M. C Beaton
Christmas Crumble continues the tradition in M. C. Beaton's beloved Agatha Raisin cozy mystery series—now a hit show on Acorn TV and public television.
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
Knock Knock, You're Dead! A Hamish Macbeth Short Story
Mrs. Morag McPhie hits upon the idea of selling some of her old furniture to raise money to visit her daughter in Australia. But when a dead body turns up, Police Sergeant Hamish Macbeth wonders if the antique business...
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.
Can the feisty Agatha Raisin cut it as a private investigator? She soon learns that running her own detective agency in the Cotswolds is not quite like starring in a Raymond Chandler movie. But then in walks wealthy divorc├®e Catherine Laggat-Brown, who presents Agatha with her first real case. Death threats, blackmail, and worse quickly follow, and once again Agatha is off scouring the countryside for clues and showing friends and enemies
..."I do not think I want to be married at all. I want to be rich. Very rich..."
When Henrietta Bascombe opens a confectionary shop in order to turn her pittance of an inheritance into a fortune, her friends are shocked to hear of such a well-bred lady going into trade. The Earl of Carrisdown is both drawn to and repelled by her shopgirl status. Undaunted, Henrietta proceeds to hang out the traditional confectioners' sign of a golden
...70) Minerva
Minerva marks the delightful debut of the Six Sisters series, a family saga in six volumes that recounts the romantic adventures of the six marriageable daughters of a country vicar, the Reverend Charles Armitage, in Regency England.
The eldest, Minerva, is enchantingly beautiful—but a prude. She lives in the country looking after her siblings while her mother reclines on a chaise longue happily inventing new maladies. Her father,
...When a Puritan miss discovers the joys of Christmas, love's as near as the mistletoe.
The Davenport sisters were alone, without even a dour-faced maid to supervise their strict puritanical devotions, until the elder, flame-haired Gillian boldly decided it was high time they let their hair down. Now, with the help of a kindly relation, the two daring misses exchange their somber attire for modish gowns and hairstyles that would surely give
...72) Our Lady of Pain
Lady Rose Summer, the wayward Edwardian debutante who keeps getting mixed up in disreputable adventures, would swear she is not a jealous woman. After all, she knows her engagement to private detective Captain Harry Cathcart is only a ploy to keep her parents from shipping her off to India. But then Harry's latest client, Dolores Duval—a vision of curves with a seductive French accent—starts appearing everywhere at his side. In a fit
...The New York Times bestselling Traveling 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 traveling the English countryside by coach. But the adventure soon finds Miss Pym traveling with Miss Emily Freemantle, a spoiled, violet-eyed beauty fleeing an
...74) Annabelle
It's a maiden's miracle! Annabelle Quennell, daughter of a poor country parson, gets a chance at a London season to snare a wealthy husband. But before she sets off, Mad Meg the gypsy predicts trouble ahead, and it is nothing but woe that Annabelle finds. Godmother Lady Emmeline sponsors Annabelle's spree—and demands she wed the oafish Captain MacDonald. But things get worse when Annabelle fears she is losing her heart to Lord Varleigh—elegant,
..."Since there is no hope of my securing an eligible partner due to sad lack of looks, I am running away."
So writes the sixth of the famous Armitage sisters. For how could colorless Frederica withstand a season's scrutiny after the five beauties before her had married so magnificently? Disguised as a chambermaid, Freddie finds her way into the household of the fashionable Duke of Pembury. That wild gentleman is soon onto her tricks
...77) The Adventuress
Another tenant for London's infamous house for the season, from the New York Times bestselling author
Followers of the series will notice in this volume some personality changes in the odd assortment of retainers who keep the house at 67 Clarges Street, in London's Mayfair, at the ready for whatever entrepreneur will rent it as a launching pad into the London social season. This time the renters are an unlikely couple, the Goodenoughs, apparently
...78) Pretty Polly
Blessed with beauty, Mrs. Manners never bothered with the lesser skills of grammar and spelling. So, in order to entrap a second husband, namely the dashing Duke of Denbigh, she needed Miss Verity Bascombe. Surely the modest chit would be honored to write her love letters.
Poor Verity! Her old schoolmate was as selfish as ever. But the lovely girl's gilded pen soon had the duke most intrigued by the poetic Mrs. Manners!
But alas, what
...Life is not easy for the poor relations of England's upper crust, but fate and clever schemes bring them together.
Lady Fortescue and Colonel Sandhurst hatch a plan: What if they were to transform her decrepit Bond Street home into a posh hotel, offering their guests the pleasure of being waited upon by nobility? With the help of other down-and-out aristocrats, they do just that, and London's newest hotel, the Poor Relation, is born.
The
...80) Sweet Masquerade
The tenth Earl of Berham does not know what to do. An attractive thirty-two-year-old bachelor, he has been appointed guardian of the young Freddie Armstrong, the eighteen-year-old grandson of his late father's dear friend. That's bad enough. Then he discovers that the boy is really a girl! It is against all convention and against his personal code to keep a young lady concealed in his own home. He must find a solution.
The earl's frequent
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