M.C. Beaton- Death of a Dreamer & Death of a Poison Pen

I have always enjoyed M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series.
I'd never read any of her Hamish Macbeth books because I had a picture in my mind of a stuffy older man (sort of like Raymond Burr in the newer Perry Mason movies). It didn't appeal to me.


I finally decided to give Hamish a chance.
He's totally different than the image I had in my head.
He's a 30-something, thin, red-headed Scottish man.

This book was enjoyable, but not very suspenseful.

From Amazon.com:
Macbeth, constable in the Highlands village of Lochdubh, thinks the apparent suicide of Effie Garrard, an artist who's arrived in town only recently, is suspicious. Following the murder of a nosy American tourist, Macbeth digs a little deeper and learns that Effie couldn't paint to, er, save her life—she was passing off another artist's work as her own. Macbeth's personal life is also consuming: two old flames turn up in Lochdubh within a few days of each other. Of course, Macbeth solves what turns out to be a double murder—but resolution of his romantic contretemps will have to wait for the next novel in this charming series

Click on the book to read more Amazon reviews of this book.


Death of a Poison Pen was the second Hamish Macbeth book I read.

This one was better than the first.

From Amazon:
Poison pen letters have been appearing all over the Scottish Highlands town of Braikie–and then a spate of murders and suicides ensues. Hamish Macbeth, the local constable of a nearby village, must get to the bottom of things without drawing too much attention to himself. If he sorts out another local mystery, he risks being promoted, and that would take him away from all that he loves in sleepy Lochdubh. As the Highlands' weather veers wildly from one extreme to another, Hamish dodges pesky superior officers and follows his own paths among the people he understands better than any outsider can. The place has no shortage of eccentrics but most of Lochdubh's regulars take a back seat to several 20-somethings who become an integral part of the story as it develops. They include a vacationer from London with dangerously poor judgment; an enterprising local reporter as unconventional as Hamish himself; another reporter, a caddish but "charming Irishman"; a bullied young secretary at the local school; and away in London, but never far from Hamish's mind, his star-crossed soul mate.


Total books read in 2007: 29 (not very impressive, but I hope to remedy that soon :-))