"Fee, fie, fo, fum. I smell the blood of an Englishman..."Even though Agatha Raisin loathes amateur dramatics, her friend Mrs. Bloxby, the vicar's wife, has persuaded her to support the local pantomime. Stifling a yawn at the production of "Babes in the Woods," Agatha watches the baker playing an ogre strut and threaten on the stage, until a trapdoor opens...followed by a scream and then silence.Surely this isn't the way the scene was rehearsed? When it turns out the popular baker has been murdered, Agatha puts her team of private detectives on the case. They soon discover more feuds and temperamental behavior in amateur theatrics than in a professional stage show—and face more and more danger as the team gets too close to the killer.The Blood of an Englishman is Agatha's 25th adventure, and you'd think she would have learned by now not to keep making the same mistakes. Alas, no—yet Agatha's flaws only make her more endearing. In this...

When Lady Anne Sinclair vowed to marry anyone as long as it meant she married before her spoilt beauty of a sister, she had no idea the 'anyone' would be the Marquess of Torrance. Long the darling of the ton - and considered quite the confirmed bachelor - he succumbed to Annie's charms and, most magically, made her his wife. But Annie's lifelong battle for attention had ill-prepared her for married life. In a tipsy revery on her wedding night, she blurted out her real reason for marrying the Marquess - and her husband's formidable pride shut the door on any further communication. Only a crisis of major proportions could bring the headstrong newlyweds together. And no less than the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with sinister political ambitions known only to himself, embroiled Annie in a dangerous plot that taught her the truth about her wifely sentiments.

Returning to her beloved Cotswold village only to be coolly received by her attractive neighbor, Agatha Raisin becomes involved in the murder case of hiker Jessica Tartinick, who had incurred the wrath of wealthy landowners.

Agatha Raisin has always been ambivalent about holiday cheer, but her cozy little village of Carsely has long prided itself on its Christmas festivities. But this year Mr. John Sunday, a selfimportant officer with the Health and Safety Board, has ruled that the traditional tree on top of the church is a public menace; that lampposts are unsafe for hanging illuminations; that May Dimwoody’s homemade toys are dangerous for children Things have reached such a desperate pass that the Carsely Ladies’ Society joins forces with the ladies in the neighboring village of Odley Cruesis to try to put a stop to Mr. Sunday’s meddling—only to find that someone has literally put a stop to him with a kitchen knife. Agatha’s detective agency is on the case, but when a man has made as many enemies as John Sunday, it’s hard to know where to start

'I DO NOT THINK I WANT TO BE MARRIED AT ALL. I WANT TO BE RICH. VERY RICH?.'Miss Henrietta Bascombe's closest of friends chums gasped to hear of such a well-bred lady talk of going into trade, but Henrietta was determined to turn her pittance of an inheritance into a fortune by opening a London sweet shop that would rival the famous Gunther's! Undaunted by a challenge, Henrietta proceeded to hang out the traditional confectioners sign of a golden pineapple and soon earned the custom of the entire haute ton. That is, until the proud Earl of Carrisdowne took exception to his younger brother and his best friend ogling the girls behind Bascombe's counter. It was clear to the earl that Miss Bascombe would have to be put out of business and soon. But the earl looked forward to tangling with the fiery-eyed proprietor much more than he was willing to admit.

Handsome, dashing Henry Wright, the Duke of Westerland, needed a wife in a desperately short period of time. If he could not find a wife, he would lose the legacy he so desperately desired. Young, lovely but sheltered Miss Frederica Sayers needed a husband just as much as Henry Wright needed a wife, only she needed a husband to save her from the life of shame that almost certainly awaited her when she fled the callous cruelty of her family. Marriage between the dashing lord and this reckless runaway was clearly the answer for both of them - until the duke discovered he had a duchess he could not tame and the duchess found that she would rather lose her until then spotless reputation than lose him to another beautiful woman who was everything she was not.