On the surface Pagford seems like a quiet little English village. But the truth is, it's a town where the rich are at war with the poor, wives are at war with their husbands, and teachers are at war with their pupils. An empty seat on the town council is the catalyst for the biggest conflict of all.

Agatha Raisin is ambivalent about holiday cheer, but the village of Carsely has long prided itself on its Christmas festivities. John Sunday, a self-important officer with the Health and Safety Board, is putting a damper on the celebrations. The Carsely Ladies' Society joins forces with the ladies in the neighboring village of Odley Cruesis to try to put a stop to his meddling only to find that someone has literally put a stop to him with a kitchen...

"When it comes to relationships, thirty-four-year-old Kate Turner is ready to say "Bah, humbug." The sleepy town of Blexford, England, isn't exactly brimming with prospects, and anyway, Kate's found fulfillment in her career as a designer, and in her delicious side job baking for her old friend Matt's neighborhood café. But then her best friend signs her up for a dating agency that promises to help singles find love before the holidays. Twenty-three...

A few days after Carole and Jude go shopping at a shop called Gallimaufry, the shop burns and a body is discovered in the ashes.

"While exploring the attic in her cottage near the small English village of Finch, Lori Shepherd makes an extraordinary discovery: a gleaming gold and garnet bracelet that had once belonged to Aunt Dimity. When Lori shows the garnet bracelet to Aunt Dimity, it awakens poignant memories of a doomed romance in Aunt Dimity's youth. Regretfully, Aunt Dimity asks Lori to do what she could not: return the bracelet to her unsuccessful suitor--setting Lori...

Newly single, Tilly impulsively accepts a job in a small town. She soon finds herself in a hotbed of gossip, intrigue, and rampant rivalry for Jack, the town's most desirable bachelor. She decides to do the sensible thing, and avoid him at all costs.

"Cactus is a novel about four women, how they affect each other, how they struggle to survive. As her daughters grow up, Bea begins to reassess her marriage, her youth, her likely future as a superfluous middle-aged, middle class woman. Ann and Dee are lesbian feminists trying, against formidable odds, to make a world in which they would be at home. Eleanor, finding herself drawn into relationships with the others, sees her painfully acquired independence...

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....

Sheila Malory's old friends Charlie and Jo Hamilton run a popular riding school in the quiet English town of Taviscombe. When Charlie is found dead in his stables from a blow to the head, with only his horses as witnesses to his final moments, the entire community is shaken. Especially since Charlie's is just the first in a series of shocking and suspicious deaths. Mrs. Malory is on the case, but the trail of clues, from an unlucky horseshoe to a...