An Abbot Agency Mystery
9 primary works • 16 total works
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 5
Bea Abbot runs a domestic agency that does not 'do' murder. But the disappearance of Tomi, the star of an award-winning short film, is a different matter, especially when charming but feckless Chris bribes Bea to investigate with a bouquet of flowers.
When Bea - working through personal problems - discovers that Tomi is not the only one amongst his friends to vanish, however, she wonders if her own life might be in danger too . . .
Book 7
Bea Abbot is asked to find the man or woman who laid a booby trap for Sir Lucas Ossett, the powerful head of an international company, in his own block of flats. She finds Sir Lucas's wife in a state of fear, while gossiping elderly ladies cast doubt on the probity of their eclectic neighbours.
Soon it's clear that Sir Lucas's influence reaches out to touch and perhaps corrupt even those nearest to Bea, while trivial incidents escalate into violence - and death.
Book 8
A worried mother calls on widowed Bea Abbot - owner of a domestic agency and intrepid senior sleuth - for help in the eighth book in the Abbot Agency cozy mystery series.
The fake diamond in Dilys Holland's engagement ring implies that all is not well in her marriage, and the Holland family matriarch, Sybil, calls on Bea Abbot for help. Bea soon discovers that Dilys and her little girl live in fear of her abusive husband, a man called Benton with whom Bea has already clashed.
Benton wants Bea to rescue the ailing fortunes of his company, part of the Holland empire, and has no scruples about trying violence on her too when she turns him down. To make matters worse, Bea's Member of Parliament son has tied both his fortune and his marriage to Benton's future and is desperate for Bea to rescue him. Then Dilys tries to commit suicide . . . or does she?
Book 9
An Abbot Agency mystery
Bea Abbot's friend Leon Holland has asked for her help in establishing an alibi. But why would he need one? First, he tells her, he had a narrow escape from being run down in the road, and then he was lured with a mysterious message to a car park to meet someone who didn't turn up.
Matters escalate when two bodies are found in the car park, slumped over their steering wheels, stabbed to death.
Then everything is thrown into chaos as a devastating virus infects the agency's systems. A hidden camera. Hate mail. A nasty practical joke. It's clear that the Abbott Agency has been targeted. But why? And where is it leading?
Bea is about to find herself drawn into a vicious power struggle involving greed, envy, ambition and tangled family relationships.
Book 10
An Abbot Agency mystery
When the party wall dividing the gardens of Bea Abbot and her fiancé Leon collapses, amongst the ensuing chaos a human skeleton is unearthed in Leon's garden. Having only just purchased the property, Leon and Bea set out to discover more about the house's previous owners. Before they can proceed in their investigation however, the pair fall victim to an elaborately-laid trap. With her home, livelihood and the agency under threat, Bea appears to be the subject of a meticulously-planned vendetta. But why? And why is Leon becoming strangely distant?
Book 11
An Abbot Agency mystery
Attending a birthday celebration for two young girls, Bea Abbot tries not to let superstition get the better of her when she realizes they are thirteen at dinner. What she doesn't anticipate is that the evening will end in sudden, violent death.
Suddenly a dining room curtain goes up in flames. While two members of the host family are rushed to hospital, Bea and a fellow guest search for the birthday girls in a house which has been plunged into darkness. And then the chaos begins .
Could the fire have been started deliberately - and were young Bernice and Alicia the intended targets? As Bea investigates, she finds herself drawn into the girls' troubling world: a world rich in money but lacking in love.
An Abbot Agency mystery
Bea Abbot runs a domestic agency that doesn't 'do' murder. There's nothing sinister about charity-worker Zander's request for her to join him on a visit to his former boss Denzil's widow. But Zander had exposed the financial scam Denzil was running - after which Denzil had, unexpectedly, died.
Now the dead man's widow is out for Zander's blood, and the paperwork that proves Denzil's guilt is missing. Denzil's computer could provide the answers, but then another death occurs . . .
An Abbot Agency mystery
While Bea Abbot worries that she's lost control of her domestic agency, she's asked to find some domestic help for an eccentric little musician falsely accused of murder. She doesn't realize how dangerous this might be until Jeremy - fleeing from attempts on his life - lands up on her doorstep.
Researching the gang who'd used an attractive girl to entrap Jeremy, Bea finds traces of them throughout high society . . . Can Bea keep Jeremy - and herself - alive, while all he thinks about is composing a song for pretty, dead Josie?
A brown leather briefcase containing priceless family jewels brings chaos and carnage to Bea's ordered life in the latest lively Abbot Agency mystery.
Looking forward to a peaceful weekend, Bea Abbot's plans are disrupted by the unexpected arrival of one of her clients, bearing a brown leather briefcase full of expensive jewellery. Magda Summerleys has been working as a housekeeper for wealthy art expert Lucas Rycroft who, she says, entrusted her with the briefcase for safekeeping - and who seems to have disappeared without trace.
Drawn into the tangled affairs of the dysfunctional Rycrofts, Bea soon discovers that other members of the family are determined to get their hands on the jewels - by whatever means necessary. Also caught up in the chaos is her ex-husband Piers, who had been commissioned to paint Lucas Rycroft's portrait. Then a body is discovered at Lucas's home .and events begin to spiral out of control.
The mysterious deaths of two adored cats plunges Bea into the disturbing goings-on of the Tredgold family in the latest Abbot Agency mystery.
Wealthy Marcia Tredgold and her daughter, Charlotte, want Bea Abbot to find them replacements for staff who have left under a cloud. Bea discovers that all those dismissed were close to Marcia Tredgold, and senses that something is not right. Were they framed, and if so by whom - and why?
Even more curiously, when Marcia Tredgold gets Bea alone, she asks her to find out who killed her two cats. Bea resists becoming involved in the strange goings-on at the Tredgold mansion, until a shocking event leads her to worry about Marcia's safety. Could the cats' deaths be linked to other disturbing events? And whose account can be trusted in the web of secrets and lies which has been spun around the family? In her quest to uncover the truth, Bea's own safety is put at risk.
Bea Abbot's newly married bliss is short-lived when she is dragged into a deadly game involving a famous actress, theft and murder.
Bea Abbot's husband and talented artist, Piers, is in a state. His morning visit to actress and 'national treasure' Karina's Belgravia home has ended in chaos. An antique necklace and diamond ring have been discovered missing, along with a memory stick storing Karina's highly anticipated memoirs.
Karina's housekeeper, Mrs Hennessey, her ghostwriter, Molly, and Piers himself are all accused of a conspiracy to rob the actress. When it transpires that the three were employed through the Abbot Agency, and some of the missing items are found in Piers' pockets, Bea is dragged into the melee.
But as she investigates, events take a chilling turn . . . Can Bea get to the bottom of the sinister goings-on in time to save Piers' reputation and to catch a killer?
