Agatha Raisin series by M. C. Beaton which is a psedonym for Marion Chesney. I love to re-read this series and savor these books as a treat to read every few weeks. I keep wanting more. Agatha Raisin is always a delightful read as you never can tell what kind of mischief she will get herself into. I'm not sure why the last few titles no longer have her name in the title.

18. Kissing Christmas Goodbye

17. Love, Lies and Liquor

16. Perfect Paragon
On the advice of the vicar's wife, Agatha takes on Phil Witherspoon, 76, as a photographer. And she hires her secretary's nephew Harry Beam, a bright lad on his gap year from university, to find the missing pets her detective agency has mostly dealt with lately. Although Agatha hates divorce cases and thinks Robert Smedley an obnoxious bully, the £1,000 plus expenses he offers to find his errant wife overcome her scruples. Meanwhile, she and Phil go to work on the case of a missing teenager whose body they soon find. When Smedley is poisoned in his factory office, Agatha discovers that he'd been having an affair with Joyce, his secretary. Wait, there's more: The missing teenager had been making porn tapes for her secret fiancé, who worked for Smedley and was also carrying on with Joyce. The cases, which seem so remote from one another, naturally end up intertwined. In the end, Harry proves his worth, Phil shows a flair for detection, former employee Patrick Mulligan returns to the fold and, despite a distinct lack of warmth from the police, they manage to sort it all out. In typical Agatha fashion she solves it all but only with the help of her friends.

15. Deadly Dance
Finally an Agatha Raisin novel that does not have her name in the title. Agatha always thought of herself as a detective but can she make it her business? After getting mugged on vacation, in what she will always think of as the Paris Incident, she decides to find out. Her clients are ladies with missing cats and a man whose son has run off with his car. Agatha even worries that she might be outclassed by her sixty-seven-year-old secretary, Emma Comfrey. But then wealthy divorcée Catherine Laggat-Brown walks in with their first "real" case. Mrs. Laggat-Brown's daughter has received a death threat, and when Agatha thwarts an attack on the girl at a dinner dance, she recognizes an opportunity to show what Raisin Investigations can do. Even better, the case gives her a chance to reunite with her long-absent friend, Sir Charles Fraith. As they scour the Cotswolds in search of leads, Charles' insights prove invaluable and his charms irresistible, leading poor Emma to fall madly in love with him.As ever, Agatha bumbles her way through the case, trying her friends' patience and flirting shamelessly with the chief suspect. Will she put her tiny agency on the map, or has even the outrageous Agatha finally bitten off more than she can chew? Truely wonderful as always.

14. Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House
Just back from an extended stay in London, Agatha Raisin finds herself greeted by torrential rains and an old, familiar feeling of boredom. When her handsome new neighbor, Paul Chatterton, shows up on her doorstep, she tries her best to ignore his obvious charms, but his sparkling black eyes and the promise of adventure soon lure her into another investigation. Paul has heard rumors about Agatha's reputation as the Cotswold village sleuth and wastes no time offering their services to the crotchety owner of a haunted house. Whispers, footsteps, and a cold white mist are plaguing Mrs. Witherspoon, but the police have failed to come up with any leads, supernatural or otherwise. The neighbors think it's all a desperate ploy for attention, but Paul and Agatha are sure something more devious is going on. Someone's playing tricks on Mrs. Witherspoon, and when she turns up dead under suspicious circumstances, Agatha finds herself caught up in another baffling murder mystery.

13. Agatha Raisin and the Case of the Curious Curate
Some familiar faces return such as John Armitage & Mrs. Bloxby wife of the local reverend. The story starts with Agatha returning from a trip to London to discover there is a new curate, Tristan Delom. who is literally and figuratively taking over the Rev. Bloxby's parish. Tristan is beautiful & charming and seems interested in Agatha but is it for her money or true love. Before she can find out he is murdered but is the Rev. Bloxby the murderer or is something more sinister afoot. It seems like each book in this series has a murder or more but this is definitely more of a puzzler with a twist at the end. But from the ending there is definitely more Agatha Raisin to come...

12. Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came
Agatha's latest adventures begin when her husband runs off to join a monastery in France. Agatha seeks solace in an island vacation. During her getaway, she notices a newlywed couple; within days, the groom drowns the bride. On her return home, during a dramatic flash flood, Agatha sees another dead bride, wearing a white gown and clutching a bridal bouquet, sweeping past on the river. Agatha swings into action, pestering the locals and enlisting the aid of her new neighbor, a mystery writer. But will she find romance with her new neighbor or just be one of the boys? I listened to this on tape and really enjoyed it. I will defintely listen to more on tape.

11. Agatha Raisin and the Love From Hell
10. Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam
9. Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Eversham
8. Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden

7. Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death
Agatha has agreed to come out of retirement to manage the publicity for the launch of water bottled from a village spring--much to the chagrin of some of her neighbors. Worried that the commodification of at least part of the village's charm might wreak havoc on their peaceful existence, some of the community try to stop it once and for all. Still, killing off a member of the village council and leaving the corpse in the spring itself seems a little extreme, especially as it makes Agatha's paying job a bit more difficult. Believing that a dead body might destroy the chances for a successful campaign to market her product, Agatha begins an investigation into who might have wanted the victim dead. She careens around the Cotswolds asking impertinent questions regarding the personal lives of her neighbors, all the while wondering why so many of them are unpleasant to her. She manages to muddle her own romantic affairs to such an extent that she finds herself in bed with her young and handsome employer--to the dismay of her former fiancée.

6. Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist
The marriage of expublic relations whiz Agatha Raisin to cold, enigmatic James Lacey, who lives next door to her retirement cottage in the Cotswold village of Carsely, has fallen through . James has taken off for Cyprus, the planned site of their aborted honeymoon, and Agatha, incomprehensibly, takes off after him. Soon after her arrival, on a day cruise in the harbor at Kyrenia, she meets an oddly mixed group of tourists--aristocratic Olivia Debenham, her broker husband George, and their older friend Harry Tembleton-- spending much of their time in the company of low-class, tarty Rose Wilcox, her hard-drinking husband Trevor, and their elderly friend Angus King. Agatha has tracked down James and, on a platonic basis, is sharing his rented house. They've joined the oddball group at a disco one night when Rose is stabbed to death and Agatha and James are detained and questioned by Detective Inspector Lyall Pamir. A second murder in the group arouses all of Agatha's detecting fervor. But will she be the next victim before she can solve the big case? Of course she will and we love her for all her faults.

5. Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage
Agatha is about to marry her handsome next-door neighbor, James. But the wedding ceremony is halted mid-vow by the arrival of Jimmy Raisin, the husband Agatha fervently hoped was dead and has neglected to mention to James Lacey, the fastidious, upstanding citizen currently waiting to tie the knot. Even less convenient than a living husband who interrupts your wedding is one who, shortly thereafter, turns up dead in a ditch in the immediate neighborhood. Naturally, Agatha and James top the suspect list. But the dead Jimmy was a down-and-out alcoholic who had been known to practice a bit of blackmail. Agatha and James track down some of his victims, who have a distressing tendency to die shortly after being questioned by the two. With bodies stacking up and James refusing to marry Agatha (even though she has already sold her cottage), the atmosphere becomes nicely tense. I think this one of my favorites as we really get to see what makes Agatha tick.

4. Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley
Shortly after Agatha's return, Jessica Tartinck, the confrontational leader of a walking group, is murdered in nearby Dembley. When Sir Charles Fraith becomes the chief suspect (he and Jessica had argued about the walkers' right-of-way through his fields), Agatha is asked by a village friend to investigate. Ever eager, Agatha and her cohort James move to Dembley and, posing as man and wife, infiltrate Jessica's walking group. Wending their way through circuitous misadventure, however, the pair solve the murder and forge a deeper relationship than they'd enjoyed before. We are introduced to Sir Charles and it gives us the background on how her neighbor, James, finally pops the question. But who is really in love with whom?

3. Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet
Is there a romance is budding with the attractive new village vet, Dr. Paul Bladen? But before Agatha can find out, Bladen accidentally kills himself while attending to Lord Pendlebury's horse, and Agatha must turn to her distinguished neighbor, the retired military man James Lacey, for comfort. Together, the odd couple begin to investigate Dr. Bladen's death . . . and the curious lack of sorrow shown by his divorced wife. But will they succeed in unmasking a killer before suffering an "accident" of their own?

2. Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardner
Never say die. That's the philosophy Agatha Raisin clings to when she comes home to cozy Carsely and finds a new woman ensconced in the affections of her attractive bachelor neighbor, James Lacey. The beautiful newcomer, Mary Fortune, is superior in every way, especially when it comes to gardening. and Agatha, that rose with many thorns, hasn't a green thumb to her name. With garden Open Day approaching, she longs for a nice juicy murder to remind James of her genius for investigation. And sure enough, a series of destructive assaults on the finest gardens is followed by an appalling murder. Agatha seizes the moment and immediately starts yanking up village secrets by their roots and digging up all the dirt on the victim. Problem is, Agatha has an awkward secret of her own...

1. Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death
Feisty Agatha Raisin, until recently a public-relations executive in London, has retired to peaceful Cotswold. Eager to make friends in her new English village home, Agatha buys a quiche and enters it in the village quiche-making competition, only to be accused of poisoning the judge with the dish. We're introduced to series regulars detective Bill Wong, former employee Roy Silver, the vicar's wife Mrs. Bloxby. We are also introduced to handsome retired colonel James Lacey, who moves next door to Agatha towards the end of this story.