Hamish Macbeth 04; Death of a Perfect Wife hm-4

Hamish Macbeth 04; Death of a Perfect Wife hm-4

M C Beaton

Mystery / Suspense / Romance

A Hamish Macbeth Mystery. When Paul and Trixie Thomas move to the village of Lochdubh, Trixie jumps into things with a vengeance. She organizes an anti-smoking league, promotes vegetarian cooking, even starts a birdwatching society. It’s too much…too perfect. It doesn’t feel like the old Lochdubh anymore. So when Trixie is murdered, not everyone is exactly devastated. Constable Macbeth, head over heels in love with beautiful Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, must interrupt his romance at the most inopportune time to solve the mystery. But how to do that when the list of suspects includes the entire town?
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Ms. Davenport's Christmas

Ms. Davenport's Christmas

M C Beaton

Mystery / Suspense / Romance

It was Christmas and the Davenport sisters found themselves alone, without even a dour-faced maid to supervise them. Instead they were expected to obey strict puritanical devotions. But this year the elder, flame-haired Gillian boldly decided that it was high time the sisters let their hair down a little bit. So with the help of a kindly relation, the two daring misses exchanged their usual somber (and considered proper) attire for more modish gowns and hairstyles that would surely have given their parents apoplexy!It was to be a memorable year and a Christmas rich in plum pudding, eggnog, carols, and a most breathtaking tree. The Davenport sisters reveled in the rituals of Christmas as well as in the selection of handsome gentlemen who had come to help celebrate the festivities.So it was that it was this year that Gillian was caught under the mistletoe by Lord Ranger Marden. She then discovered things her mother had never...
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Edwardian Murder Mystery 02; Hasty Death emm-2

Edwardian Murder Mystery 02; Hasty Death emm-2

M C Beaton

Mystery / Suspense / Romance

Eager to join the working classes, Lady Rose Summer has abandoned the comforts of her parents’ home to become self-supporting. But life as a working woman isn’t quite what Rose had imagined – long hours as a typist and nights spent in a dreary women’s hostel are not very empowering when you’re poor, cold, and tired. Luckily for Rose, her drudgery comes to a merciful end when she learns of the untimely death of an acquaintance. Freddy Pomfret, a silly and vacuous young man, was almost certainly up to no good before he was shot dead in his London flat. When Rose discovers incriminating evidence pointing to several members of her class, she returns to London high society in order to investigate properly. With the help of Captain Harry Cathcart and Superintendent Kerridge of Scotland Yard, Rose prepares to do the social rounds – uncovering a devious blackmail plot and an unexpected killer.
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Agatha Raisin and the Perfect Paragon

Agatha Raisin and the Perfect Paragon

M C Beaton

Mystery / Suspense / Romance

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, determined to prove that his wife is cheating, Raisin Investigations immediately offers to help. Trouble is, Agatha hates divorce cases--especially when the client is as pompous as Smedley--but she has a business to run and she's not about to turn away a paying customer. Unfortunately for Agatha, Mabel Smedley appears to be the perfect wife, young and pretty and a regular volunteer at church. Although Smedley's case doesn't look promising, Agatha's attentions are diverted when she stumbles across the body of missing teenager, Jessica Bradley. In a sudden gesture of kindness (and good public relations), Agatha offers to investigate Jessica's death free of charge. As Agatha juggles her two biggest cases, things are turned upside down when Robert Smedley is found poisoned in his office. The prime suspect, his sainted wife Mabel, immediately hires Agatha to find the real killer. With the help of her old friend, Sir Charles Fraith, and some newly hired staff, Agatha Raisin sets off on another adventure solving crime in the English Cotswolds.
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Agatha Raisin and The Murderous Marriage ar-5

Agatha Raisin and The Murderous Marriage ar-5

M C Beaton

Mystery / Suspense / Romance

The morning of Agatha Raisin's long-awaited marriage to her attractive and elusive neighbor, James Lacey, dawns bright and clear. But the storm clouds of the day before would have been more appropriate. A new anti-wrinkle cream turns Agatha's face into one large red rash, James refuses to discuss his feelings for her, and then Agatha's first husband, Jimmy Raisin, reappears just in time to keep her from committing bigamy. The ensuing brouhaha--Agatha tries to strangle Jimmy, whom she had thought long dead--humiliates and embarrasses James Lacey, who abruptly breaks his engagement to Agatha. When Jimmy is found murdered the next morning, Agatha and James are the prime suspects. Since the easiest way to clear their names is to find the real murderer, Agatha convinces James to help her investigate. But will their subsequent close proximity--which has them, ironically, pretending to be man and wife--be enough to soothe James's bruised pride?
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The Highland Countess

The Highland Countess

M C Beaton

Mystery / Suspense / Romance

Morag Fleming, the Countess of Murr, had been bride to the most lecherous lord in Scotland - yet the ravishingly lovely girl had never been touched. So it was that Morag had never borne a child - yet as a young widow, she arrived in London with a fine son in tow. Her background had left her ignorant of the follies and fopperies of fashion - yet soon all of society was at her feet. Most incredible of all, she knew so little about the ways and wiles of love - yet set her heart upon none other than the devastatingly handsome, charming, and wealthy Lord Toby Freemantle, who could have any woman he wanted, and was clearly not interested in her.
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A Highland Christmas hm-16

A Highland Christmas hm-16

M C Beaton

Mystery / Suspense / Romance

Christmas is an ancient Roman festival, not to be celebrated by decent folk in the Scottish Highlands. Police Constable Hamish Macbeth has always loved the festivities, but this year his family is vacationing in sunny Florida. He is stuck with the long, lonely Christmas shift in freezing Lochdubh. A cranky old lady kicks off the holidays by reporting her cat missing. Then the Christmas lights and tree in a nearby village disappear soon after the local council voted to allow decorations. As Hamish finds a way to bring Christmas to the Highlands and make a little girl's dreams come true, he finds – to his delight – that he has the best Christmas ever.
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Death of a Maid hm-23

Death of a Maid hm-23

M C Beaton

Mystery / Suspense / Romance

Mrs. Gillespie is famous for being the best maid in the northwest of Sutherland. But to Hamish Macbeth, she is a malicious gossip who bangs around the furniture and clanks pots. When Hamish wins Mrs. Gillespie’s services in a church raffle, he spends most of the day trying to avoid her. He doesn’t understand how she managed to gain such a fine reputation. Then she is found dead, struck down violently by a metal bucket of water. Knowing Mrs. Gillespie’s penchant for gossip, Hamish is sure she delighted in finding out her clients’ secrets – which means that everyone whose home she cleaned is a suspect.
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The Miser of Mayfair: HFTS1

The Miser of Mayfair: HFTS1

M C Beaton

Mystery / Suspense / Romance

It was the fashion during Regency to hire a house for the Season in Mayfair—the heart of London’s fashionable West End—at a disproportionately high rent for sometimes very inferior accommodation. So why is it that Number 67 Clarges Street, a town house complete with staff, remains vacant season after season? The home of numerous families in the past to whom ill luck—even death-has befallen, Number 67 has been damned as unlucky. In the Miser of Mayfair, salvation seems to come at last in the form of a Mr. Roderick Sinclair, who has confirmed his intentions to let the house for the Season. The staff are overjoyed—until they find that Mr. Sinclair is a trrible miser and is planning so parties. Furthermore, his ward, Fiona, seems not to have a bright idea in her head. Only Rainbird, the clever and elegant butler of Number 67, plots with Fiona to bewitch, bedazzle, and confuse the earl into seeing things their way
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The Savage Marquess

The Savage Marquess

M C Beaton

Mystery / Suspense / Romance

Certainly the two should never have met. The handsome, wealthy Marquess of Rockingham was the most notorious man in London, as infamous for his violent temper as he was for his intemperate ways.Miss Lucinda Westerville was a country vicar's daughter, as innocent as she was lovely and as proper as a young lady could possibly be.Yet when this improbably matched pair met at a glittering social ball, they had struck the dubious bargain to become man and wife - in name only! But Lucinda soon found that she had taken on more than she bargained for when she vowed not to love this untamed, infuriatingly attractive man when she tried to rein her own foolishly galloping heart.
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