ANIMATING MARIA

By M C Beaton

Synopsis

Maria Kendall is a dream client - beautiful, impeccably mannered, graceful and extremely well dowered. In short, she doesn't seem to need the Tribbles' help at all. But then the sisters meet her parents and realise that they do have a problem on their hands - not with the perfect Maria, but with her overweening, gauche and socially over-ambitious parents!

Sample Player

Narrator	Yvonne Clemenson
Length	5hrs 30mins
Catalogue No.	13812
Publisher	Canvas; 2012

Other audiobooks by M C Beaton

AGATHA RAISIN AND THE BUSY BODY

Agatha Raisin has never been one for enforced holiday cheer, but her friendly little village of Carsely has always prided itself on its traditional Christmas festivities. Then Mr John Sunday, an officer with the Cotswold Health and Safety Board, goes too far when he rules that there cannot be a Christmas tree atop the church tower this year.

AGATHA RAISIN AND THE DEAD RINGER

The bells of St. Ethelred church are the pride and glory of the village of Thirk Magna, together with dedicated bell ringers, twins Mavis and Millicent Dupin. As the village gets ready for the Bishop's visit, the twins start bullying the other bell ringers, so much so that Joseph Kennell, a retired lawyer, yells at the sisters that he 'felt like killing them'! When the twins' home is broken into, and Millicent is found dead, suspicion falls onto the lawyer... Will Agatha unmask the real killer and clear Joseph's name?

AGATHA RAISIN AND THE DEADLY DANCE

When wealthy divorcée, Catherine Laggat-Brown walks in, Agatha gets her first real case. Death threats, blackmail and physical attack soon follow, and once again Agatha is off scouring the countryside for clues and showing friends and enemies alike what Raisin Investigations can do.

AGATHA RAISIN AND THE FAIRIES OF FRYFAM

Agatha, feeling jilted and cross, rents a cottage in the pretty village of Tryfam in Norfolk. Here she hopes to find good fortune and true love. Instead she gets caught up in fairies, murder and theft.

AGATHA RAISIN AND THE MURDEROUS MARRIAGE

On the day of her marriage, Agatha’s first husband, Jim, whom she thought was long-dead, turns up in time to spoil the day. Her fiancé, not surprisingly, breaks off the engagement. The next day Jim is found murdered and Agatha and her fiancé are the prime suspects.

AGATHA RAISIN AND THE POTTED GARDENER

Mary Forunte is quite superior in every way, and has even ensconced herself in the affections of Agatha Raisin's neighbour, an eligible bachelor. When Mary is murdered and found buried upside down in a plant pot, Agatha seizes the moment to dig up village secrets. But is this wise?

AGATHA RAISIN AND THE QUICHE OF DEATH

When she retires PR boss, Agatha Raisin, follows her dreams and buys a Cotswold cottage. Desperate to fit in she enters a quiche baking competition, but is soon branded as a poisoner when a judge dies after eating her shop bought entry. Unless she can expose the poisoner, Agatha's dream of rural bliss will be at an end.

AGATHA RAISIN AND THE TERRIBLE TOURIST

Agatha Raisin travels to Cyprus in search of her ex-fiancé. There they witness the murder of an obnoxious tourist, instead of enjoying the honeymoon they had planned. Agatha won’t rest until she finds the murderer, and the murderer won’t rest until she’s history.

AGATHA RAISIN AND THE VICIOUS VET

Agatha Raisin has convinced herself that the new village vet is attracted to her, but before romance can blossom he accidentally kills himself! Once more she is forced to be chummier with her neighbour, James Lacey, as they work together to solve the mystery of the vet's death.

AGATHA RAISIN AND THE WALKERS OF DEMBLEY

After six months in London, Agatha Raisin returns to Carsley where she soon has a juicy murder to investigate. Jessica Tartinck has been bludgeoned to death - could this have been done by someone in her walking group, or one of the landlords she has enraged over the years?

AGATHA RAISIN AND THE WELLSPRING OF DEATH

The village of Anscombe is the epitome of rural charm, but the village is divided into two camps with the arrival of a mineral water company. Tongues start to wag when the chairman of the Parish Council is found murdered.

AGATHA RAISIN: A SPOONFUL OF POISON

Agatha is helping out at the church fete, but there's more going on than innocent village fun. Several of the offerings in the jam-tasting booth turn out to be poisoned and the festive entertainment becomes the scene of two murders.

AGATHA RAISIN: AS THE PIG TURNS

Agatha Raisin has arrived with friend and rival in the sleuthing business, Toni, to enjoy a celebratory hog roast at Winter Parva. But as the spit pig is carried towards the bed of fiery charcoal Agatha - and the rest of the village - realise that things aren't as they seem....

AGATHA RAISIN: HISS AND HERS

Agatha has fallen in love - again. This time it's the local gardener, George Marston. But when George goes missing, Agatha goes looking for him - and finds he has been murdered, having been bitten by a poisonous snake and buried in a compost heap!

AGATHA RAISIN: SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMEONE DEAD

Gloria French is at first welcomed in the Cotswold village of Piddlebury. She seems like a do-gooder par excellence, raising funds for the church and caring for the elderly. But she has a bad habit of borrowing things and not giving them back, so when she is discovered dead, poisoned by a bottle of elderberry wine, folk in the village don't mourn her passing too intently. Parish councillor Jerry Tarrant hires Agatha Raisin to track down the murderer. But the village is creepy and secretive and the residents don't seem to want Agatha to succeed.

AGATHA RAISIN: THERE GOES THE BRIDE

When the bride of her former husband is murdered on their wedding day, Agatha is under suspicion - but then the dead bride's mother engages Agatha to take on the case. Soon Agatha's own life is in danger.

BEATING ABOUT THE BUSH

Private Detective Agatha Raisin returns for her 30th mystery. She is employed to investigate a case of industrial espionage at a factory where nothing is quite what it seems. The factory mystery soon turns to murder and a bad-tempered donkey turns Agatha into a national celebrity, before bringing her ridicule and shame. To add to her woes, Agatha finds herself grappling with growing feelings for her friend and occasional lover, Sir Charles Fraith. As a possible solution to the factory murder unfolds, her own life is thrown into deadly peril.

BELINDA GOES TO BATH

No sooner does Miss Pym board her next stagecoach, than she finds herself embroiled in the plight of Miss Belinda Earle, a spirited heiress banished to Bath. When the coach founders near Baddell Castle, and the dashing Marquis of Frenton comes to the rescue, Miss Pym decides to give fate a hand.

DEATH OF A CAD

Everyone, except love-struck Hamish Macbeth, is delighted when Priscilla Halburton-Smythe brings her fiancé home to Lochdubh for an engagement party. When a party guest is murdered Hamish soon has other things to occupy his mind.

DEATH OF A CELEBRITY

In the seeming quiet of the Highlands many secrets are hidden, and when a TV star attempts to further her career by exposing them she becomes the most hated woman around. When she is found dead, Hamish Macbeth has to discover who the murderer is.

DEATH OF A GENTLE LADY

Everyone in the sleepy Scottish town of Lochdubh adores elderly Mrs Gentle. When she dies in mysterious circumstances, the town is shocked and outraged. Hamish Macbeth begins investigating the truth behind this lady's gentle exterior.

DEATH OF A PERFECT WIFE

Hamish Macbeth is having a miserable summer. His beloved Priscilla Halburton-Smythe returns to Lochdubh with a new fiancé, a cloud of midges descends on the town and a paragon of housewifely perfection moves into the area. When she is mysteriously poisoned Macbeth is called in.

DEATH OF A SNOB

PC Hamish Macbeth is enjoying a holiday at a health farm on the Isle of Eileencraig, when one of the guests is found dead at the foot of a cliff. Who pushed her, and why?

DECEPTION

Attempting to win back the family estate that had been gambled away by their father, twins Abagail and Rachel Beverley learn a lesson about love when Abagail sets her sights on Harry Devers and sees his true colors.

EMILY GOES TO EXETER

A dead employer's legacy of £5000 allows spinster Hannah Pym to resign from housekeeping and find adventure travelling the English countryside by stagecoach. But adventure soon finds Miss Pym in the form of Miss Emily Freemantle, a spoilt violet-eyed beauty fleeing an arranged marriage to a rake she has never met.

ENLIGHTENING DELILAH

Stunningly beautiful, the dazzling Delilah has had plenty of marriage proposals. But having once been spurned by Sir Charles Digby, the only man she has ever loved, she is now a hardened heartbreaker who toys with all her suitors. And so it is up to the eccentric Tribble sisters to teach her the meaning of true love again.

FINESSING CLARISSA

Wealthy and well bred, Clarissa Vevian has been unable to find a suitable husband because of her terrible clumsiness. Her mother has tried to mould Clarissa into a dainty miss - but all her efforts are doomed to failure. And when Clarissa enters the Tribble sister's School for Manners, they fear that their reputation for matchmaking success may be destroyed - along with their carpets and furniture!

FOLLY

The haughty Beverley family is obsessed with regaining Mannerling, the exquisite 17th-century mansion gambled away by their now-deceased father, Sir Beverley. Three of the six Beverley daughters have failed to win back their ancestral estate - settling for love matches over mere bricks and mortar. Now it is Rachel's turn to woo the latest eligible bachelor-in-residence, handsome widower Charles Blackwood. Yet her plan to win the autocratic Charles almost comes to naught: At their first meeting, Rachel forgets herself and admonishes Charles for neglecting his two small children. The antics of young Beth and Mark Blackwood successfully throw Charles and Rachel together, but does Rachel love Charles for himself or for Mannerling?

HASTY DEATH

Longing for a life of emancipation, Lady Rose Summer has abandoned the comforts of her parent's house to become self supporting. But when old acquaintance, Freddy Pomfret, is murdered, her help - and upper class connections - are required by amateur sleuth Captain Harry Cathcart. So as Rose and Harry prepare to take on the usual Edwardian social rounds, they uncover a devious blackmail plot and an unexpected killer.

A HIGHLAND CHRISTMAS

In dark, wintry Lochdubh, Christmas Cheer is about as welcome as a flat tyre on a deserted road. The Calvinist element in town has always resisted what they view as secular frivolity, so for most of the townsfolk there'll be no carols, feasting, gifts - or even whisky on Christmas Day! And for PC Hamish Macbeth there's no holiday from crime - he finds himself hunting for a missing cat belonging to a lonely spinster. Curt and unfriendly, the woman is convinced her pet has been stolen but once behind her heavily-bolted door, Hamish can spot her true problem - she lives in fear, though of who or what he cannot guess. Then someone steals a Christmas tree and lights from the nearby village of Cnothan. So it is up to Hamish to sort all these problems out - and he had better do it quickly, for the church bells will soon peal on the eve of Christmas. This one-off standalone story is a special Christmas treat for all fans of Hamish Macbeth and can be read at any point in the ongoing series.

HOT TO TROT

Private Detective Agatha Raisin immerses herself in the glittering lifestyle of the fabulously wealthy when Sir Charles Fraith is accused of murder - and Agatha is named as his accomplice! A high-society wedding, a glitzy masked ball, and an introduction to the world of international show-jumping where the riders are glamorous, the horses are beautiful, and intrigue runs deep, leave Agatha with a list of suspects as long as a stallion's tail.

INTRIGUE

Mannerling, the splendid family estate gambled away by Sir Beverley, remains the passion of his daughters. Beverley himself has died; the eldest daughter, Isabella - having failed in her bid to reclaim the family home - is blissfully wed. The mantle of saviour now falls to the next eldest daughter, Jessica and as scandal and intrigue swirl around her, Jessica must discover where the heart finds true happiness. . . .

LADY FORTESCUE STEPS OUT

Tired of being a poor relation to England's upper crust, Lady Fortescue persuades the equally down-and-out Colonel Sandhurst to help her open a posh hotel. The establishment is an immediate hit with London's most illustrious citizens, save the Duke of Rowcester, Lady Fortescue's nephew. He believes that his aunt's entry into the trade will denigrate their family name, and is determined to shut the hotel down.

LADY MARGERY'S INTRIGUE

At age 23, Lady Margery has graced the rows of wallflowers for many a season. When her father is forced into bankruptcy by his child-bride's lust for luxury, Margery launches an all-out, military-like campaign to ensnare herself a wealthy husband and save her ancestral family home. Everything seems to be going according to plan until an unforeseen intervention sabotages Margery's plan, giving her a run for her money.

THE MARQUIS TAKES A BRIDE

Miss Jennie Bemyss was in a position that any intelligent young lady would envy. The wealthy Marquis of Charrington has proposed a marriage of convenience, and the handsome Guy Chalmers, whom she has loved since childhood, proposed to aid her in enjoying her freedom to the fullest. Why, then, did she feel so confused?

MARRYING HARRIET

Miss Harriet Brown, daughter of a Methodist minister, is the embodiment of propriety and Christian charity. The virtues Harriet possesses are far from fashionable but the Tribble sisters feel confident their new charge will attract a worthy vicar or two before the end of the season - if first they can vanquish confirmed rake and gambler Lord Charles Marsham who seems perversely determined to woo Harriet!

OUR LADY OF PAIN

Lady Rose Summer prides herself on not being a jealous woman and she knows her engagement to Captain Harry Cathcart is only a ruse to keep her parents from shipping her off to India to find a husband. But then Harry's latest client, Dolores Duval starts appearing everywhere at his side. And that changes everything. In a fit of temper Rose threatens Dolores - only to be found the very next day standing over her dead body. Only Harry can clear Rose's name - and to do that he has to put the real murderer behind bars. Book 4 of the Edwardian Murder Mysteries.

PERFECTING FIONA

Fiona has been sent to the School For Manners by her guardians as a last resort, for at nineteen, the beautiful Scottish heiress still has no prospect of a suitable marriage. The Tribble sisters are puzzled, however, by their charge's demure perfection, until they take her to her first ball - and discover she is an incorrigible flirt! And when Fiona betrays her real feelings ... so the sisters are forced to confront the truth about her past!

REFINING FELICITY

When Amy and Effie Tribble, two charming but impoverished spinster sisters, lose out on an inheritance, they decide to hire themselves out as professional chaperones, vowing to prepare even the most difficult misses for marriage. But Felicity Baronsheath, their first assignment, turns out to be more of a challenge than they could have ever imagined, and the Tribbles begin to fear that her season - and their new business venture - will end in disaster.

SICK OF SHADOWS

It would seem that even a pretend engagement cannot keep Lady Rose Summer from trouble. She befriends Dolly Tremaine, a beautiful young girl newly arrived from the country and overwhelmed by the demands of the Season. Their friendship is cut tragically short, however, when Dolly is found dead in the river. Rose immediately summons her fiance, Captain Harry Cathcart, to help solve the mystery of Dolly's death.

SNOBBERY WITH VIOLENCE

Lady Rose Summers' debut season is a disaster. Her father believes that her fiance is a complete scoundrel and asks Captain Harry Cathcart to investigate. After the suspicious death of a malicious guest Rose is much more interested in working with Harry to discover the truth, than landing a more appropriate suitor.

THE WESTERBY INHERITANCE

Lady Jane Lovelace has conceived the idea of approaching the most notorious man about town, Lord Charles Welbourne, with a most unique proposition. But when he counters her offer with a condition that he thinks will halt her impudence, much to the surprise of both, she accepts. The Westerby Inheritance is set against a backdrop of elegant eighteenth century society.