Customer Reviews

Death of a Valentine: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

In Death of a Valentine, the 25th Hamish Macbeth mystery, M.C. Beaton gives us a detective cozy with a romantic comedic subplot set in Lochdubh, a picturesque Scottish village. The tone, pace, and setting take you to a fictional village where everyone knows each other and each other's business quite well. Even if you're new to M.C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth series as I am, you'll easily figure out Lochdubh's characters, from Angela Brody, the doctor's wife and good friend of Hamish Macbeth, to crotchety Mrs. Wellington, who rents out rooms to the new constable Josie McSween, to Sir Andrew Etherington who lends out the diamond tiara for the annual fair day parade.

Hamish Macbeth, our lead character and a perpetual bachelor, is clearly set in his ways. Hamish wants to keep his pets, his police station/home, his village and his personal life just the way it is. But the sudden murder of a young beauty queen, Annie Fleming, disrupts Hamish's routine. The murder draws Hamish and Josie into a complex investigation, full of twists and turns, and unexpected discoveries. Things are never as they seem, even in this small Scottish village.

A mystery cozy of the best sort, M.C. Beaton's Death of a Valentine, is a fun, entertaining read. If you're looking for a mystery of the Agatha Christie sort with the quirks of Scotland, I recommend Death of a Valentine!

ISBN-10: 0446547387

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (January 12, 2010), 256 pages.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

I enjoyed the earlier Hamish books, but I think Beaton has run out of steam with this series. This latest entry is so ham-handed as to be almost a parody. I figured out very early on who did it and the plot is silly. The charm has worn thin--all the regular characters have remained static, so no surprises are in store for the reader; you know exactly how each will behave. The new characters have zero nuance; they're either bad people or featureless filler. Also, the copy I read had so many errors that it was distracting (floor when it should have said door, etc.) Beaton's Agatha Raisin series has followed a similar trajectory. She should either create a new detective or find a new line of work.

In "Death of a Valentine" author M.C. Beaton puts newly-promoted (again!) Sergeant Hamish Macbeth and his village of Lochdubh through their paces. The Curry sisters continue to speak in chorus. Angela struggles with writing a new book. The women in Hamish's love life (ha!) Priscilla and Elspeth, are called into cameo roles.

The "mystery" to me is why such a contrived piece of fiction as "Death of a Valentine" was ever published. Beaton continues her forays into the more complexities of psychosis and violent types of homicide. These genres are not suited to Beaton's flat, two-dimensional writing style. Coincidences abound. Guns are liberally sprinkled along with bodies dotting the Scottish Highlands.

The editing is also slipshod. In one passage, character names are interchanged and this literary faux pas goes on for several pages.

Beaton made a name for herself in the "cozy" mystery genre -- no graphic violence, no profanity, and no explicit sex. Most often, the crime takes place "off stage."

The genuine mystery is why Beaton is trying to abandon a genre that has served her well for many years to become a poor woman's Ruth Rendell.

I have read some of M.C. Beaton's romances under her real name of Marion Chesney. I thought they were passable, with a good sense of the Scottish setting. However, this "mystery" was so uninspiring and two-dimensional, I doubt I will read more of her work. Detective Hamish Macbeth may have been fleshed out earlier in the series, but here he just seemed like a cardboard cutout with a few quirks as shorthand for a personality. The female police officer who is hot for him tries to drug him in order to seduce him, but of course inadvertently ends up drugging other people. When she fails at her first attempt, she tries the same technique again, as if that makes it more amusing. He is supposed to be a detective, but he doesn't figure out what she's up to. If this were a film, it would be predictable slapstick. There are many mysteries out there that are not only much more interesting but much better written. Skip this one.

I am struggling with reviewing this latest chapter in the Hamish MacBeth series. I have gotten SO much pleasure out of reading these books, and I will continue reading them, I suspect, for as long as Beaton will continue writing them. But... the formula seems tired. I wish Hamish would grow up a bit. He's absolutely charming and very smart and brave. But when it comes to women...well, I won't give any spoilers, but Hamish fans won't need them. They will already know.

Anyway, I love Beaton's cast of quirky characters and the village of Lochdubh and Hamish's odd animals. And I enjoy knowing that really awful things will happen but, in the end, Hamish will fix everything and it will all happen in a story both chilling and charming.

So, while this isn't the best of the MacBeth series, I enjoyed it and, if you like Hamish and his friends, you will too.

MC Beaton has done it again. Just as always we find a tale of mystery, humor, and intrigue. In this latest cozy mystery, Death of a Valentine, Hamish Macbeth is not only honing his detective skills, but is also considering marriage. How will he solve the crime? Will he finally tie the knot? I'm not about to be a "spoiler" here, so I will say this is as good a read as Beaton has written to date. Highly recommended.

This is the twenty-sixth in a series of mysteries featuring the detective work of small town, Highland Scottish detective Hamish Macbeth, P.C. In this book, newly-re-promoted Sgt. Macbeth has a mystery on his hands when a local beauty is killed by an unloving valentine in the form of a package bomb. Just who had the knowledge to make such a thing? To make matters worse, Hamish has been saddled with a soppy woman constable who is blatantly trying to land the eternal-bachelor. Just what is Hamish to do?

OK, let me just say that I have been a fan of M.C. Beaton (pseudonym of Marion Chesney) and Hamish Macbeth for years. But, I must say that this book did not seem up to the author's usual standards. I for one really disliked the character of P.C. Josie McSween, and did not have any desire to watch her move from mawkish insanity to alcoholic insanity. Also, I must say that the recurring theme of Hamish being pursued by every available female that crosses his path is becoming stale.

As for the mystery itself, well that part is as good as you would expect. There are a lot of suspects (a surprising amount of them end up dead!), and a good deal of mystery as you watch Hamish do his work. So, I would say that this is a good Hamish Macbeth mystery, but definitely not a great one. I do hope the next one goes back to the usual quality!

While her writing is interesting and rich, I quickly tired of the blatant misogyny that drips all through this story. The women, especially the primary female detective, come off as one dimensional, manipulative and hopelessly stereotypical. The only goal women seem to have is to get a husband and live happilynever after. And Hammish, of course, is the forlorn male having to suffer under the lavish attentions of every starry eyed, swooning woman he meets. Adding insult to injury, each chapter starts out with a mean spirited, anti-female quote. As I first read the book I was certain that this drivel had to have been written by a man, imagine my surprise to learn that the author is a woman. Shame on you M.C. Beaton!

Another lovely wee tale by MC Beaton, short, humorous... and deadly. In the twenty-fifth volume of the Hamish Macbeth detective series, this novel takes place in Lochdubh, a village in the Scottish highlands. When a local beauty is blown to bits by a mysterious package after winning a coveted title over her contemporaries, the deed is dubbed the Valentine Murder for its proximity to the holiday. And, as usual in Hamish's world, the first murder is followed by others until the red-haired bachelor is overwhelmed with suspects as he attempts to sort through a puzzling case. There is no shortage of possible culprits once Macbeth begins an extensive search of Annie Fleming's background. A child of strict parents, it seems that Annie was not the innocent lass she appeared on the surface.

The police sergeant desperately clings to his determination to remain in his village rather than the busier precincts of the city, avoiding promotions that would force him to leave Lochdubh as furiously as he avoids marriage. Oh, he flirts with the idea of wedded bliss, whether to his first love, Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, or his former romantic association with Elspeth Grant, a journalist who is now a television celebrity reporter, but Macbeth is actually most comfortable with his two pets and an assortment of friends in Lochdubh, from the doctor's wife, Angela Brody to Angus the "seer", not to mention neighborhood gossips, Nessie and Jessie Currie or the busybody minister's wife, Mrs. Wellington.

Macbeth may have met his match in Murder of a Valentine, wee Josie McSween, the new constable who has her heart set on taming the bachelor, no matter what it takes. Perhaps not the most dedicated policewoman, Josie entertains visions of her future life of wedded bliss with the reluctant Hamish, relentlessly creative in trapping her man. As Josie plots, Macbeth does what he does best- solves the crimes- her antics endlessly entertaining as the quirky characters come to life in a hilarious combination of murder, mayhem and that long walk down the aisle for the groom-to-be-, Hamish Macbeth. Luan Gaines/2010.

As this 25th volume chronicling the life, loves and misadventures of the charming if quite unambitious Police Constable Hamish Macbeth opens it seems as if the perpetual bachelor was finally getting married. And even more surprising the bride to be is neither Priscilla nor Elspeth but somebody named Josie. How on earth did this happen.

The action then flashes back to a year before, when once again Hamish has become a victim of his own success - he has been promoted again, and a constable willing to move to remote Lochdubh has been found. And as if these two facts were not enough to make Hamish miserable it seems that the soon to arrive constable in question is female. Could things get any worse? Well it seems they could, for young PC Josie McSween has set her sights on a promotion, that of Mrs Macbeth, a position that most of the village thinks she would be quite suited for. Hamish is not so convinces, in fact he is rather relived when a bomb explodes, giving Hamish plenty of police work to concentrate on. Too bad the victim was a such a sweet and beautiful young woman. Will Hamish manage to solve the crime, and do it without calling further unwanted positive attention to himself? And will he find himself a married man at the end of the case?

This is a popular long running series of comic cozy mysteries set in the far north of Scotland. The emphasis is on the 'comic and cozy' rather than the mystery. The main attraction to these stories is the on going saga of Hamish Macbeth's personal life, particularly his love life. The overall story arc is quite pronounced in this series so for maximum enjoyment begin at the beginning, or as close to it as possible and proceed in order.