Showing results by author "M. C. Beaton" in All Categories

« Parents d'une jeune fille turbulente, insolente et indisciplinée ? Engagez deux dames bien nées pour lui enseigner les bonnes manières et raffiner le matériau le plus brut. Nous tirons le meilleur du pire. » Être pauvre n'empêche pas d'avoir de riches idées ! Privées d'un héritage qui leur aurait assuré une belle rente, Amy et Effie Tribble, deux charmantes aristocrates ruinées, proposent leurs services en tant que chaperons professionnels. L'annonce passée dans le Morning Post attirera une clientèle fortunée, elles en sont sûres.

Every Season the beaux mondes of the Regency would hire a house in the heart of London's fashionable West End at a disproportionately high rent for often inferior accommodation and yet No.67 Clarges Street, a town house complete with staff, remains vacant from year to year.

Lizzie is the sixth and youngest daughter of the late Sir Beverley, the patriarch who gambled away their beloved estate, Mannerling. Each of Lizzie's sisters had been entrusted by their ambitious mother to cast lures for the various owners of their former home. Instead, each one happily married for love. Now it's Lizzie's turn to save Mannerling. Yet the new owner, the Duke of Severnshire, is far too arrogant for Lizzie's heart. And while the duke has no intentions toward the saucy chit, her curt dismissal of him is perplexing - for no woman has ever refused him!

There are many ruined castles in Scotland. One such lies outside the village of Drim. The keening wind explains the ghostly noises, but when Charlie falls through the floor, Hamish finds the body of a dead man propped up in a corner of the cellar. After Charlie is airlifted to the hospital, Chief Detective Inspector Blair arrives to investigate the body, but there is none to be found. Dismissed as a drunk making up stories, Hamish has to find and identify the body and its killer before the "ghost" can strike again.

Piddlebury è un sonnolento villaggio dei Cotswolds, miracolosamente scampato alle orde di turisti della domenica. Ma è anche ospitale: infatti ha accolto con calore Gloria French, che si è subito impegnata in attività di beneficenza e nell’assistenza agli anziani. Gloria però ha un difetto: chiede in prestito le cose più disparate, che poi immancabilmente non restituisce. Forse anche per questo, quando viene trovata morta, uccisa con del vino di sambuco al veleno, nessuno ne piange la dipartita.

Calme plat dans les Cotswolds : pas un meurtre à la ronde pour notre détective préférée, Agatha ! Lorsqu'une riche divorcée lui demande d'élucider les menaces de mort dont sa fille Cassandra est victime, Agatha saute sur la proposition. Enfin une grosse affaire et sûrement un sacré coup de pub ! Elle ne croit pas si bien dire : lors d'un bal en l'honneur des fiançailles de Cassandra, elle déclenche une émeute en déjouant un assassinat... dont elle risque bien d'être la prochaine cible.

Nobody loves an honest man, or that was what police sergeant Hamish Macbeth tried to tell newcomer Paul English. Paul attended church in Lochdubh. He told the minister, Mr. Wellington, that his sermons were boring. He told tweedy Mrs. Wellington that she was too fat. Angela Brody was told her detective stories were pap for the masses and it was time she wrote literature instead. He accused Hamish of having dyed his fiery red hair. He told Jessie Currie - who repeated all the last words of her twin sister - that she needed psychiatric help.

A sudden outbreak of maliciousness strikes the town of Lochdubh in the form of a rash of poison pen letters. Things turn deadly when the local postmistress is found hanged in her room... with a vicious note beneath her dangling feet. Though his superiors call it suicide, PC Hamish Macbeth pronounces it murder. But Hamish is soon distracted by Jenny Ogilvie, a friend of his ex-fiancee, who arrives in Lochdubh to seduce him. And then he's ambushed by local reporter Elspeth Grant, who sets out to land the story - and Hamish - for herself.

No young lady can be more devoted to the teachings of the infamous blue stocking Mrs Waverley than Felicity, her adopted author. Yet Felicity leads a secret life: that of an author of a scandalous new novel - the tale of a lady 'rake' and her passionate exploits. Yet there is one titled gentleman who is intrigued with this mysterious, headstrong young woman who is taking Society by storm - and Felicity soon learns that real life is infinitely more interesting than fiction!

De vuelta a los Cotswolds tras unas largas vacaciones, Agatha Raisin descubre que el objeto de todas sus fantasías, el atractivo James Lacey, ha caído bajo el hechizo de una recién llegada al pueblo. Elegante y divertida, Mary Fortune es también una jardinera excepcional, y su triunfo en las inminentes jornadas de puertas abiertas de los Jardines de Carsely se da casi por seguro. Sin embargo, cuando la bella Mary Fortune es encontrada muerta, enterrada cabeza abajo en un macetero, Agatha Raisin vuelve a la carga para desenmascarar al asesino.

Für Agatha Raisin ist es an der Zeit, ihre Tätigkeit als Hobby-Detektivin zur Profession zu machen, und sie eröffnet ihr eigenes Detektivbüro. Der erste Fall ist eine vermisste Katze. Immerhin ein Anfang, aber mit viel Luft nach oben. Als dann eine junge Frau, die eine Todesdrohung erhalten hat, beschützt werden soll, ist Agatha voll in ihrem Element. Mit diesem Auftrag nehmen allerdings auch so einige Dinge ihren Lauf, die dafür sorgen, dass Agatha in mehr als nur ein Fadenkreuz gerät.

When Fergus Macleod, Lochdubh's abusive, drunk dustman is put in charge of the local recycling centre and is dubbed the 'Environment Officer', Hamish Macbeth smells trouble. Sure enough, Fergus, imbued with his new powers, becomes a bullying tyrant and when his body is found stuffed in a recycling bin, no one is sorry - including his long-suffering family.

When society widow and gossip columnist Lady Jane Winters joins the local fishing class she wastes no time in ruffling feathers of those around her. Among the victims of her sharp tongue is Lochdubh constable Hamish Macbeth, yet not even Hamish thinks someone would seriously want to silence Lady Jane’s shrill voice permanently – until her strangled body is fished out of the river.

Bientôt Noël. Le sapin sent le roussi pour Agatha Raisin qui ne digère toujours pas d'avoir été larguée par James Lacey. Pour se forcer à l'oublier, elle se lance à corps perdu dans la préparation du réveillon pour ses amis. Jusqu'à en faire une obsession... Même le meurtre de Mrs Tamworthy, retrouvée morte après un repas arrosé à la ciguë, ne la détourne pas de son but. Pourtant, la riche veuve avait prévenu Agatha : elle était convaincue qu'un membre de sa famille voulait la tuer avant la fin de l'année.

Poor Lucy was living a dream. She had married a gambler, a womaniser and a drunkard. And she refused to admit that his frequent overnight absences were of any significance. The sting came when it was revealed that Lucy's parents had bought her husband for her. And then one night at a ball, Lucy met the charismatic Duke of Habard, and suddenly anything seemed possible.

Left with bald patches thanks to the wicked doings of a murderer from a previous investigation, Agatha flees to coastal Wyckhadden to re-grow her lost locks. With hair tonic supplied by a local witch, Agatha's tresses begin to flow - but the witch is found bludgeoned to death. The odd elderly residents of Agatha's elegantly faded hotel seem innocuous, but as she delves deeper she discovers secrets best left and powerful motives for revenge.

M.C. Beaton jest autorką powieści detektywistycznych. Polscy czytelnicy poznali ją dzięki serii "Agatha Raisin". Śmierć plotkary to pierwsza część bestsellerowej serii kryminałów, których akcję pisarka umieszcza w rodzinnej Szkocji. Bohaterem jest Hamish Macbeth, posterunkowy z Lochdubh i ulubieniec kobiet, któremu aparycji mógłby pozazdrościć Rob Roy, a stylu tropienie zbrodni sam Columbo. Kiedy lady Jane Winters, wdowa z wyższych sfer i felietonistka plotkarskiej kolumny, dołącza do grona miłośników wędkarstwa w Lochdubh, atmosfera robi się ciężka.

Miss Jennie Bemyss was in a position that any intelligent young lady would envy. The wealthy, worldly Marquis of Charrington proposed a marriage of convenience that would leave him free to pursue his pleasures and leave Jennie free of his undoubtedly depraved desires. At the same time, handsome, charming Guy Chalmers, whom Jennie had loved since childhood, proposed to aid her in enjoying her freedom to the fullest.

Returning from holiday Hamish becomes unaccountably worried - it's as if he senses a dark cloud of evil hanging over Lochdubh. He soon learns that there is a newcomer to the village, a woman called Catriona Beldame, and that the villagers have decided she is a witch. At first Hamish is charmed by her, but is dismayed when he finds out she's been supplying dangerous potions to certain local people.

When Amy and Effie Tribble, two charming but impoverished spinster sisters, lose out on an inheritance, they place this advertisement in The Morning Post and hire themselves out as professional chaperones. Fiona has been sent to them by her guardians as a last resort, for at 19, the beautiful and wealthy Scottish heiress still has no prospect of a suitable marriage. The Tribbles are puzzled, however, by their charge's demure perfection, until they take her to her first ball and they are forced to confront the truth about her past!