Bestselling Secondhand Books of 2006

The queen of secondhand book sales on AbeBooks.co.uk is not JK Rowling but Marion Chesney, better known as MC Beaton, who created the Agatha Raisin series of Cotswold-based mysteries. Although Summoned by Bells by poet John Betjeman - born 100 years ago - tops the list, 10 Agatha Raisin books feature in the top 50. Raisin, played by Penelope Keith in BBC Radio 4’s recent adaptations, is a pushy middle-aged, middle-class PR executive who becomes entangled in murder mysteries. Seventeen Agatha Raisin books have been published since 1992, including the memorably named Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death and also Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet. Ex-journalist Chesney, who was born in Glasgow and lives in the Cotswolds, has also written the Hamish Macbeth novels as well as dozens of historical romances under a variety of pen names.

[More from the AbeBooks Year in Review]

1. Summoned by Bells

John Betjeman
Blank verse autobiography published in 1960

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2. 1984

George Orwell
Big Brother Debuts in 1949

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3. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (Various Editions)

The sport's annual bible since 1864

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4. The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown
2003's Holy Grail mega-seller

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5. I Leap Over the Wall

Monica Baldwin
A memoir of a nun departing a convent from 1950

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6. Agatha Raisin and the Case of the Curious Curate

M.C. Beaton
A new man is in town

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7. Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House

MC Beaton
Agatha-turned-Ghostbuster

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8. Beautiful Child

Torey Hayden
Experiences of a special education teacher from 2002

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9. Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death

MC Beaton
Something nasty is in the well

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10. In Cold Blood

Truman Capote
Investigation of multiple murders published in 1965

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11. Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came By, MC Beaton
12. The Cosmic Ordering Service, Barbel Mohr
13. Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden, MC Beaton
14. Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam, MC Beaton
15. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
16. The King Must Die, Mary Renault
17. Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl
18. Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham, MC Beaton
19. Life and Fate, Vasily Grossman
20. Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Michael Baigent
21. The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, TE Lawrence
22. The Man with the Golden Gun, Ian Fleming
23. Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
24. Songs of the Humpback Whale, Jodi Picoult
25. The Skilled Helper, Gerald Egan
26. Victor Book for Boys (various editions)
27. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry
28. Second Glance, Jodi Picoult
29. Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist, MC Beaton
30. Getting Things Done, David Allen

31. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
32. A Pictoral Guide to the Lakeland Fells (various editions), Alfred Wainwright
33. Models of the Church, Avery Dulles
34. Harvesting the Heart, Jodi Picoult
35. Eragon, Christopher Paolini
36. A History of Architecture, Sir Banister Fletcher
37. On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Ian Fleming
38. Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley, MC Beaton
39. Power of Silence, Carlos Castaneda
40. Dissolution, CJ Sansom
41. Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage, MC Beaton
42. Familiar Wild Flowers, Edward F. Hulme
43. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, JK Rowling
44. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
45. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
46. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
47. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
48. The Guinness Book of Records (various editions)
49. The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles
50. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh