For PC Hamish Macbeth there's no holiday from crime - he finds himself hunting for a missing cat belonging to a lonely spinster. Curt and unfriendly, the woman is convinced her pet has been stolen but once behind her heavily-bolted door, Hamish can spot her true problem - she lives in fear, though of who or what he cannot guess.

Agatha's former husband James is engaged to be married to a beautiful, young woman and Agatha has been kindly invited to the wedding. To take her mind off this, Agatha decides she has fallen for Sylvan, a Frenchman she met at James' engagement party.

Lochdubh, remotely nestling in the Highlands, is perfectly anonymous, until TV reporter Crystal French races into town in her bright new BMW. And PC Hamish Macbeth, dourly wed to duty rather than the fiancee who dumped him, gives her a ticket for reckless driving. Outraged, she makes his life a misery with a TV report on policing in the Highlands.

After six months spent in London, Agatha Raisin returns to her beloved Cotswold village of Carsely - and to her attractive neighbour, James Lacey. True, James is less than thrilled to see her, but Agatha is soon consoled by a sensational murder.

Cranky but lovable sleuth Agatha Raisin's detective agency has become so successful that she wants nothing more than to take quality time for rest and relaxation. But as soon as she begins closing the agency on weekends, she remembers that when she has plenty of quality time, she doesn't know what to do with it.

Meet Agatha Raisin, high-flying public relations boss turned village sleuth. After her many years of bullying and cajoling others, her early retirement to a picture-perfect village in the Costwolds is a dream come true.

The local ladies all deem Mr John a wizard, so when Agatha finds a few grey hairs on her head, she makes a beeline for the handsome Evesham hairdresser. And as well as sorting out her hair it soon becomes clear the charming man also has designs on her heart - but their future together is cut short when Mr John is fatally poisoned in his salon.

Agatha Raisin believes the village vet has taken a shine to her, but before romance can bloom, he accidentally kills himself. Oh well, there is still her neighbour, and perhaps a common interest like a murder investigation will bring them together.

Agatha is taken aback when she finds a new woman ensconced in the affections of her attractive bachelor neighbour. Mary Forunte is superior in every way. So when Mary is discovered murdered, buried upside down in a plant pot, Agatha starts yanking up village secrets, but is this wise? Agatha has an awkward secret too.

When Jimmy is found murdered, Agatha and James are the prime suspects. Since the easiest way to clear their names is to find the real murderer, Agatha convinces James to help her investigate. But will their subsequent close proximity - which has them, ironically, pretending to be man and wife - be enough to win James second time around?

Reports of a haunted house soon have Agatha snooping around, but it turns out the victim is a universally disliked old biddy. And then the old lady is murdered - but for Agatha, solving a crime is more fun than hunting a ghost! Soon she's up to her usual tricks, involving the villagers, local police, and, of course, her handsome new neighbour...

Left with bald patches thanks to the wicked doings of a murderer from a previous investigation, Agatha flees to the coastal resort of Wyckhadden to grow her tresses back in privacy. When a local witch provides her with hair tonic, Agatha's hair begins to flow - but the witch is found bludgeoned to death.

When Fergus, 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 in a recycling bin, no one is sorry - including his long-suffering family.

During the dark, grey days of early December, Agatha is obsessed by only two things - Christmas, and her ex, James Lacey. Although she says she feels nothing for James now, she feels sure that landing the perfect Dickensian Christmas for all her friends will somehow reanimate her love.

Agatha Raisin's neighbouring village of Ancombe is usually the epitome of rural charm, but the arrival of a mineral water company sends tempers flaring and divides the parish council into two camps. When Agatha, who happens to be the PR person for the company, finds the council chairman murdered at the basin of the spring, tongues start wagging.

After a romantic disappointment and a demotion, Scots village bobby Hamish Macbeth decides a week's holiday at the coastal village of Skag might be just the ticket. He's dead wrong, of course: the food is dire, and the man in the next room nags his wife so loudly that more than one person at the Friendly House bed-and-breakfast wishes him dead.

Trouble is afoot in the remote Scottish fishing village of Stoyre. On a routine visit, Hamish Macbeth finds the pub empty, the church unexpectedly full, and the very air permeated with fear. Then an explosion levels a holiday cottage which the locals call 'an act of God'. Hamish has another theory, one that will make the national news.

Patricia Martyn-Broyd, now in her seventies, has retired to the Highlands. She hasn't written a word in years and her books are out of print. But now a television company is about to film her last detective story, featuring the aristocratic Scottish detective Lady Harriet Vare. Even better, a London publisher is bringing the book into print.

Can the feisty Agatha cut it as a private investigator? When wealthy divorcee, Catherine Laggat-Brown walks in, Agatha gets her first real case. Death threats, blackmail and physical attack soon follow, and once again Agatha is off scouring the Cotswolds for clues and showing friends and enemies alike what Raisin Investigations can do.

In Scotland, where thrift and a 'nice set of dentures' are generally admired, dental surgeon Dr Frederick Gilchrist's cheap rates and penchant for pulling teeth have gained him a clientele. However, wiser Highlanders (like Hamish Macbeth) opt to steer clear of this reputed womanizer's all-too-busy hands.