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

Lady Rose Summer est prête à tous les subterfuges pour vivre sa vie comme elle l'entend. En simulant des fiançailles avec le capitaine Harry Cathcart, elle évite d'être envoyée aux Indes afin d'y trouver un bon parti. Pour faire totalement illusion, elle va jusqu'à prendre sous son aile Miss Dolly Tremaine, une jeune débutante, lors d'un bal. Avant de découvrir sa protégée poignardée au fond d'une barque. Il n'en faut pas moins pour réveiller le flair policier de notre rebelle.

Red-haired, jade-eyed Deirdre is determined to marry for Love - nothing else will do. So the fact her father's candidate for her hand, Lord Harry Desire, is well bred and good looking, interests her not a jot! But the feelings he arouses in her are truly distracting. Deirdre's discovery of what desire can mean and where her heart really lies brings about a delicious climax to this adventure of intrigue, misunderstanding - and love!

As usual, the poor relations are in need of money to finance the hotel and this time it is up to Colonel Sandhurst to come to the rescue. After coming across Sir Randolph's daughter Frederica, who is running away to escape an awful marriage to Lord Bewley, the Colonel devises a plan to force Sir Randolph to settle his six month outstanding hotel bill and save Frederica from her terrible fate.

Une nouvelle enquête pour Hamish Macbeth... trouvera-t-il le coupable avant que celui-ci ne finisse son grand ménage ?

As one of the two remaining unmarried Beverley sisters, Belinda considers herself the last hope for Mannerling, the beloved estate gambled away by their father. Each of her four elder sisters had hoped - even schemed - to marry one of Mannerling's successive owners. But all had chosen true love over their ancestral home. Practical and duty-bound, Belinda will woo and wed Lord St. Clair, current holder of the estate. True, he is a silly fop, hardly what she desires in a husband, but she vows to make the man love her - even at the expense of her own happiness.

Poor little Susie. A beautiful dreamer, she imagined herself happy in a rose-covered cottage, only to find herself mistress of a great damp castle and wife to the elderly Earl of Blackhall. Luck, not the lecherous earl, contrived to spare her, and by her wedding night she was transformed to a wealthy young widow. But her trials had just begun.

Lovely but penniless Harriet Metcalf is horrified when she is named in a nobleman's will as guardian of his two ghastly and snobbish twin daughters. The innocent Harriet doesn't feel wily enough to cope with the intricacies of the London Season - not to mention two of its most eligible bachelors, the Marquis of Huntington and Lord Vere.

James Harrison has recently moved to a restored hunting lodge in Sutherland with his gorgeous private nurse Gloria Dainty. When Hamish visits Mr. Harrison to welcome him to the neighborhood, the old man treats him very rudely. Gloria apologises for her employer's behavior, and Hamish takes the plunge and invites her out for dinner. On the appointed evening, Hamish waits for Gloria at the restaurant. And waits. But Gloria never shows up. Four days later, Gloria's body washes up on the beach near Braikie.

« 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. À dix-neuf ans, Fiona, belle et riche héritière ecossaise, n'a nulle perspective de mariage.

Agatha Raisin kommt es mehr als gelegen, dass der attraktive Witwer George Selby sie bittet, ihn bei der Organisation einen Kirchenfestes zu unterstützen. Die Freude ist groß, als dieses ein großer Erfolg zu werden scheint und die Gäste von überallher herbeiströmen. Doch dann geschieht das Unfassbare: Einigen der Marmeladen, die auf dem Fest angeboten werden, wurde Gift beigemischt, und die fröhliche Feier wird zum Tatort, als gleich zwei Menschen daran sterben.

Agatha hat die Faxen dicke. Erst schleppt ihr Ex-Mann James Lacey sie zum Verwöhnwochenende in ein Hotel, das seine besten Tage längst hinter sich hat, und dann wird sie auch noch des Mordes verdächtigt! Und das nur, weil die Tote am Strand mit Agathas Schal erdrosselt wurde. Prompt wird die Amateurdetektivin in Untersuchungshaft verfrachtet. Aber Agatha wäre nicht Agatha, wenn sie das davon abhalten würde, in dem Fall zu ermitteln. Schließlich muss sie ihre Unschuld beweisen!

Agatha Raisin kommt es nach einer aufregenden Zeit ganz gelegen, dass Robert Smedley sie lediglich damit beauftragt, zu beweisen, dass seine Frau ihn betrügt. Agatha übernimmt den Fall mit größtem Vergnügen. Leider scheint Mabel die perfekte Ehefrau zu sein: jung, hübsch und eine regelmäßige Kirchgängerin. Von Betrug weit und breit keine Spur. Aber just, als Agatha den Fall ad acta legen will, wird Robert Smedley mit Unkrautvernichter umgebracht - und seine Witwe damit zur Hauptverdächtigen.

Eine militante Wanderin, die ihr Ende im Feld des Erzfeindes findet - dieser Fall schreit förmlich nach einer Spürnase wie Agatha Raisin, meint Deborah, eine Freundin der Toten. Die geschmeichelte Agatha ist zwar gerade erst wieder in den Cotswolds angekommen, lässt sich aber nicht zweimal bitten. Ihr Plan: Sie und ihr Schwarm James schleusen sich als Ehepaar getarnt in den Wanderkreis des Opfers ein, um ungestört herumschnüffeln zu können. Gesagt, getan. Als kurze Zeit später ein weiteres Mitglied der Wandergruppe ermordet wird, schwant es den beiden, dass sie sich geradewegs in die Höhle des Löwen begeben haben.

Kind-hearted Miss Hannah Pym is off to Portsmouth in the company of the beautiful but practical Miss Penelope Wilkins. Miss Pym quickly realises that Penelope needs someone to enliven her sheltered life, someone perhaps like their handsome travelling companion, Lord Augustus Railton. Penelope, however, thinks Lord Augustus is a ne'er-do-well...Hannah's hopes for adventure, on the other hand, are fulfilled when the coach happens upon a footman who faces hanging for a crime he didn't commit.

No coach journey is ever dull with Miss Hannah Pym aboard, and this one proves no exception as she meets the young and beautiful Miss Yvonne Grenier, who is fleeing the Terror in France. Charming but shy, Yvonne becomes quite frightened when a dangerous enemy also boards the stagecoach to York. Luckily Miss Pym is on hand to propose a plan which will save Yvonne - and throw her into the arms of the wealthy and unattached Marquis of Ware!

Destined for Dover, Miss Pym has her matchmaking work cut out for her when she encounters the pretty but hoydenish Lady Deborah Western! Encouraged by an unruly twin brother, the spirited, golden-haired Deborah seems set on dressing and acting the tomboy, much to the dismay of her handsome neighbour, the Earl of Ashton....

Sally was an honoured guest in a palatial country home. Aunt Mabel, the lovelorn columnist of Home Chats magazine, had been summoned to prevent the Duchess of Dartware's son, Paul, from a marriage that others believed a fate worse than death. Who would have guessed that behind Aunt Mabel's acid pen and ageless wisdom lurked the real 18-year-old Sally Blane, determined to make the handsome marquess her own! But how could she compete, wearing false wrinkles and a white wig?

Daisy Jenkins never expected to be anything more than a trespasser on the idyllic lawns of Marsden Castle. Then suddenly she was admitted into the seemingly magic circle of the Earl and Countess of Nottenstone, where she awaited the arrival of the notorious Lord Chatterton; her father - a stranger whose very name was foreign to her. She was suddenly Daisy Chatterton, surrounded by aristocratic sharks who seemed to both court as well as mock her. And why did the elegant Duke of Oxenden offer his protection to this newcomer who made him laugh at the very word love?

Maggie Macleod was weary of life with a soul sickness that ate into every fiber of her being. In a mad way, it did not seem strange to her that she should be on the way to High Court to stand trial for the murder of her husband. Her marriage seemed to have been one long dreary desert lit by flares of cruelty.

Une jolie jeune femme au volant d'une BMW sur les routes désertes des Highlands écossaises, ça se remarque ! Surtout lorsqu'elle appuie un peu trop sur le champignon. Qu'importe à Hamish Macbeth qu'il s'agisse de la star locale du petit écran, tout délit mérite une amende. Furieuse, Crystal French se venge en révélant les secrets du village de Lochdubh dans une de ses émissions au titre éloquent : Derrière les rideaux de dentelles. Mais en déterrant de vieux scandales, la reine de l'audimat devient l'ennemie public numéro un.