The Agatha Raisin series is my guilty pleasure - it’s full of perfectly pitched interest, intrigue, and charm.

Lee Child

It's said of Agatha Christie that she's given more pleasure in bed than any other woman, but M.C. Beaton is matching her as a prolific purveyor of cosy whodunits perfect for pre-lights-out reading.

The Daily Telegraph

"The Quiche of Death" was such a pleasant surprise I wondered why I’d never heard of M.C. Beaton...It can’t be. But it is so. I have a modest crush on Agatha Raisin. And real admiration for her creator.

HeadButler.com

Every new Agatha Raisin escapade is a total joy.

Ashley Jensen, star of Agatha Raisin TV series

Praise for Hot to Trot

Fans old and new will love this as Agatha gets embroiled with high society skulduggery, showjumping shenanigans, and is implicated in murder. It’s fun!

Peterborough Telegraph

Lively entertainment… Beaton’s fans will sorely miss her

Publishers Weekly

The pseudonymous author… displays her heroine’s finest qualities in a case packed with dark horses

Kirkus

I have had the most enjoyable couple of days reading, laughing, wondering just ‘who did it?’ in this village mystery

Frost Magazine

One of the most charismatic private eyes walking on the mild side of crime fiction is the deliciously outrageous Agatha Raisin

Shots Mag

I read the book in one sitting and loved every moment of it

The Book Bag

Praise of the Hamish Macbeth series

A delightful entry in an altogether captivating series.

Booklist

Superb entertainment, as rich and warming as fine malt whisky, and every bit as addictive

Houston Chronicle

Longing for escape? Tired of waiting for Brigadoon to materialize? Time for a trip to Lochdubh, the scenic, if somnolent, village in the Scottish Highlands where M.C. Beaton sets her beguiling whodunits featuring Constable Hamish Macbeth.

New York Times Book Review

Vintage Beaton, with the author at her madcap best.

Abilene Reporter News

Macbeth is the sort of character who slyly grows on you...as you realize that beneath his unassuming exterior, he's a whiz at cutting through all the hokum.

Chicago Sun-Times

One of detective fiction's most agreeable characters

Kirkus Reviews

Macbeth's charm continues to grow...Fun, silly and as light as a well-made scone -- I wouldn't miss a single book.

Christian Science Monitor

Readers will enjoy some of the quirks and unique qualities of the cast...gentle humor and comedic episodes...Beaton catches the beauty of the area's natural geography and succinctly describes its distinct flavour.

Library Journal

Engrossing, cozy mystery...with residents and a constable so authentic it won't be long before tourists will be seeking Lochdubh and believing in the reality of Hamish Macbeth as surely as they believed in Sherlock Holmes.

Denver Rocky Mountain News

Well written, amusing...a puzzle with a solid backbone to support it. If you like mysteries with a bit of a lilt, you should put the Macbeth stories and Lochdubh on your reading itinerary. You'd be daft to pass them up.

Mystery Review

The detective novels of M.C. Beaton, a master of outrageous black comedy...have reached cult status in the United States.

The Times Magazine (London)

Befuddled, earnest, and utterly endearing, Hamish Makes his triumphs sweetly satisfying.

Publishers Weekly

On a scale of one to ten, M.C. Beaton's Constable Hamish Macbeth merits a ten-plus.

Buffalo News

Beaton's plot and characters are as splendidly cast as the scenic backdrop she has chosen for Lochdubh.

Des Moines Sunday Register (IA)

Death of a Kingfisher

The twenty-seventh Hamish Macbeth mystery has all the elements Beaton fans come to expect: murder in a Scottish Highlands village and the semicomic, semiheroic investigation that follows… An overarching theme of deception makes this an especially gripping episode. The Hamish Macbeth series, like Scotland’s locally produced whiskey, only gets better with age.

Booklist

A surprisingly high human body count finds Macbeth one step behind, but, as usual, leagues ahead of his nominal superiors in this entertaining entry.

Publishers Weekly

Ms. Beaton has two main arrows in her quiver that stop her cozy series from being cutesy. First she has some of the most gruesome murders in all of fiction, and the bodies keep coming. Her second weapon is her cast of characters, both new (the sidekick Fraser has a propensity for winning TV games shows) and old.

New York Journal of Books

Praise for the Agatha Raisin series

Tourists are advised to watch their backs in the bucolic villages where M. C. Beaton sets her sly British mysteries...Outsiders always spell trouble for the societies Beaton observes with such cynical humor.

The New York Times Book Review

[Beaton’s] imperfect heroine is an absolute gem!

Publishers Weekly

Beaton’s Agatha Raisin series just about defines the British cozy.

Booklist

Anyone interested in...intelligent, amusing reading will want to make the acquaintance of Mrs. Agatha Raisin.

Atlanta Journal Constitution

Beaton has a winner in the irrepressible, romance-hungry Agatha.

Chicago Sun-Times

Few things in life are more satisfying than to discover a brand-new Agatha Raisin mystery.

Tampa Tribune Times

The Raisin series brings the cozy tradition back to life. God bless the Queen!

Tulsa World

The Miss Marple–like Raisin is a refreshingly sensible, wonderfully eccentric, thoroughly likable heroine...a must for cozy fans.

Booklist

A Spoonful of Poison

Agatha is like Miss Marple with a drinking problem, pack-a-day habit, and major man lust…Beaton’s latest installment, in which Aggie gets mixed up in a deadly jam-tasting contest, is pretty terrific -- a must-read.

Entertainment Weekly

Take two fine old English traditions -- the village fete and death by poison -- and you have a clever tale…featuring irascible, lovable Agatha Raisin. A Spoonful of Poison will go down just fine.

Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Beaton’s sly humor enhances the cozy-style plotting, while updates on Agatha’s…romantic travails are as delightful as ever. The open-ended resolution points to more madcap mayhem to come.

Publishers Weekly

The Walkers of Dembley

British cozy fans will no doubt find this book an engaging teatime companion.

Booklist

Trenchant and droll.

St. Petersburg Times

Among writers of cozy village mystery series, count M.C. Beaton as one who creates a nice tea party.

Associated Press

The Potted Gardener

From the author’s sure-fire plot comes this fail-safe moral: It takes an outsider to open people’s eyes to the beauty -- and the evil -- within.

The New York Times Book Review

Compare this one to lemon meringue pie: light. . .with a delicious hint of tartness at its heart.

The Washington Times

Kissing Christmas Goodbye

Agatha Raisin is still at the top of her game…in her most challenging case yet.

Publishers Weekly

Beaton, the reigning queen of the cozies, adds an English manor house and a Christmas theme to her usual Costwold village setting, upping the comfiness factor even higher.

Booklist

Love, Lies and Liquor

Another highly satisfying Beaton cozy, this one is long on the kind of social comedy that uses character, plot, and atmosphere to produce the laughter.

Booklist

Driven by Agatha’s strong personality, [Love, Lies and Liquor] will please devoted fans.

Publishers Weekly

The Perfect Paragon

Though Agatha is still a bit of a piece of work, she is mellowing with age, and in this book even forgets to ‘gussy’ herself up once when she goes out. There’s a cliffhanger at the end...that is going to be interesting in the next book.

Deadly Pleasures

This is the latest perfectly precious prose problem from Beaton, Britain’s successor to Dame Agatha Christie. If you’ve never read an Agatha Raisin novel, it’s time to start, and you’ll have fifteen more of these confections awaiting you. Polish those off, and you still have a batch of Hamish Macbeth tales. All of them are cunningly plotted, beautifully written and more fun you can imagine. The Perfect Paragon is as perfect as all the others, and you won’t figure out whodunit until the final pages.

The Globe & Mail

Entertaining…welcome back to Carsely, the charming Cotswolds village that’s home to the sixteenth Agatha Raisin mystery.

Publishers Weekly

Fabulous…M.C. Beaton is at her best with this fine tale filled with twists.

Midwest Book Review

The Deadly Dance

It’s been 40 years since Dame Agatha Christie’s death, and in that time, reviewers have often bestowed her mantle on new authors. M. C. Beaton is one of those so honored, and she deserves it. When it comes to artfully constructed puzzle plots and charming settings, Beaton serves it up…This is a classic British cozy plot, and a setting done with panache. Maybe M. C. Beaton really is the new ‘Queen of Crime.’

The Globe & Mail

It is always fun to read an Agatha Raisin mystery, but the latest installment freshens up a delightful series by converting the heroine from amateur sleuth to professional without changing her caustic wit. Agatha remains crude and rude even to clients, but also retains that vulnerability that endears her to readers.

Midwest Book Review

A very satisfying change for the smart woman of mystery with a new cast of colorfully realized characters blending with a few old favorites.

Mystery Lovers Bookshop News

The story was first-rate and moved along with many twists and turns that kept me always guessing…I read this book in one sitting, which I think speaks for itself.

I Love a Mystery

Fans of Agatha Raisin will be absolutely delighted at this latest addition to the series. Ms. Beaton has surpassed herself in The Deadly Dance.

Reviewing the Evidence

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