Customer Reviews

Death of a Village: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the nineteenth book in a series of cozy mysteries featuring lovable Highlander, Hamish Macbeth, in charge of law and order in the village of Lochdubh and its environs in the north of Scotland. As always, the book is laced with sly humor throughout that is engaging, and the dialogue creates a feeling of authenticity of place, making the book highly enjoyable. One does not read these books for their literary value. One reads them purely for the fun of it.

This time, Hamish is called to the isolated village of Storye, where something is just not quite right, as the normally god fearing, Calvinist population has seemingly taken fear of the Almighty to new heights, and are now seemingly fearful of everything. Just what is going on in Storye? Well, that is what Hamish tries to discover, that is, when he is not daydreaming about his ex-fiancée Priscilla, who is now engaged to be married to someone else, or sparring with local news reporter Elspeth Grant, who seems to have taken a shine to our local constable.

As with all cozy mysteries, it is not so much the mystery that is of import but the characters that revolve around the mystery, and the characters are certainly quirky and entertaining, adding to the charm of the series. With the oddly endearing Hamish Macbeth, the author has created a character that is a winner. I love this series of cozy mysteries!

Death of a Village has to be the most intriguing title in the Hamish Macbeth series. In all of the other titles, there's a reference to a death of a single person . . . who can be spotted in the first few pages of the book. In this case, you'll have a strong suspicion which village is doomed . . . but you won't know what's coming until it happens.

Normally, Hamish Macbeth manages to solve one major crime during the course of a book. Well, in Death of a Village, Hamish is a positive crime-stopping superman . . . with a little help from his friends.

The book opens in an odd fashion: Hamish makes a rare visit to off-the-beaten-path Stoyre and finds a curious quiet and reticence in the town. But he's even more amazed to find that the church is full for services during the day on a Monday. That's some religious revival!

Intrigued by the change, Hamish recruits local reporter, horoscope writer, and frustrated Hamish-chaser, Elspeth Grant, to help him find out what's going on. Nosing around and taking in Sunday services reveals nothing out of the ordinary . . . except to confirm the curious quiet and reticence that Hamish spotted on the first visit. But, before long, there's a surprise in Stoyre. Hamish eventually decides to take a holiday and spend it in Stoyre to get the lay of the land.

His concern is quickly distracted by a break-in at the grocery in Braikie, where all the wine and spirits have been taken. But Hamish senses that something funny is going on. Using his initiative, Hamish checks out the records of the grocer's supplier and makes several surprising finds. But the success backfires when Hamish adds to his local reputation as a woman chaser.

Before the first case is done, he gets a call from a frightened Bella Comyn and her fear of her husband. Pretty soon, the husband is missing and Hamish is puzzled by odds and ends of the case. Sleuthing again leads to unexpected evidence.

A visit to a Lochdubh widow, Mrs. Annie Docherty, leads Hamish to hear a surprising accusation which he decides to investigate with Mrs. Docherty's help. It quickly becomes curiouser and curiouser.

Through all of these investigations, Hamish achieves successes that are quite impressive. Once again, promotion threatens and Hamish has to pull out all the stops to derail being uprooted from his beloved Lochdubh.

M. C. Beaton packed enough mysteries and action into this story to make three regular Hamish Macbeth stories.

If you like Hamish Macbeth, you'll love Death of a Village.

Highly recommended.

MC Beaton pens another winner with "Death of a Village". No one can write a village mystery like her, and her Hamish is a wonderful character. I like him more each time out. In this book Hamish is on a winning crusade against crime in his patch. He cracks open a fraud ring, a nursing home scam, saves a little girl's life in a catastropic flood and uncovers a salvaging ring that is stripping a German submarine from World War II that had been downed somewhere near the village of Storye which is a village on his patch. Usually nothing much goes on in Storye, but when Hamish makes a routine visit there, he finds that the villagers are secretive and scared. He and his young reporter friend Elspeth try to determine what is going on in the tiny village. Hamish is hard pressed to keep his good deeds "off the radar screen" so to speak because the last thing he wants is promotion to a larger police station. The only thing I'm sad about after reading this book is that I have only one left to read in this long-running series. The series has been a total delight!

Scottish police constable Hamish Macbeth likes his life and dreads the idea of a promotion. If only he could get his love-life under control, he thinks things would be about perfect. But Hamish can't help offending pretty reporter Elspeth Grant and can't get over being abandoned by his ex-fiance. Besides, his dog can't stand the idea of a woman moving in with him. Instead, Hamish solves mysteries. Even in the Scottish Highlands, crime does take place--including insurance fraud and spousal abuse. But Hamish's police instincts are most intrigued by a small village which seems to have no crime at all--and be suffering from a religious revival. Something odd is happening and the always taciturn residents are being even more closed-mouthed than usual.

The rest of the police force is hopeless and Hamish ends up being a one-man crime buster, assisted by the beautiful Elspeth and a pair of aging sleuths.

Author M. C. Beaton creates a charming character in Hamish Macbeth and a properly cozy world of small crimes and mostly cheery people with deep Scottish accents and deep Scottish accents. Hamish can be annoying--both to Elspeth and the reader--by his judgemental attitude and his thoughtlessness to Elspeth's feelings, but Beaton's stories are strongly written and intriguing.

In DEATH OF A VILLAGE, more than in some of the other Macbeth stories, Hamish seems to be going through the motions--his emotions don't feel quite real. Still, while this may not be the best of the series, it is a well written and enjoyable story.

I thought that this latest installment of the Hamish Macbeth series is far better than the last few. Finally Hamish is starting to stop wallowing over Priscilla Halliburton Smythe (a character that became less interesting in each progressing installment)and has found new interest with the local astrologer/mystic/psychic/whateveryouwanttocallher Elspeth. She seems to be much more abitious than Priscilla and much more suited to Hamish. Another plus in this book is that the majority of action takes place outside of Lochdubh. The inhabitants of Lochdubh are wonderful but sometimes their quirks can be a bit stiffling, so these new characters were a welcome change of pace.

This is the nineteenth (not eighteenth, you must include A Highland Christmas) in a series of mysteries featuring the detective work of small town, Highland Scottish detective Hamish Macbeth, P.C. In this book, Hamish must work overtime to avoid a promotion out of his beloved Lochdubh. But, that is not all of his problems. During a recent visit to the tiny village of Storye, he finds that the people there are acting quite strange, as if some sort of religious mania has gripped them. When the situation there turns dangerous and then deadly, Hamish knows he must get to the bottom of whatever it is that is going on.

This is another homerun for M.C. Beaton (pseudonym of Marion Chesney)! This story is every bit as good (excellent) as the other Hamish books, and makes for some gripping reading. Somehow, the author succeeds in making the Hamish Macbeth stories swing effortlessly between lighthearted humor to deadly mystery, all without losing the seeming reality of the story.

The characters in this story are likable and interesting, the story is gripping and entertaining, and the mystery quite fascinating. I think that this is a great book, one that you should consider buying!

The eighteenth book in the Hamish Macbeth series was not so much a mystery but a compilation of several little mysteries in the daily routine of Hamish Macbeth. It was a good book for light reading as Hamish is very likeable character.

While Hamish solves these little mysteries, such as the husband batterer and the nursing home scandal, but his attention keeps getting drawn back to the village of Stoyre where strange happenings are occurring to the townpeople. Is this village truly haunted, or is it something else more sinister? It is up to Hamish, but not so much as to draw attention to his heroics - because then he might get promoted.

Hamish wants to stay in Lochdubh with his dog, Lugs. He definitely does not want to be promoted in any way.

How he does solve the mystery of Stoyre, and how he gets non-promoted makes for a delightful book for all Hamish MacBeth. A great light read!

I read the book and came to the conclusion that she has gone Hollywood. Then I read the flap note that mentions a BBC series.

Gone Hollywood: written in short episodes for readers with a short attention span; lots of ready-to-film violent scenes with little characterization or connecting plot; plenty of stuff for the special effects people; mean and nasty in tone; way too many murders for the locality; little charm or local color; anti-religious and anti-rural cliches; hero of infinite strength and endurance; and of course, a major role for a girl with a bare midriff.

In other words, Superman transported to the Highlands with less sex.

Hard on the reader -- several sympathetic characters are needlessly killed or seriously injured. A little more work on the plot could have avoided that.

Read an earlier one in the series -- or read "Evans Above" by Rhys Bowen.

Constable Hamish MacBeth, a man thought of by many as unambitious, senses that secrets are swirling about him.

With his ear to the ground and the calm devotion of his dog, Lugs, he sets out to determine why the nearby city of Stoyre has taken on an odd hue. Even the professed resurgence of religion has MacBeth wondering what the small town is hiding, and he is determined to follow the trail until he has all of the answers.

Along the way, he's haunted by an old love and enticed by Elspeth Grant, a pretty but sassy reporter. He's also invested in a murder at a nursing home and the possibility of spousal abuse under another roof. MacBeth, in his own quirky way, follows the truth until the mysteries are explained.

Did television fame change Hamish? Or did it change the nature of his creator's storytelling about him? In any case, it seems to me that this book is more a collection of scripts they decided not to use in the TV series than a single, unified mystery. The stories fit together well enough, but no single story pulls the book through its beginning, middle, and end.

Still, I like Hamish and M.C. Beaton always seems to get the dialog just right. The sentimental bits about Lugs the dog have a humorous undertone (is Lugs actually jealous of the new woman on the scene?) and the gossipy aspects of village life play fresh and funny again.

It's tricky for a book serial to outlive its television counterpart, I think, especially when the television finale wrapped up so many loose ends. Maybe when we're all a little further away from BBC Lochdubh, it'll be possible for Hamish to return to the ordinarily extraordinary business of life as a village constable.