Customer Reviews

Death of a Celebrity (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries, No. 18)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Death descends into the quiet highland village of Lochdubh once again when a muckraking t.v. presenter is found dead in her car just outside of town. It looks like a suicide but police constable Hamish Macbeth thinks differently and sets off to prove otherwise. Nothing comes easy in the highlands, though, and the more he digs into the crime, the more he discovers that many people had motive to murder....

This book is the quintessential Hamish Macbeth: sharp, witty, brooding, and oh-so-unlucky at love. Beaton offers up the most well-rounded Macbeth mystery ever, propelling her quirky (but nicely defined) characters along a briskly paced plot that's as warm as a wee dram o' whiskey.

This is the eighteenth in a series of mysteries featuring the detective work of small town, Highland Scottish detective Hamish Macbeth, P.C. When a television star attempts to make a career by exposing all of the secrets hidden in the quiet Highlands, she quickly becomes the most hated woman around. And when she turns up murdered, it's up to Hamish Macbeth to find who the murderer is. But, this is no simple case; suspects abound, and Hamish finds that he is getting the unwanted help of the local newspaper's astrologer! Can Hamish unravel this particularly tough knot? You bet!

I now consider myself something of a Hamish fan (thanks to my loving wife), and I must say that I deeply enjoyed this book. As with all of the other Hamish Macbeth books, I enjoyed the stories, the setting and the interesting characters. I wasn't totally thrilled with the inclusion of a psychic character, but it didn't ruin the story for me. Overall, I thought that this is a great book, and I highly recommend it to you.

An expose style TV program is threatening the peace of the highlands. The presenter is making a career of raking up old scandals and embarassing the residents of the area. One day the woman is found dead, an apparent suicide, but Hamish MacBeth does not think so. The CID in Strathbane as usual, have no idea where to start and Hamish and his new friend Elspeth decide to investigate.

This is a good addition to the series. Elspeth is a welcome new character as is Carson. I was getting tired of everyone treating MacBeth like the village idiot and himself without a backbone. A very good and fast read.

An imminent Texas book critic has called M.C. Beaton the "Barbara Cartland" of police procedurals, if not in quantity in formula! That said, of course, readers of Beaton's Hamish Macbeth series will once again welcome her newest addition, "Death of a Celebrity," the 18th episode about her affable and honest constable from the
affable yet murderous village of Lochdubh somewhere in the Scottish Highlands.

To call "Death of a Celebrity" a "Scottish fling" would be a bad pun, but still. Once again, an outsider has come to the fair village, this time in the role of an irritating local television host who revels in making people miserable. Insufferable herself, TV "star" Crystal French sets about offending yea and nay, giving just about everyone but the Archbishop in Edinburgh a motive for killing her. In true Beaton style (and by page 30), we have our corpse.

Enter our Hamish, still a-fretting about his long lost love Priscilla Halburton-Smythe who's just announced her impending marriage to another, who quickly lines up "all the usual suspects." Thus, Beaton treats us to another littany of local characters, many of whom we've met in previous episodes (after all Lochdubh is a small village!).

Thus, working alone, working with a new boss, and working with a new romantic interest, Macbeth bounces here and there and eventually it is his insight, his perseverance, his knowledge of human nature that lead him, inevitably, to the solution

No surprises here, of course, and perhaps the Beaton followers (and I'm one of them) don't want or expect anything else. A P.D. James or Ruth Rendell she is not; but her fans don't confuse her with those two. They love her as she is.

If you want predictability and you do not wish to have to think about solving the case, any and all of the Hamish Macbeth books are for you. They're fun to read.

"Death of a Celebrity" is a great diversion. Sure there are murders, but the victims really deserve what they got. The mystery is in who among the many candidates for murderer is the one.

There is satisfaction of being in a different place with other people having problems instead of you. The reader has her own mysteries, such as who in the town has secrets; how are they connected with each other; why is Hamish so opposed to being promoted and when in the world will he quit obsessing over past love and see who is next to him; and finally why does he wash his boss's
underwear.

Will I read the next one--yes indeed, the next time I want to escape my own intrigues.

This is the eighteenth 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. 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.

As always, the author kills off a thoroughly unlikable character. This time, the deceased is an ambitious tabloid TV news reporter who had a personal beef with Hamish after he stopped her for speeding. The deceased had also been hell bent on exposing highland village scandals for her muckraking television segments in hopes of a ratings boost, a fact that did not sit well with many of the locals. Moreover, the deceased also had professional and personal issues with those with whom she worked. So, suspects abound, as Hamish, once again, tries to separate the wheat from the chaff and come up with the murderer.

While trying to figure out just who the murderer is, Hamish is assisted by Elspeth Grant, who writes the horoscope column for the local newspaper and is clearly interested in Hamish, though he is still trying to get over his breakup with the coolly beautiful and patrician Priscilla Halburton-Smythe. 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!

This is honestly one of my very favourite series, and each book is just as enjoyable as the last. I'm only sad that I'm getting to the end of the series, and hope that M.C. Beaton continues to write for a good long while yet. Hamish is a wonderful character and the eccentric people in his little village of Lochdubh are so real, that it seems they are actually real people. In this book we meet two new characters that I hope to see more of - Elspeth, who seems to be a wonderful romantic interest for the died-in-the-wool Bachelor, Hamish and Inspector Carson who takes the place of the odious Blair when murder of famous television celebrities occurs in and around Lochdubh. Again Hamish is thrown into a murder investigation in his quiet little village, and before he, Elspeth and Carson can solve it a few more deaths occur. For anyone who likes their mysteries cozy, with a definite wicked comic appeal, you cannot go wrong with Hamish Macbeth.

Death of a Celebrity, by M.C. Beaton is another great offering to all the Hamish fans out there. This simple, well written series has brought a lot of reading enjoyment to many people out there over the years, and this addition only adds to that enjoyment.

Our redheaded constable in Lochdubh finds himself faced with another of Beaton's truly obnoxious characters, this time in the form of a very nasty T.V. personality who is starting a new show featuring MacBeth's little corner of the Highlands. A nasty, aggressive reporter with few morals, and an eye for married men! The premise of the T.V. show will be digging up dirty little stories of locals, doing a feature on them, and then releasing it to National T.V. Needless to say this young ambitious lady is not going to last long! Also, needless to say, there are no end of suspects, Hamish included, who would love to see her dead!

Of course, I am sorry to report, that Hamish is still fretting and moping over his one true and lost love, Priscilla, as she is about to get married to another, but ah, there is a new girl in town! A local reporter with psychic abilities; part gypsy, part liberated woman, bright, a great looker, intelligent, and indeed, as with most of the women in Scotland, she has her eyes set on the eternal bachelor. It that were not enough, he still has the problem of being promoted and the problem of how to get out of that promotion! We still have many of the wacky and eccentric characters we have met before, along with several new ones, which I hope, we see more of in future books.

Of course there is the first murder and the inevitable second one, but we have several nice, although not as serious, crimes thrown in here and there throughout. In addition to crime solving, Hamish is able to make a complete mess out of his love life, per usual...this poor guy just does not have a clue! Lugs, his faithful dog, is still lugs but has some new found freedoms in this story, which he takes full advantage of.

This is another enjoy able, smooth read, not all that complicated, but well done. As with previous novels, the author is again able to say more in one sentence than many writers can in a full chapter. Quirky, simple little mysteries..yes, but thoroughly enjoyable!

The little Scottish village of Lochdubh has been discovered. A beautiful and ambitious TV reporter by the name of Crystal French has decided to do a show about the village. The show, supposedly about village life, is really just going to focus on old scandals that certain people thought that they had lived down. The residents are angry and Constable Hamish Macbeth is also upset because he knows that many innocent people will suffer because of the nasty news reporter dragging up hurtful information.

A pretty new town resident, Elspeth Grant has taken more than an interest in Hamish, but he's still moping over his lost love, Priscilla. When a murder takes place, Constable Macbeth pulls himself together to track down the killer. As usual, the Strathbane police authorities advise Hamish to keep out of the murder investigation, but obsessed with his own theories, he stays in the middle of it all. When a second murder occurs, Hamish is committed to finding the killer.

These light, but charming Harmish Macbeth mysteries are always fun to read.

I miss the radiant Priscilla. She had an intelligence that complemented Hamish and his intuition. Please don't dump her.
I enjoyed the play of minds in previous books. Here the case is not solved by reasoning or flashes of insight, but by mysticism.
Carson is a nice addition. I see a plot brewing to snatch Hamish from Lochdubh.