Death of a Celebrity

December 17, 2001
For readers who prefer their whodunits more cute than action-packed, Beaton delivers the 17th installment in his constable Hamish Macbeth series (after 2001's Death of a Dustman). Stodgy "town bobby" Hamish protects and serves the quaint Scottish highlands village of Lochdubh—which sees a lot of crime for a one-horse town—and outwits the Strathbane big-city police in this story of multiple murders and TV ratings. Seeking better numbers and national notice, the local station hires the glamorous and catty Crystal French, who presents some very nasty programs about what really
goes on in a highland village. Needless to say, this doesn't please the local folk, and soon enough, Crystal is found murdered. Suspicion vacillates between the townspeople and the television people (including the woman whose job Crystal had taken), who have quite a few secrets of their own. Hamish sniffs around and formulates theories ("It's because I'm a village constable that I solved your murders for you. I know people better than I know police procedure"), but just when he thinks he's getting somewhere, there's another murder. Things become increasingly complicated, including Hamish's love life: local reporter Elspeth Grant is sweet on Hamish, even if he's too dense to realize it. With teasing epigrams at the start of each chapter, a good dose of Britishisms and light suspense that carries through details both quotidian (Hamish's traffic patrol and his dog Lugs) and faintly exotic (psychics and gypsies), this book is one to be enjoyed with a nice cup of tea and a biscuit. (Jan. 9)FYI:Beaton is also the author of
Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell (Forecasts, Oct. 1) and other titles in the Agatha Raisin series.

December 1, 2001
Constable Hamish Macbeth (Death of a Dustman) has theories about who murdered nosy BBC television reporter Crystal French. Although ordered to drop the case, he can't help but see clues in the local astrology column and elsewhere. A great series.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2001
The seventeenth in Beacon's Death of . . . series, set in the Scottish Highlands north of Inverness, goes down like the finest single malt whisky, leaving a nice gasp and glow in its wake. The glow is from setting, surely; the tiny, perennially embattled village of Lochdubh offers charming views of the Highlands and an insider's take on contemporary Scottish life. And part of the glow comes from Beaton's idiosyncratic village policeman, Hamish Macbeth, whose stubbornness and unorthodox methods make him despised by the Edinburgh police powers, but who always comes through with brilliant deductions. Mostly, the satisfaction the reader gets in these mysteries comes from Beaton's sly send-up of the petri dish of village life: the jealousies, maneuverings, and longstanding grudges that crawl just beneath the civilized surface and bubble up into violence. In the latest, an Edinburgh TV researcher, determined to get on air, comes to Lochdubh to do a series on "Highland Life." Her ambush interviews and sensationalistic exposes of the villagers make her the most unpopular woman in town. When she turns up dead in her BMW, an apparent suicide from an exhaust pipe hookup, only Hamish suspects murder, and he must fight police higher-ups and the TV producers who want the incident hushed up. A new Beaton is a cause for celebration.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)