Agatha Raisin Companion

by Beaton, M. C.

  The case is further complicated when a second victim is murdered in the dressing room of her amateur dramatic theatre.

  VICTIMS

  Mrs Witherspoon: crotchety, vicious old lady despised by her own children. After months of being ‘haunted’, she is whacked on the back of the head and dies as she falls down the stairs.

  Robin Barley: smart, wealthy woman in her sixties who fancies herself an artist, although she has little talent. She owns the local theatre, which ensures her a part in the amateur plays there. Killed by cyanide in her roses, delivered by an anonymous ‘admirer’ in a gas mask, the costume from the next production of Macbeth.

  Barry Briar: landlord of the local pub in Hebberden, the village where Mrs Witherspoon was murdered. After going missing for several days, his body, with a broken neck, is discovered at the bottom of a shaft which leads to the secret tunnel. Agatha, accompanied by Charles, finds him after a nightmare prompts her to look there.

  BOOK 15:

  Agatha Raisin and the Deadly Dance

  After a dreadful time in Paris, where she is robbed on the Metro and then dismissed by the police, Agatha decides to open her own detective agency. An advert for a secretary brings in her new neighbour, Mrs Emma Comfrey, who has taken over James’s cottage. She soon passes Agatha’s test by finding a missing cat in record time, and is employed as a detective. But a lunch date with Sir Charles leads to an unhealthy obsession.

  In her first real case, Agatha is hired by upper-class Lady of the Manor, Catherine Laggatt-Brown, who fears for her daughter’s life. Cassandra is about to announce her engagement at a dinner dance thrown for her twenty-first birthday, but has received a death threat saying that if she marries her boyfriend, Jason, she will die. The occasion is ruined when a sniper takes a pot-shot at the birthday girl and Agatha pushes her and her mother into the swimming pool to save their lives.

  As the case progresses, it appears Cassandra isn’t the only one whose life is in danger.

  VICTIMS

  Harrison Peterson: groom-to-be Jason’s father, an ex-con. He is found dead in his lodgings by Agatha and Patrick, who want to ask him questions about the gunshot. After finding an empty bottle of pills and a bottle of vodka, police assume it is suicide but it is later discovered to be murder.

  The hitman: a trained assassin sent to dispatch Agatha. Instead, he picks a night when she is in Paris with Charles, drinks poisoned coffee intended for Agatha, and is found dead in her kitchen with a gun still in his hands.

  Emma Comfrey: Agatha’s neighbour and colleague in the detective agency. Shot in the head by the murderer who mistakes her for Agatha in the kitchen of the latter’s Carsely cottage.

  BOOK 16:

  Agatha Raisin and the Perfect Paragon

  With the detective agency booming, Agatha is persuaded by Mrs Bloxby to take on ageing local photographer Phil. The seventy-six-year-old camera expert promises to bring her a new case, and introduces her to Robert Smedley who believes his wife Mabel is cheating. Finding little evidence of that, Agatha switches her attention to the case of missing teenager Jessica Bradley, who disappeared after leaving a Mircester nightclub without her two pals, Trixie and Fairy. With excellent powers of deduction, Phil helps his new boss find the body of the murdered sixteen-year-old, dumped in the woods near a road. Wallowing in the publicity, Agatha promises to find the murderer for free. She soon uncovers the seedy secret of the three teenage girls and when Smedley is murdered, followed by Jessica’s much older boyfriend, it begins to look as if the three are connected.

  Meanwhile, Agatha employs bright eighteen-year-old goth Harry Beam and persuades ex-policeman Patrick, who is already divorcing the flighty Miss Simms, to return to the agency. She also comes to the rescue of her old friend Roy, sacked for giving an ill-advised interview about a rock band’s drug habit to the Daily Mail. Her obsession with James Lacey is forgotten when she meets Charles’s handsome pal Freddy, but will he get round to telling her he is married?

  VICTIMS

  Jessica Bradley: sixteen-year-old student murdered on her way home from the Happy Night Club. Possibly picked up by a car, she was stabbed and her body was dumped by the side of the dual carriageway. Her clothing was removed to make it look like rape, but the police examination reveals she was a virgin.

  Robert Smedley: Ancombe businessman who runs an electronics company owned by his wife. He hires Agatha to find out if Mabel was cheating but, after withdrawing his case, is found poisoned in his office. He was having an affair with his secretary, Joyce, who is now a suspect.

  Burt Haviland: Jessica’s much older boyfriend, who worked for Smedley at the electronics firm. He has a conviction for armed robbery and is behind the soft porn website which showed intimate films of Jessica, Trixie and Fairy. Stabbed in his own flat.

  BOOK 17:

  Agatha Raisin and Love, Lies and Liquor

  Having made a surprise return in Perfect Paragon, James moves back into the cottage next to Agatha’s and invites her to a barbecue. Snubbed by the guests and ignored by James, Agatha storms out and vows never to have anything more to do with him. Eventually, a chastened James wins her round with the promise of a mystery holiday, but Agatha’s dreams of Mediterranean sunshine are dashed when they end up in the wet and windy seaside town of Snoth-on-Sea.

  The holiday goes from bad to worse when a honeymooning guest, who Agatha and James had argued with in the dining room, is found strangled on the beach – and Agatha’s scarf is identified as the murder weapon. Agatha is keen to get to the bottom of the mystery but, after another quarrel, James flees to France.

  Agency employees Patrick and Harry join Agatha in the hotel to help out and Sir Charles also sails to her side after yet another broken romance.

  VICTIMS

  Geraldine Jankers: newly wed to the cowed Fred, her fourth husband, and honeymooning with her yobby son Wayne and his wife Chelsea, as well as family friends Cyril and Dawn Hammond. Strangled with Agatha’s scarf in the middle of the night after slipping out while her husband slept.

  Wayne and Chelsea Weldon: chavvy son from Geraldine’s first marriage and his young wife. Wayne picked a fight with James on their first night, but came off worse. Found in their hotel room with shotgun wounds after Chelsea showed off a diamond necklace at the resort.

  Deborah Fanshawe: attractive Carsely divorcee who was chasing James and then Charles. Mistaken for Agatha and shot in the head as she waited in her love rival’s hotel room.

  BOOK 18:

  Agatha Raisin and Kissing Christmas Goodbye

  With James abroad and the detective agency turning over a steady stream of missing pets and divorce cases, Agatha is so bored that she starts ^ dreaming of Christmas – in October.

  To break the monotony, she accepts the case of a wealthy woman who believes she will soon be murdered. Phyllis Tamworthy lives in a stately manor house in the village of Lower Tapor, which she also owns. Preparing to celebrate her birthday with her four children and other family members, she tells Agatha she is about to change her will and very little of her vast wealth will be going to her offspring. As a result she reveals that she expects someone has murder in mind and asks Agatha to attend the party The detective’s presence, with Sir Charles, is not enough to prevent her hostess being poisoned and Agatha is soon investigating which of the money-grabbing siblings is most likely to have done the deed. When her latest recruit, seventeen-year-old Toni, stumbles upon a witchcraft meeting in the village, the case takes on a spookier side.

  VICTIMS

  Phyllis Tamworthy: rich but common lady of the manor and graceless mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. After serving up her own special salad at the family gathering she collapses and later dies, poisoned by hemlock. All four children stood to lose their inheritance when she changed her will the following week.

  Fred Instick: ancient gardener on the Tamworthy estate who lives in a rundown cottage on the land. Poisoned with hemlock in a bottle of wine stolen from the kitchen of the house after
he told the family he knew who murdered Phyllis.

  Paul Chambers: pub landlord in Lower Tapor who attempted to rape Toni. Pushed into a quarry by furious girlfriend Elsie, after he refused to marry her during a naked witchcraft ritual. Death seemingly unconnected to the original murders.

  Susan Mason: work colleague and lover of Phyllis’s late husband, disappeared fifty-eight years ago in the Tamworthys’ old home village of Pirdey, near Stoke on Trent, shortly after Hugh had said he wanted to marry her. Toni finds the body buried underneath the outhouse at the couple’s former home after acting on a hunch.

  Jimmy Tamworthy: originally thought to have been murdered in an occult ceremony, but it soon emerges that he hanged himself.

  BOOK 19:

  Agatha Raisin and a Spoonful of Poison

  Our heroine is asked, by her close friend Mrs Bloxby, to use her PR skills to help a vicar in a neighbouring village raise money at the annual fête. Agatha is reluctant until she meets the vicar, and his extremely attractive widowed friend George Selby. To impress, she cajoles a singing superstar into opening the fête and raises £30,000. But in the jam-tasting tent, the local preserves have been laced with LSD and the resulting chaos results in the untimely deaths of two of the parishioners.

  Hired by the vicar to investigate the crime, Agatha is only too pleased to help – especially if it means spending more time with gorgeous George.

  VICTIMS

  Mrs Andrews: elderly lady from the village of Comfrey Magna. After sampling the jam, she jumps from the bell tower of the church, believing she could fly, and is killed on the tombstone below.

  Mrs Jessop: another local victim of the poisoned preserves. As the fête is still going on, she jumps in the river and drowns.

  Sarah Selby: George’s pretty wife, who was found dead at their home long before the jam incident, having fallen down the stone stairs. Local toff Sybilla, who was infatuated with George, was there at the time and local gossips link her to the death.

  Sybilla Triast-Perkins: local lady of the manor, who apparently hanged herself in her hallway and was found by Agatha and Roy. Her suicide note mentioned her guilt over ‘a death, but was she referring to the LSD disaster or the death of Sarah Selby?

  Arnold Birntweather: church accountant who was charged with looking after the cash from the successful fête. Murdered with a savage blow to the head after taking the cash out of the bank, seemingly under pressure.

  BOOK 20:

  Agatha Raisin: There Goes the Bride

  Smarting from James’s engagement to the stunning Felicity, Agatha has thrown herself into work and, suffering from stress and exhaustion, taken a tumble on the stairs. Her friends urge her to have a break and she chooses a trip to Istanbul, incorporating some excursions to historic battle sites, so that she can later impress James with her knowledge. When James and his fiancée turn up in the same place as her, twice, he is convinced she is stalking him.

  On the day of the wedding, the bride is murdered and Agatha and James are chief suspects. But the family, believing her to be innocent, employ her to find the real killer – until she begins to discover a past they would rather keep hidden.

  VICTIMS

  Felicity Bross-Tilkington: James’s bride-to-be, only daughter of a rich couple who made their money in Spanish property. A reputed nymphomaniac, engaged twice before, she gave regular peep shows to the local lads but played the virgin with her fiancé. Shot on the morning of the wedding as she dressed in the bedroom.

  Sean Fitzpatrick: Irish boatsman and odd job man who helped out the Bross-Tilkingtons occasionally. Agatha finds him dead on his boat when she goes to talk to him. He has been shot. Police uncover links with the IRA.

  Bert Trymp: local mechanic who also owns a boat in the marina. He telephones Agatha and invites her round because he had information relating to Sean’s murder. Charles and Agatha later find his body floating in the river at the bottom of Bross-Tilkington’s estate.

  George Bross-Tilkington: Felicity’s father, a rich businessman who made his money in foreign property. He is blown up in a boat in Spain.

  Agatha’s line of work inevitably puts her in a dangerous position and she has survived numerous attempts on her life. She has been drugged, hit over the head and held at gunpoint but, through a combination of chutzpah, sheer bloody-mindedness and the ‘luck of the devil’, she has so far lived to fight on.

  Quiche of Death

  After receiving a misspelt death threat, Agatha is brought off her bicycle by a wire stretched across the road on the steep hill into Carsely. Bill Wong pulls up as her attacker is about to finish the job with a large rock. Later, she is drugged with sleeping pills and left in a burning house. She is once again saved by Bill, who manages to push her out of a broken window.

  Vicious Vet

  The murderer attempts to kill Agatha with a shotgun, but is foiled when her beloved cat, Hodge, jumps on his face. She hears another gunshot and waits for the worst, but when she opens her eyes, it is the killer who has shot himself.

  Murderous Marriage

  Petrol is poured through the letterbox of James’s cottage where Agatha is staying. The couple throw water at the flames and Mrs Hardy, who has bought Agatha’s house, comes to the rescue with buckets of earth. Later, Agatha, James and Mrs Hardy are accosted by a masked gunman while walking home from the village dance and the sour-faced neighbour comes to the rescue once more, kicking the gun from his hand. Finally the real murderer, who Agatha has uncovered, smacks her over the head with a brass poker and attempts to bury her alive in her own garden, but she is rescued by Fred Griggs and Bill Wong.

  Terrible Tourist

  During the Cyprus murder mystery, there are three attempts on Agatha’s life. First, she is almost pushed from the window of the monument at Saint Hilarion, in North Cyprus. Secondly, a rock is thrown at her head as she gets in a car, and finally the perpetrator attempts to smother her in a room at the Dome Hotel. Agatha fights her attacker off, but is left shaken and sick by the ordeal.

  Wellspring of Death

  The murderer holds Agatha and Mrs Bloxby at gunpoint and forces them to drive away from Carsely towards Stratford. After they stop in a field, Agatha sprays hairspray into the villain’s eyes and brave Mrs Bloxby shoots him in the chest.

  Wizard of Evesham

  Agatha is attacked by the murderer, who repeatedly bangs her head against the wash basin as she is having her hair done. She is saved by Charles, who calls the police.

  Fairies of Fryfam

  Agatha is threatened with a shotgun in her rented cottage and is saved when Charles spots the open door and the frightened cats and calls the police.

  Day the Floods Came

  A hit and run attempt is foiled when Agatha spots the car approaching and throws herself over a garden hedge. Later, however, Mrs Anstruther-Jones is killed by the same method, while wearing Agatha’s disguise. Agatha also finds herself locked in a freezer storage room behind a nightclub, and is rescued by John Armitage, Mrs Bloxby and her surly husband, Alf.

  Curious Curate

  After meeting the person she suspected to be the killer at home, Agatha is asked to look at the wine cellar. As she peers down the stone steps, she is hit on the back of the head with a heavy object and tumbles down. Tied up at the bottom of the stairs, Agatha hears policemen come to the door and take the killer away for questioning, but is sure he or she will return to finish her off. Alerted by John, however, Bill Wong sounds the alarm and the police rescue Agatha.

  Haunted House

  The killer confronts Agatha and Charles in the living room of her cottage and threatens them with a gun. He promises to start at the kneecaps and keep shooting until they tell him what he wants to know but, alerted to his presence in the next-door cottage, she has already phoned Bill Wong. The police arrive just in time.

  Deadly Dance

  Used to being the target of murderers, in this complicated case Agatha finds herself in the sights of two potential killers. A jealous nei
ghbour’s attempts to finish her off only serve to thwart a professional assassin who has been hired by someone else. When he is found dead in the kitchen, the real killer comes to the cottage, armed and dangerous, and instead murders the psychopathic neighbour.

  Love, Lies and Liquor

  Charmed by a mysterious stranger called Terry Armstrong, Agatha agrees to a date. Her suitor offers to drive her out of the oppressive surrounds of Snoth-on-Sea to a nice restaurant, but stops en route at an abandoned building where he forces her in at gunpoint. She is saved after Patrick calls the police, suspecting the man’s motives. He turns out to be drug baron Brian McNally, who is after the missing jewels from a bank robbery involving the ex of murder victim Geraldine Jankers.

  Carsely woman Deborah Fanshawe is later shot while waiting in Agatha’s hotel room, in a clear case of mistaken identity, and Agatha is almost killed again when Brian McNally cons his way into the Grand by pretending to be a CID officer. As he points his gun at her, a wave crashes through the lounge window and saves her.

  Kissing Christmas Goodbye

  The murderer attempts to poison Agatha’s toothpaste by injecting hemlock into the tube. Warned by a concerned Mrs Bloxby, Agatha spies on her in the bathroom and sees her doctoring the tube. After she confronts her, the murderer attacks, but is pulled off by Bill Wong, who has been alerted by the vicar’s wife.

  Spoonful of Poison

  Punched in the face by the very man she had almost fallen for, Agatha is saved by Mrs Bloxby, who attacks him with a jar of chutney. She is then targeted by the killer, who poisons the milk on her doorstep. Agatha realizes what has happened when she sees a dead bird, which has pecked off the lid, thereby saving her cats from certain death. At the same time, her young detective Toni is confronted by the murderer, wielding a knife, but manages to fight her off with a chair.