Search results for ""author m. c. beaton""

Truth is stranger than fiction...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 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.Imagine her horror when Miss Martyn-Broyd discovers that the screenwriter is known for his violent and scurrilous scripts and that Lady Harriet Vare is to be portrayed as a pot-smoking hippy by the scene-stealing trollop Penelope Gates. But a contract is a contract, as Ms Martyn-Broyd quickly learns. And when she is accused of murdering both the scriptwriter and the leading lady, she turns to her one friend in Lochdubh, Hamish Macbeth, to help her.Praise for M.C. Beaton:'The books are a delight: clever, intricate, sardonic and amazingly true to the real Highlands' Kerry Greenwood'It's always a special treat to return to Lochdubh' New York Times

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Her table manners were a crime. But she didn't deserve to die! There's not a cloud in Hamish Macbeth's sky - just plenty of warm sunshine but not quite enough of the lovely Priscilla Halburton-Smythe. But as eight hopeful members of the Checkmate Singles Club converge on Tommel Castle Hotel for a week of serious matchmaking, the clouds roll in. The four couples, carefully matched by dating director Maria Worth, immediately dislike one another. And the arrival of Maria's gross, greedy business partner, Peta, kills the last vestige of romance. And as love goes out the window, murder comes in the door. Peta soon slurps up her last meal and Hamish is left with the baffling puzzle: Who shared the fateful outing that left Peta dead with a large rosy red apple in her mouth...

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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. While clearing his name, the lanky Scot has to deal with the widow who's suddenly making eyes at a refined bachelor, two leather-skirted Glaswegian beauties intent on raising disco hell, and the rude revelation of one family man's secret life. Some holiday!Praise for M.C. Beaton:The detective novels of M. C. Beaton, a master of outrageous black comedy, have reached cult status. Anne Robinson, The Times

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'No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime' Mail on SundayToil and trouble in store for Agatha!Cotswolds inhabitants are used to bad weather, but the night sky is especially foggy as Rory and Molly Harris, the new vicar and his wife, drive slowly home from a dinner party in their village of Sumpton Harcourt. They struggle to see the road ahead - but then screech to a halt. Right in front of them, aglow in the headlights of their car, a body hangs from a lightning-blasted tree at the edge of town. But it's not suicide; Margaret Darby, an elderly spinster of the parish, has been murdered - and the villagers are bewildered as to who would commit such a crime, and why. Agatha Raisin rises to the occasion, delighted to have some excitement back in her life as if truth be told, she was getting bored of the long run of lost cats and divorces on the books. But Sumpton Harcourt is an isolated and unfriendly village, she finds a place that poses more questions than answers. And when two more murders follow the first, Agatha begins to fear for her reputation - and her life. That the village has its own coven of witches certainly doesn't make her feel any better...Praise for M. C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series'A Beaton novel is like The Archers on speed' Daily Mail'Agatha is like Miss Marple with a drinking problem, a pack-a-day habit and major man lust. In fact, I think she could be living my dream life' Entertainment Weekly'The detective novels of M C Beaton, a master of outrageous black comedy, have reached cult status' The Times

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Murder in Paradise...When Jane Wetherby offers PC Hamish Macbeth a holiday at her 'Happy Wanderer' health farm on the isle of Eileencraig, he is more than happy to accept. Unfortunately the visit doesn't prove to be the pampering experience he had been hoping for. Windswept Eileencraig is inhabited by hostile islanders, many of whom would be more than happy to be rid of the 'Happy Wanderer' and its proprietor.And the company at the health farm is hardly better. The volatile party includes an ex-husband, an illicit lover, and Morag Todd, an unadulterated snob who criticizes everybody and everything. So when Morag is found lying at the foot of a cliff with a broken neck, no one seems too broken up about the event - leaving it up to Hamish to solve the death of a snob.

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It's springtime in the Highlands but storms are brewing for Hamish Macbeth. His life is going to pot. He has - horrors! - been promoted, his new boss is a dunce, and a sinister self-proclaimed gypsy and his girlfriend have parked their rusty eyesore of a van in the middle of the village. Hamish smells trouble and as usual he's right. The doctor's drugs have gone missing. Money vanishes. And neighbours suddenly become unneighbourly. Nobody wants to talk either, so canny Hamish faces the delicate task of worming the facts out of the villagers. In the process he uncovers a story so bizarre that neither he nor the locals may ever be able to forget it...

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'Every new Agatha Raisin escapade is a total joy' ASHLEY JENSEN'No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'A Beaton novel is like The Archers on speed' DAILY MAIL The first Agatha Raisin mystery from bestselling author M. C. Beaton __________________________Revenge is a dish best served warm...High-flying public relations supremo Agatha Raisin has decided to take early retirement. She's off to make a new life in a picture-perfect Cotswold village. To make friends, she enters the local quiche-making competition - and to make quite sure of first prize she secretly pays a visit to a London deli.Alas, the competition judge succumbs after tasting her perfect quiche, and Agatha is revealed as a cheat and potential poisoner. Definitely not the best start. So Agatha must turn amateur sleuth - she's absolutely got to track down the real killer!Praise for the Agatha Raisin series:'Full of perfectly pitched interest, intrigue, and charm' Lee Child'M. C. Beaton's imperfect heroine is an absolute gem' Publishers Weekly'Irresistible, unputdownable, a joy' Anne Robinson

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