Customer Reviews

Death of a Chimney Sweep (Hamish Macbeth Mystery)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I have read all but one of M. C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth series. Some were brilliant, some were a little mediocre, and all relied on the charming and idiosyncratic personalities of the village characters.

Sadly, this one was medicore and rather lacking in the series' usual charm. I didn't feel that the village characters were utilized as fully as usual and the plot was rather silly. The body count was reminiscent of a Dirty Harry movie. The story was tied up a little too tidily as punishment rained down upon the villain or villains, (won't give anything away for those who have not read it), in a manner worthy of Biblical wrath.

If you love the Hamish Macbeth series (and I do), by all means, read this book. Just know going in that it's not the best book Ms. Beaton has written. She's capable of better. Here's hoping the next one in the series is less disappointing.

Having read all the books in the Hamish Macbeth series, l was bitterly disappointed by M.C. Beaton's latest offering. It seems to have been written in a hurry with not much thought to plot and with bits being constantly tacked on as an afterthought in the epilogue. A very silly story with no plausability and a high body count. Not one of her usual wonderfully odd village characters were utilised to any great effect and the villians were just shallow creations without even a veneer of description between them.

Instead of churning out a book a year to a formula, Ms Beaton should stop, smell the roses and put a bit more time and thought into the next book in the series.

Isn't it about time Hamish was married off as it is all getting rather boring.???

I have always loved this series. However, some years ago, M. C. Beaton threw in a clinker in the form of DEATH OF AN ADDICT, which had Hamish Macbeth pretending to be an international spy. It was ridiculous, out of character, and veered totally away from the charm of Scottish village life that makes these books so enjoyable. The next few went back to the old formula and I breathed a sigh of relief, but then I read DEATH OF A CHIMNEY SWEEP. Don't bother - the plot is convoluted, has NOTHING to do with the poor dead sweep and by the end of the book I could not have cared less who had done the murder. Maybe something is going on in Beaton's life that caused her to throw in this stinker, but that does not excuse her editor for accepting it. Don't waste your time or money.

The utterly charming Beaton strikes again with the latest in the Police Constable Hamish Macbeth mystery series. In the remote village of Lochdubh in the north of Scotland, the flame-haired bachelor is the bane of his superiors, especially Chief Inspector Blair, who seeks any means of diminishing Macbeth's talents on behalf of those in his jurisdiction. When a macabre murder at the Georgian mansion of Captain Henry Davenport, finds the captain stuffed into the newly-cleaned chimney, the local chimney sweep, Pete Ray is an obvious suspect. Ray is found dead in the moors, his broken motorcycle and sidecar bearing evidence of robbery, all too convenient for the ever-skeptical Hamish, who doesn't believe the itinerant chimney sweep is capable of murder. Investigation suggests Captain Davenport is a man with a penchant for conning gullible victims out of investment funds, his wife, Milly generally overwhelmed by her husband.

Macbeth refuses to accept the robbery/murder, death-by-accident resolution, delving into Davenport's past and those he may have cheated, while Milly finds herself bedeviled by sister-in-law, Philomena, yet another tyrant. As formerly shunned local women gather around Milly in her hour of need, Philomena undertakes some sleuthing on her own, an impetuous act that leaves her literally in fear for her life. Clearly there is more afoot than the authorities are willing to acknowledge; while Hamish avails himself of Detective Jimmy Anderson's resources and the advice of various locals, a more nefarious plot unfolds, an enraged psychopath returning for revenge on the country policemen who thwarts his scheme.

Filled with the eccentric and endearing personalities that people Beaton's Macbeth mysteries, this tale boasts a devious plot by sophisticated killers who underestimate the heart of a rural Scottish village. Idiosyncratic, often foolish, indisputably nosy, Hamish's neighbors are chronically unable to resist the excitement of crime in their midst. Ever-patient, Hamish untangles his constituents' problems and his personal life, juggling the yearning for a love he will never attain and the quasi-attraction of a near-fiancé, reporter Elspeth Grant, his unusual pets more suited to a long-term relationship than the women he fancies. In a scenario of mayhem and murder couched in the delightful ambiance of village life, murder is an anomaly, but Hamish Macbeth is the indisputable, if reluctant star. Luan Gaines/2011.

As much as I loved the early Hamish Macbeth mysteries, this author is on auto-pilot now, and "Death of a Chimney Sweep" is a sad mélange of worn-out gags (Archie's suit, the echo sisters, the overbearing minister's wife), and characters treading in the same old ruts. Why doesn't Beaton just lure Hamish to Reichenbach Falls, push him over the top, and put me out of my misery? I keep hoping for a spark of originality from the dying embers of this series, but Jimmy keeps drinking, Blair keeps howling, Sonsie and Lugs keep putting on weight, and the body count (in lieu of a plot) goes right through the roof.

What are we going to do with an author who kills off her characters like Highlanders swatting midges?

"He seized her by the ankles and thrust her through the window. With a long wailing scream, she fell to her death below."

"There was a dark alcove in the close. Just as she was passing it, she received a smashing blow on the skull. She died instantly..."

Many of the deaths in this book have little to do with plot. They're the post-mortem twitches of what used to be a smart, funny mystery series.

This book is such a mess it is hard to know where to begin discussing its shortcomings.

Maybe an example will help. Patrick McManus, the outdoor writer did a piece on summer reading. He said summer reading includes three things: no ideas, illicit sex, and a shark. This book by M.C. Beaton sort of fits the bill in that it has an abundance of silly plot ideas and a shark (no illicit sex to speak of except as part of Angela's new book--which sounds like a real winner). Yes, a shark. This book is summer reading at its worst.

Let's talk about one staple of Beaton's Highland series: the beauty and charm of the Highlands. In most of her early books she fills her books with an appropriate amount of description that makes the reader feel he/she is in the highlands, riding with Hamish over the mountains and along the lochs. The descriptions in this book feel perfunctory. There is no tangible feeling like one gets in earlier books.

Then there are the characters. In earlier books the characters have some flesh and blood. The Highlander characteristics come out in dialogue, and time is taken to make these oddities part of the story. In this book, the characters are flat. They seem to be useful only for moving the various plots along. What effort there is to make these characters real seems perfunctory also. She is careful to throw in a few of her usual character traits for some kind of consistency, but she tells the reader about the traits rather than showing them.

Then there are the plots. These plots are completely unbelievable. Talk about the application of deus ex machina in order to keep the book flowing and not spend too much time on solving a situation realistically. I love the woman who wants to get her money back in Santiago. She is able to locate the thief, kill the thief, dispose of the thief's body (in an unbelieve manner)in a page and a half with no one getting in her way at all. Well, there are so many similar situations in this book that are solved miraculously. I love the one where Hamish has a pocket taper recorder with him when he is with the bad guys while in disguise. He is able to turn it on and catch the clicks that are being made as a bad guy opens the safe. Later, Hamish is able to use this recording to open the safe. Give me a break!

Ok, the writing. Really the writing is awful. It consists of two declarative sentences per paragraph, for the most part. The dialogue is fakey. The writing and construction of the book are choppy. There is no flow. I can't help wondering if the publishers held a gun to Beaton's head until she cranked out 240 pages per a contract.

This book is awful. There is no other way to say it. And I as I wrap up this review, I am thinking of more problems with the book that I have not even mentioned. I am sad that this fun series has become almost unreadable.

I literally couldnt make heads or tails out
of this book. I have loved most of the
Hamish books but this one (I even feel
embarrassed for him!). All kinds of
killings here and there that it,s hard to
even tie up to each other. I was suprised
at how bad it is.

Far fetched, poorly written, disjointed, disappointing. I've read each book in this series and have found a few to be entertaining, a few to be disappointing and a few in between. There has always been a plot, the setting and those endearing qualities of each character - just as there is always stilted dialogue, unbelievable talents and wooden characters. M C Beaton repeats some things so many times in her books that I often feel she is the queen of cut and paste. I am not looking for a deep intellectual read when I pick up one of her books, simple light entertainment will do. However, this book doesn't even come close to being entertaining. Infuriating is more like it. It is so horrible it defies description. It's as if someone took every thought, every note Beaton ever had for a new Macbeth mystery, put them in a paragraph blender and produced this book. It boggles the mind by sheer absurdity and angers you that you bought it because it was the latest in the series. It trades solely on previous readership and makes you wonder why on earth the publisher agreed to embarrass the author by printing it. Then you wonder why you are wasting your time reading it, you hope it will get better, and while it doesn't, it does mercifully end.

OK, you know from my review's title that this will not be a favorable one, but first I have to say...I adore MC Beaton, I love Agatha Raisin, and Hamish Macbeth, I think, is one of the dearest characters in fiction. I've bought many of her books and audiobooks and was just compiling my Kindle wish list to include many of MC Beaton's titles (I've even read her non-Agatha/Hamish stuff and it's pretty good, as well).

However...."Death of a Chimney Sweep" screams what I have been in denial about: it is time to end this series. It might have been time about 2 or 3 books ago, but, again, I have not been willing to admit it.

The author no longer has anything new to say, the story ideas are all starting to sound alike, and it's almost insulting the way conflicts are resolved within a sentence or two. For instance, one of the characters in this story spies on him (I'd rather not say how b/c I don't want to ruin it for anyone). Now, anyone else being spied on doesn't know it. But as soon as he walks into his home/station, Hamish's "sixth highland sense" picks up on it immediately and he figures out how/where he is being spied on. That's not even one of the best examples.

It's just no longer imaginative or clever. Other reviewers have wondered if Beaton has been ghostwriting the Hamish series for some time now. I didn't think it was that bad, but now I have to agree that it's a possibility.

Please, just end it. Marry Hamish off, close the station, and send him to Strathbane; or have him fired and become a full time bachelor crofter.

MC is becoming as unambitious as Hamish!

I've read them all and enjoyed most, but this one was just plain bad. The body count was 'way up, Hamish's pets had more characterization than the people. Mostly, though, I couldn't figure out how - or why - someone could stuff the corpse of a man up a chimney. Down, no problem, but Captain Davenport was discovered wedged up his chimney from the sitting room. The house was isolated, no problem with disposal, but for whatever reason this superhuman feat was performed. The only police explanation was that the killer must have been really angry. Really, how could it be done without a pulley? It's one thing to defy morality and another to defy gravity with a body that would have been flopping around. And the deed was apparently tidy as well.

A typo: wretched for retched. This was a sloppy book with far too many threads. I'm a fan of Ms. Beaton, normally, but this book shows a lack of respect for her admirers. perhaps her editors are over-awed.