Customer Reviews

Death of a Glutton (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries, No. 8)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well, perhaps not exactly a diet revolution, but even the reader will want to be the one to murder this disgusting glutton. Ms. Beaton once again weaves her highland magic, gathering together some real characters, killing off the figure who has absolutely no redeeming qualities, and letting the reader chase all the red herrings as Police Constable Hamish Macbeth (ever unambitious, ever the mooch, extremely unlucky in love and always in trouble with headquarters) takes us along for the ride. It is summer in the highlands of Scotland, and beautifully etched by the author, who sketches the characters with the same even hand. Delightful formula, but never exactly predictable.

Death of a Glutton is the eighth Hamish Macbeth mystery. It's the beautiful days of summer in Lochdubh, days that are soon to be replaced with cold and rain. Hamish is looking forward to enjoying these tranquil days while they last. But that hope is soon frustrated.

The Tommel Castle Hotel (formerly the home of Colonel and Mrs. Hallburton-Smythe and their daughter Priscilla before the Colonel lost his capital) is booming. But when a fishing party cancels at the last minute, the Colonel finds he may have to lower his social standards to fill the hotel. This fear is turned into a reality when Maria Worth books the hotel for Checkmate Singles Club, which matches up matrimonial prospects from among the well-to-do. Maria has invited eight people who want to marry well and thinks she has just the prospect for each one. Immediately, each one takes a dislike to the person Maria has in mind for them, but things seem to be proceeding anyway when they strike up conversations with other singles in the group.

Those plans are put seriously awry, however, when her not-so-silent partner, Peta Gore, shows up uninvited with her voluptuous, but self-centered, young niece, Crystal. The men flock to Crystal until they find she's dull. That enrages the women. Peta turns out to be a world-class overeater with the worst possible manners. Colonel Hallburton-Smythe takes his wife and heads out, leaving this troublesome party to Priscilla and Mr. Johnson to tend.

The story builds around Peta's eating. There's a memorable picnic involving a wee trip in the ocean that has humorous consequences. The chef becomes so enraged by Peta's behavior that he takes a bet he can feed her a most unappetizing source of protein and she'll be delighted.

Hamish thinks that all he has to do is to save the hotel's reputation. Things take a different turn when Peta first turns up missing, leaving behind a curious note, and is later found dead . . . with an apple crammed down her throat.

Who did it? And why? Hamish makes a bigger hash out of the investigation than usual . . . but does eventually put his finger on the guilty party.

Hoping for central heating in his wee police station, he ends with up two unexpected surprises instead.

The main appeal of this story comes in the outrageous burlesque of Peta's eating methods. That part is nicely developed. The other characters, by comparison, are pretty uninteresting and not especially attractive either. But their cardboard outlines do help fill out the story line. The mystery isn't very mysterious. The clues are everywhere.

My impression is that M.C. Beaton intended each of these characters to be pretty funny to the readers. I think she missed in that attempt. Instead, I found them all-too-pathetically familiar. The humor needed to be exaggerated more to work.

One of the other good aspects of the book comes in the humorous ways that Hamish and Priscilla mangle their relationship whenever it starts to warm up a bit. Priscilla finds herself becoming more than a little jealous of one of Hamish's admirers which helps set up the fun.

The villagers and Towser take back seat in this book which makes the story seem less authentic somehow.

Watch what you eat!

"Death of a Glutton" is the eighth Hamish Macbeth mystery by M.C. Beaton set in the Scottish Highlands town of Lochdubh. An exclusive dating service, Checkmate, is having some of their members meet at the Tommel Castle Hotel which is owned by Colonel Halburton-Smythe, father of Priscilla, of whom Hamish is very fond. The dating service is owned by two women, Maria Worth and Peta Gore. Peta is a terrible glutton, eating everything in sight, and making people so mad that they think of ways to get rid of her. When she is found dead with an apple stuck in her mouth, it is up to Hamish to find the murderer. As usual, he upstages Inspector Blair from Strathbane. I am reading these novels in order, and I think that this is the best one to date. It is highly recommended.

Quirky, funny and fast moving, with a bit of revolting sense of humor on part of Petra's eatting habits, this is a good fast read, that will satisfy those who love mysteries, and those who enjoy a bit of a good humor now and then.
The only draw back is the amount of characters introduced. I had a bit of a hard time remembering who's who, but once I got into the story it all made sense.
I appreciated the fact that by the time the book ended and the guilty was revealed I wasn't saying "who's that?"

Great read, M.C Beaton fans must dive into this one.

DEATH OF A GLUTTON is great fun. The glutton is immensely repulsive, and by the time the death occurs, you'll be ready to commit the murder yourself! I really like Hamish Macbeth more and more, and there's a fun interplay between Hamish and Priscilla. But I'm reading the series out of order, so I get confused by their on again/off again relationship. And that's a truly interesting element, so do try to read them in order. (I believe this is number 8 in a series that starts with DEATH OF A GOSSIP.) At 168 pages, this is a good, quick read -- short and a lot of fun.

When a last minute booking at Tommel Castle Hotel of a matchmaking club (upscale of course) arrives in Lochdubh no one expects any problems but all too quickly things begin to go terribly wrong. The organizer of the group, Maria Worth, had gone to great lengths to plan the event, pairing up her guests with their perfect match and arranging plenty of activities to keep them all in a party mood. Everything was going well until Maria's obnoxious business partner. Petra, unexpectedly arrived with her young, attractive niece in tow. All of Maria's plans were going to pieces as the men all abandoned the women Maria had selected for them but when they went into the dining room all thoughts of romance with anyone quickly fled. Petra left no doubts about how she had become so grossly overweight, to say that she gobbled her food was an understatement. Comparing Petra's feeding habits and greed as she chomped, slobbered and shoveled her way through the meal to a pig was an insult to pigs everywhere. The main group activity quickly became avoiding Petra at all costs. When she abruptly decided to leave everyone breathed a sigh of relief, at least until her dead body was found with an apple stuffed into her mouth. Everyone at the hotel, guests and staff included became a suspect because to know Petra had been to hate her, giving the local constable, Hamish Macbeth, plenty to do to solve the crime.

As is the norm with this popular series of cozy mysteries the real attraction here is not the mystery but rather the life and times of Hamish Macbeth and the village of Lochdubh. In this particular novel though the focus is on the hotel guests with very little interaction with the villagers which is a bit of a problem for long time fans of the series. We do get several prolonged and often hilarious scenes with Hamish and Priscilla coping with the group. Fans of the series will not want to miss this one even if many of their favorite characters are missing. Those who are new to the series will probably want to begin elsewhere, ideally with the first book, DEATH OF A GOSSIP and then reading the rest in order.

I really enjoyed this book. Grant it we didn't get too much of the eccentric villagers in this one, but we still had Hamish. And he is his usual self here. Murder occurs at his beloved Priscilla's hotel when a party of people from a dating agency are in residence. The woman who is murdered is particulary odious. She's a huge, fat woman with terrible table manners, and it's almost a relief to everyone when she is found dead. Hamish needs to solve the murder in spite of Blair's incompetence, and he manages to put everything together to do that. Again, the book is totally carried by Hamish. What a character he is!

When a hunting party cancels their reservations to Tormel Castle Hotel, Priscilla takes a reservation from the Checkmate Marital Brokerage, much to her father's dismay. Maria Worth, who runs the agency, carefully made her plans to exclude her partner, Petra, a narcissistic glutton who alienates the paying clientele, using the agency as her own private dating service. Maria has carefully screened a few couples and hopes that the beautiful and remote highland setting will promote romance. Unfortunately, Petra finds them and brings along her beautiful and empty headed niece. Maria is afraid that all her plans will be upset. Petra grosses out all in the hotel including the chef, who bets the locals that he can make her eat anything including a dead cat(she does). Fortunately, the couples unite against Petra and her niece and pair off, not in the intended groups, but they are happy enough. One day Petra disappears and is found dead by the gravel quarry with an apple in her mouth. It is up to Hamish to solve the crime, and Priscilla's business.

This is a very funny mystery. The characters are slightly bizarre, but believable and their romantic twists and turns are pretty amusing. Hamish is at his lazy best, trying to keep his village safe, and himself from being promoted again.

For a quaint Scottish town there's plenty of murders that take place there. Luckily, the unaspiring by astute constable Hamish Macbeth is on hand once again to woo the ladies, mooch coffee from Priscilla, be a thorn in Inspector Blair's side, and solve the mystery.

Beaton's formulaic approach is ever apparent and her supporting characters are laughable, as always, beyond these two faults, however, the writing is much better than in previous stories. Beaton continues to shine and really shows her stuff not when she deals with the murder but as she develops the Macbeth character. In doing that she provides, once more, a light, fun, and well-worth-reading book.

I ordered Death of a Glutton from Monarch Books through Amazon on the 2nd of December and the book arrived on the 4th of December, WOW how fast is that, Book in like new condition, pages tight, no creases in binding, cover bright colors and free of any defects. Will not hesitate to order used books from them in future.