Agatha Raisin is a fictional detective in a series of mystery novels by Marion Chesney

Marion Chesney

Marion Chesney is a popular and prolific author. She has written numerous successful historical romance novels under her own name, including the Travelling Matchmaker and Daughters of Mannerling series. Using the pseudonym M. C...

 using the pseudonym M. C. Beaton. They are published in the U.K. by Constable & Robinson

Constable & Robinson

Constable & Robinson Ltd. is an independent British book publisher of fiction and non-fiction works. Founded in Edinburgh in 1795 by Archibald Constable as Constable & Co. it is probably the oldest independent publisher in the English-speaking world still operating under the name of its...

 and in the U.S.A. by St. Martins Press.

Character

Agatha Raisin is a frustrated, yet endearing, middle-aged public-relations agent who moved from London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 to Carsely in the Cotswolds

Cotswolds

The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the Heart of England, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...

 when she sold her public-relations firm and took early retirement. She solves murders in each of the earlier books, but in the fifteenth book Agatha Raisin and the Deadly Dance

Agatha Raisin and the Deadly Dance

Agatha Raisin and the Deadly Dance is the fifteenth Agatha Raisin mystery novel by Marion Chesney under her pseudonym M. C. Beaton. She sets up her own detective agency, Raisin Investigations, having previously investigated as a hobby...

 (2004) Agatha sets up her own detective agency. The police, and even some of her acquaintances, insist that she solves crimes through accident and luck.

In the first book, Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death (1992), Agatha is 53, but she ages as the series progresses. She was born Agatha Styles in a tower block slum in Birmingham to Joseph and Margaret Styles, both unemployed drunks living on benefits and occasional bouts of shoplifting. They took her for one glorious week to a rented cottage in the Cotswolds, and she never forgot that golden holiday or the beauty of the countryside. Agatha went to the local comprehensive, then saved enough from her biscuit factory wages to run off to London. After an evening secretarial course she works as a secretary in a public relations firm, moves into public relations work and saved enough to start her own firm.

She lives in the village of Carsely, but her detective agency Raisin Investigations and the police headquarters where Bill Wong is based are in the nearby town of Mircester.

Novels

• Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death
  Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death
  The Quiche of Death is the first Agatha Raisin mystery novel by Marion Chesney under her pseudonym M. C. Beaton.- Plot summary :Agatha Raisin retires from her profitable position as a PR agent in London, she moves to the Cotswolds expecting a peaceful country life...
  
   (1992)
• Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet (1993)
• Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener (1994)
• Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley (1995)
• Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage (1996)
• Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist (1997)
• Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death (1998)
• Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham (1999)
• Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden (1999)
• Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam (2000)
• Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell (2001)
• Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came (2002)
• Agatha Raisin and the Case of the Curious Curate (2003)
• Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House (2003)
• Agatha Raisin and the Deadly Dance
  Agatha Raisin and the Deadly Dance
  Agatha Raisin and the Deadly Dance is the fifteenth Agatha Raisin mystery novel by Marion Chesney under her pseudonym M. C. Beaton. She sets up her own detective agency, Raisin Investigations, having previously investigated as a hobby...
  
  (2004)
• Agatha Raisin and the Perfect Paragon 2005)
• Love, Lies and Liquor: An Agatha Raisin mystery (2006)
• Kissing Christmas Goodbye: An Agatha Raisin mystery (2007)
• Agatha Raisin and a Spoonful of Poison (2008)
• Agatha Raisin: There Goes the Bride (2009)
• Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body (2010)
• Agatha Raisin: As the Pig Turns (October 2011)

Recurring characters

• Bill Wong - police detective and friend
• James Lacey - neighbour with whom Agatha has an on-and-off romantic relationship
• Miss Kylie Simms - Carsely's unmarried mother and secretary of the Ladies' Society
• Mrs Margaret Bloxby - the vicar's wife who greatly admires Agatha and is always looking out for Agatha's best interests
• Mrs Freedman - secretary at the detective agency
• Phil Marshall and Patrick Sullivan - detectives under Agatha's employ at her agency
• Roy Silver - former co-worker from the public relations firm Agatha previously owned
• Sir Charles Fraith - friend of Aggie's known for being stingy with his money, they have an on-off sexual relationship too
• Toni Gilmour - Hired Detective at Agatha's agency, very beautiful, eighteen, Agatha is jealous of her good looks, and a good friend (Toni has recently started up her own agency with Harry Beam)
• Harry Beam - Originally worked in Toni Gilmour's position, has appeared in the past few books
• Doris Simpson - Agatha's ever-present cleaner and good friend, who looks after her cats Hodge and Boswell when she is away
• The Vicar, Alf Bloxby - Vicar of Carsely with a unique disdain towards Agatha