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Penelope Keith
Agatha Raisin in Beating About the Bush
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
...Beloved New York Times bestseller M. C. Beaton's cranky, crafty Agatha Raisin―the star of her own hit TV series―is back on the case again in Devil's Delight.
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.
...Bossy, impulsive, yet hopelessly romantic, Agatha is dreading the upcoming marriage of her ex-husband, James Lacey. Although she has set her sights on a handsome and beguiling new Frenchman, she can't quite stop obsessing about James. 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.
Agatha's sleuthing sidekick Toni
...The picturesque Cotwsold village of Winter Parva has decided to warm the post-Christmas season by roasting a pig in the town square. Agatha, always one for a good roasting, organizes an outing 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 not as they seem ...
"Stop!" she screams suddenly. The "pig," in fact, is Gary
...Agatha Raisin has never been one for forced holiday cheer, but her friendly little village of Carsely has always prided itself on its traditional Christmas festivities. But this year the bells will not be ringing out, as Mr. John Sunday, an officer with the Cotswold Health and Safety Board, has chosen Christmas as the time to crack down on safety hazards all around the community. But he goes too far when he rules that there cannot be a Christmas
...Agatha Raisin, retired PR supremo, has been spurned at the altar by the man of her dreams—her attractive neighbor James Lacey. So temporarily deserting the sleepy Cotswold village of Carsely, she pursues her fleeing fianc├® to north Cyprus, where, instead of enjoying a romantic honeymoon, they witness the killing of an obnoxious tourist in a disco. Can the duo forget their differences and resume their strangely successful sleuthing
...Another witty mystery featuring the quirky, crime-solving sleuth Agatha Raisin
Just back from an extended stay in London, Agatha Raisin finds herself greeted by torrential rains and an old, familiar feeling of boredom. When her handsome new neighbor, Paul Chatterton, shows up on her doorstep, she tries her best to ignore his obvious charms, but his sparkling black eyes and the promise of adventure soon lure her into another investigation.
Paul
...Agatha Raisin's neighboring village of Ancombe is usually the epitome of quiet rural charm, but the arrival of a new mineral-water company—which intends to tap into the village spring—sends tempers flaring and divides the parish council into two stubborn camps. When Agatha, who happens to be the PR person for the water company, finds the council chairman murdered at the spring, tongues start wagging. Could one of the council members
...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
...When a fortune teller from a previous case informs Agatha Raisin that her destiny—and true love—lies in Norfolk, she promptly rents a cottage in the quaint village of Fryfam. No sooner does she arrive than strange things start happening. Random objects go missing from people's homes and odd little lights are seen dancing in the villagers' gardens and yards. Stories soon begin circulating about the presence of fairies.
But when
...After six months in London, Agatha Raisin returns to her beloved Cotswold village—and her dashing neighbor, James Lacey. Well, sort of. James might not be so interested in Agatha. But soon enough, Agatha becomes consumed by her other passion: crime solving. A woman has been found dead in a lonely field nearby. Her name is Jessica Tartinck, a hiker who infuriated wealthy landowners by insisting on her hiking club's right to trek across their
...Putting all her eggs in one basket, Agatha Raisin gives up her successful public-relations firm, sells her London flat, and samples a taste of early retirement in the quiet village of Carsely.
Bored, lonely, and used to getting her way, she enters a local baking contest—surely a blue ribbon for the best quiche will make her the toast of the town. But her recipe for social advancement sours when Judge Cummings-Browne not only snubs her
...A little friendly competition for the attention of a handsome neighbor turns deadly in this third installment of the popular Agatha Raisin mystery series.
When Agatha Raisin returns home after a sojourn in the capital, she finds a new woman ensconced in the affections of her attractive bachelor neighbor, James Lacey. The newcomer, Mary Fortune, is superior to Agatha in every way, especially when it comes to gardening. With Carsely Open Day
...After being nearly killed by both a hired hit man and her former secretary, Agatha Raisin could use some low-key cases. So when Robert Smedley walks through the door of her detective agency, determined to prove that his wife is cheating on him, Raisin Investigations immediately offers to help. Unfortunately for Agatha, Mabel Smedley appears to be the perfect wife: young, pretty, and a regular volunteer at church. But just as Agatha is ready to
...Crankier than ever, Agatha Raisin wants to forget that her husband left her to enter a monastery—a turn of affairs more humiliating than when she caught him with a mistress. She feels abandoned, fat, frumpy, and absolutely furious.
What are her options? She takes an island vacation and joins a Pilates class. But what finally lifts her spirits is finding a corpse. The dead girl was a member of Agatha's exercise class, afloat in a rain-swollen
...Amateur sleuth Agatha Raisin is going through a man-hating phase after being left by her husband, is bored with tottering around Carsley, and wishes men would just sod off, so she is unmoved by news of a captivating new curate. But when she meets the golden-haired, blue-eyed Tristan Delon, she is swept off her feet—along with every other female in the village. She is positively ecstatic when he invites her to dine with him, but the next day
...He was a hairdresser to dye for.
The local ladies all deem Mr. John a wizard, so when Agatha finds a few grey hairs on her head—and the rinse she tries at home turns her hair purple—she makes a beeline for the handsome Evesham hairdresser. And as well as sorting out her hair it soon becomes clear the charming man also has designs on her heart—but their budding romance is cut short when Mr. John is fatally poisoned in his
...Agatha Raisin thinks she's in for a treat when her ex-husband, James Lacey, invites her on a holiday. But to her horror, his idea of an exotic destination is a small, rundown resort in Snoth-on-Sea. Needless to say, the break doesn't go as planned. When a fellow guest in their hotel is found murdered, Agatha herself becomes a suspect—and it looks as if she will be solving this particular case from the confines of a prison cell.