When Agatha Raisin learns that her friend and one-time lover Charles Fraith is to be married to socialite, Miss Mary Brown-Field, she sees it as her duty to find out what she can about the woman. Out of selfless concern for Charles, of course. When Agatha crashes their wedding, it ends in a public altercation. There's a scream from the stable-- and now Agatha and Charles are suspects in a murder. Clues lead to the competitive equestrian world, in...

The poor relations are once again scrounging around for a plan for solvency. This time it is Colonel Sandhurst to the rescue. After happening on Sir Randolph's lovely daughter Frederica, the Colonel devises a plan to force Sir Randolph to settle his bill and to save Frederica from her fate.

The oddly assorted group met some time ago and started The Poor Relation hotel. The hotel must go on. And so poor, faded Miss Tonks has been persuaded to steal something valuable enough from her rich sister to set the poor relations on their feet.

Agatha has fallen head over heels in love--again. This time, she has her eye on the local gardener, George Marston, but so do other women in their little Cotswold village. Shamelessly determined, Agatha will do anything to get her man--including footing the bill for a charity ball just for the chance to dance with him. And then George doesn't even show up. Only partly deterred, Agatha goes looking for him, and finds his dead body in a compost heap....

Eliza Budley is a beautiful widow whose husband gambled away his fortune. Then Sir Philip comes up with a plan. He has heard that the elderly Marquess of Peterhouse is senile, a widower, extremely rich, and unlikely to remember whether Mrs. Budley is a relative or not. So off gentle Mrs. Budley goes to the bleak castle, where the marquess turns out to be not so old, hardly senile, and, in fact, quite handsome.

"Gloria French was a jolly widow with dyed blonde hair, a raucous laugh and rosy cheeks. When she first moved from London to the charming Cotswolds Hills, she was heartily welcomed. She seemed a do-gooder par excellence, raising funds for the church and caring for the elderly. But she had a nasty habit of borrowing things and not giving them back, just small things, a teapot here, a set of silverware there. So it's quite the shock when she is found...