New York Times bestseller M. C. Beaton's cranky, crafty Agatha Raisin―now the star of a hit T.V. show―is back on the case again in The Dead Ringer . The idyllic Cotswolds village of Thirk Magna is best known for the medieval church of St. Ethelred and its bells, which are the pride and glory of the whole community. As the bell-ringers get ready for the visit of the dashing Bishop Peter Salver-Hinkley, the whole village is thrown into a frenzy. Meanwhile, Agatha convinces one of the bell-ringers, the charming lawyer Julian Brody, to hire her to investigate the mystery of the Bishop’s ex-fiancée: a local heiress, Jennifer Toynby, who went missing years ago and whose body was never found... Meanwhile, the bodies in the village just keep on piling up: the corpse of Larry Jensen, a local policeman, is discovered in the crypt. Millicent Dupin, one of a pair of bell-ringing identical twins, is murdered near the church. And Terry Fletcher, a journalist and (briefly) Agatha’s lover, is found dead in her sitting room! Agatha widens her investigation and very soon her main suspect is the handsome Bishop himself. But could he really be behind this series of violent killings, or is it someone who wants to bring him―and his reputation―down? " Full of perfectly pitched interest, intrigue, and charm.” ―Lee Child "Beaton is a very canny cozy writer...very satisfying on setting....This series never loses its appeal." ― Booklist "Agatha is in top form in bestseller Beaton's twenty-seventh mystery....A twisty plot, a familiar cast of eccentric characters, and a charming English country setting mean that lovers of cozy mysteries will be satisfied indeed." ― Publishers Weekly on Pushing Up Daisies "Once you meet Agatha Raisin, you'll keep coming back." ― New York Journal of Books "M.C. Beaton has a foolproof plot for the village mystery." ― The New York Times Book Review "Beaton has a winner in the irrepressible, romance-hungry Agatha." ― Chicago Sun-Times "Beaton's Agatha Raisin series just about defines the British cozy." ― Booklist M. C. Beaton (1936-2019), the “Queen of Crime” ( The Globe and Mail ), was the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Agatha Raisin novels -- the basis for the hit series on Acorn TV and public television -- as well as the Hamish Macbeth series and the Edwardian Murder Mysteries featuring Lady Rose Summer. Born in Scotland, she started her career writing historical romances under several pseudonyms and her maiden name, Marion Chesney. In 2006, M.C. was the British guest of honor at Bouchercon. The Dead Ringer An Agatha Raisin Mystery By M. C. Beaton St. Martin's Press Copyright © 2018 M. C. Beaton All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-250-15769-0 CHAPTER 1 Cotswolds in the English Midlands are rated as a beauty spot. They are reckoned to be the only beauty spot made by man, the attraction lying in their gardens and thatched cottages. Busloads of tourists are taken to Stow-on-the-Wold, The Slaughters, and places like Bourtonon-the-Water to look at other tourists scrambling for places in tea shops, not realising that there are a great number of pretty villages off the beaten track. Such was the village of Thirk Magna. The residents were proud of the fact that few tourists ever sullied the quiet of their rural village, even though the pride of the village, the Norman church of St. Ethelred, boasted one of the finest sets of bells in the country. And there were no more dedicated ringers than Mavis and Millicent Dupin. They were identical twins in their early forties. They dressed alike in twinsets, baggy tweed skirts and brogues. Both had long thin faces and long thin noses. They were very proud of the Dupin nose which they claimed had come over with William the Conqueror. The twins lived in the manor house, a square Georgian building overlooking the duck pond. Their normally placid lives had been thrown into turmoil, for the bishop was to visit and a special peal of bells was to be rung for him. The twins summoned the other six bell ringers to their home to decide on a special peal. The six were normally united in their dislike of the twins and their passionate love of campanology, although some had joined the troupe for other reasons and subsequently found out that they had developed a love for bell ringing. They shuffled into the drawing room of the manor house and waited while Mavis wheeled in a trolley laden with tea and cakes and her sister, Millicent, began to hand round napkins. Helen Toms, the vicar's wife, hated those napkins, for they were double damask and embroidered in one corner with the twins' initials. Somehow, Helen always managed to spill a little tea on one of those precious napkins and Millicent would snatch it from her, making distressed clucking sounds, like a hen about to lay. Helen with her wings of dark hair and her clear complexion would have been attractive had she not been so edgy and nervous. Because of inverted snob