrived from London to fill a vacancy at Sackwater police station. But Betty isn't new here. This is the place she grew up. Time ticks slowly in Sackwater. Having solved the case of the missing buttons, Betty's called to the train station to investigate a missing bench. But though there's no bench, there is a body. A smartly dressed man, murdered in broad daylight, with two distinctive puncture wounds in his throat. While the locals gossip about the Suffolk Vampire, Betty Church readies herself to hunt a dangerous killer.

Gower Street, London, 1882: Sidney Grice, London's most famous personal detective, is expecting a visitor. He drains his fifth pot of morning tea, and glances outside, where a young, plain woman picks her way between the piles of horse-dung towards his front door. Sidney Grice shudders. For heaven's sake - she is wearing brown shoes. The Mangle Street Murders is for those who like their crime original, atmospheric, and very, very funny.

Feeling jilted and cross, Agatha follows a fortune-teller's advice and rents a cottage in the pretty village of Fryfam, where she hopes good fortune and true love will come chasing after her for a change. Unfortunately, her romantic notions are soon dispelled by the strange goings-on in the village. What are those strange lights in Agatha's back garden? Who is stealing paintings and pottery? And who murdered the local squire?

When private detective Agatha Raisin comes across a severed leg in a roadside hedge, it looks like she is about to become involved in a particularly gruesome murder. Looks, however, can be deceiving, as Agatha discovers when 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.

They tricked me into a dark and unholy union. Three bastards in witch hats, leather pants, and iron masks. These supernatural stalkers have claimed me for their coven. They won't go away. These assholes will. not. leave. All because I fell for an urban legend: touch the Witch's Tree on a moonless night and discover magic. Wholesome magic like: kinky rituals, blood sacrifice, and jizz potions. Oh, and a forest god who eats people—while they're still alive and screaming. Send help, and I'll send cupcakes.

After a romantic disappointment and an undeserved demotion, Scots village bobby Hamish Macbeth decides a week's holiday at the coastal village of Skag might be just the ticket. He's dead wrong, of course: the food is dire, and the man in the next room nags his wife so loudly and continuously that more than one person at the Friendly House bed-and-breakfast wishes him dead, though only Hamish is heard threatening him. When this chap's body is found floating in the river Skag, Hamish is the prime suspect.

Ein eigenes Cottage in den malerischen Cotswolds - davon hat Agatha Raisin schon immer geträumt. Jetzt ist dieser Wunsch endlich wahr geworden. Womit die Ex-PR-Beraterin aus London allerdings nie gerechnet hätte, ist die Abneigung ihrer neuen Nachbarn: Die Dörfler wollen offenbar lieber unter sich bleiben! Doch Agatha ist es gewohnt, ihren Kopf durchzusetzen. Um Eindruck zu schinden, reicht sie beim örtlichen Backwettbewerb eine Feinkost-Quiche ein, die sie als ihre eigene ausgibt. Dumm ist allerdings, dass einer der Preisrichter stirbt und in Agathas Quiche Gift gefunden wird.

Ignorance is bliss... especially when it comes to murder! Ever since the death of his father, Fellworth Dolphin has slaved away as a waiter to support his miserly, cold-hearted mother. So when she suddenly dies Fellworth is shocked to discover she has left him a fortune. Somewhat confused, Fell teams up with a girl from work, Maggie, to investigate the source of the riches. But what they find instead is a closet full of skeletons... Is it really possible Fell's father was involved in a decades-old train robbery? And who is the mysterious woman in the portrait?

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 it soon becomes apparent that her late husband hid many secrets and enemies.

When Fergus Macleod, Lochdubh's abusive, drunk dustman is put in charge of the local recycling centre and is dubbed the 'Environment Officer', Hamish Macbeth smells trouble. Sure enough, Fergus, imbued with his new powers, becomes a bullying tyrant and when his body is found stuffed in a recycling bin, no one is sorry - including his long-suffering family.

At home alone for the holidays, Agatha Raisin decides to host a dinner party for the elder residents in her Cotswold village of Winter Parva. Agatha's never been much of a homemaker, but she's dead set on making this the perfect holiday for the 'crumblies', as she affectionately calls them. She's decorated a tree while fending off her cats, Hodge and Boswell, and even made a (lumpy) Christmas pudding in between swigs of rum.

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!

Just when Hamish most needs him - the dentist turns up dead... In Scotland, where thrift and a 'nice set of dentures' are generally admired, dental surgeon Dr Frederick Gilchrist's cheap rates and penchant for pulling teeth have gained him a clientele. However, wiser Highlanders (like Hamish Macbeth) opt to steer clear of this reputed womanizer's all-too-busy hands. Only jaw-throbbing agony drives Hamish to Gilchrist's surgery, but what he finds is the dentist's dead body - putting several angry husbands in the frame for murder...

Maggie Baird is neither kind nor 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.

Recovering addict Tommy Jarret has rented a chalet to check out reports of a sea monster near the village of Drim. Then he turns up dead, apparently from a drug overdose, and constable Hamish Macbeth finds the lad's demise particularly fishy. Deciding to go undercover, Hamish infiltrates the local drug dealing trade. But his plans looks doomed when he's teamed up with a tough Glaswegian detective inspector named Olivia Chater, aka Concrete Knickers. For the Lochdubh lawman it would be equally dangerous to flounder...or fall in love.

Agatha and her assistant, Toni, are driving to their friend Bill Wong's wedding, thinking of nothing more than what the beautiful bride will be wearing when a terrified young man comes running down the country lane towards them wearing...nothing at all. The encounter leads them to become embroiled with a naturist group, a disappearing corpse, fantasy games, witchcraft, an ice cream empire, intrigue and murder.

Patricia Martyn-Broyd, now in her seventies, has retired to the Highlands. She hasn't written a word in years and her books are out of print. But now a television company is about to film her last detective story, featuring the aristocratic Scottish detective Lady Harriet Vare. Even better, a London publisher is bringing the book into print. Even though the snobbish Miss Martyn-Broyd doesn't care to mix with the locals she can't help but share her excitement with local policeman Hamish Macbeth.