The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 2 August 2005
by M. C. Beaton
For decades, in mystery novels, small villages in Britain have appeared to have surprisingly high murder rates. These dark events are also well-attended by quirky but brilliant solvers of these mysteries. This book is another of that genre. Hamish Macbeth is a constable in the remote Scottish Highland village of Lochdubh, and the is the star of a dozen or more of Beaton's novels. To those who don't know him, he appears loutish and slow, given to sponging and stinginess. But he has his charm, and his village insight. A Lochdubh couple run a fly-fishing school. Eight "students" are in town for a week's fishing and vacationing. They include a couple of high society types, a mousy secretary, a boasting war veteran, a twelve year-old boy, and a bitchy older woman with heavy hints at knowledge of everybody else's closet skeletons. This last one is pretty nasty, and everyone, including the reader, might find a motive to kill her. Beaton's prose doesn't allow for much ambiguity of character or motivations. Her story is pretty clearly laid out, and Macbeth's investigations are not particularly intricate. Indeed, his final solution of the mystery, classical in its presentation, isn't terribly sophisticated, for the character as well as the writing. One might read this for its Highland atmosphere, though. As well for the entertaining characters and comic writing. It is a light read.