Death of a Gentle Lady (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries, No. 24)
by M. C. Beaton
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Book Summary Information
Author: M. C. BeatonEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-01-01
ISBN: 044661548X
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Book Reviews of Death of a Gentle Lady (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries, No. 24)
Book Review: she evokes the vivid scenery of the Scottish Highlands
Summary: 5 Stars
DEATH OF A GENTLE LADY: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery, by M. C. Beaton (252 pgs., 2008). M. C. Beaton is the pseudonym for prolific writer Marion Chesney. Somehow, Chesney is able to make all her series quite different from each other, even though she's the same writer. However, out of all her books & series, I prefer the series featuring Scottish Highlands Constable Hamish Macbeth.
Macbeth shares my love for the Scottish Highlands & it's native peoples. He is a very intelligent & intuitive police officer. He solves the murders & crimes which take place in each book in this series when his immediate superiors are always befuddled & stuck on chasing the wrong clues. However, his success always carries the seeds of his undoing. If he is promoted he will have to give up his beloved police station in the village of Loch Dubh & move the grimy city of Strathbane. Both places are in the Scottish Highlands & within driving distance of each other. However they are as different as the Moon & the Earth are to each other.
Loch Dubh is that quaint Scottish Highlands village of bygone years still alive & breathing into the beginning of the twenty-first century. It is as if Brigadoon never went back to its sleep of 100 years. This is the twenty-fourth novel in the Macbeth series & the supporting cast of characters have grown on me as much as himself. This is a true character driven series and I love books like that. Hamish is a lovingly eccentric character surrounded by a supporting cast of lovingly eccentric characters, including two ex-fiances who somehow remain friends with him.
In this series the reader usually sheds no tears for the person who has died. In this book, not only did I not shed tears but, I cheered when it was she who died in this volume. A meddling & seemingly rich English lady of genteel background (seemingly is the operative word for all her mannerisms) has bought a fake castle high on the cliffs above Loch Dubh. She and Hamish take an initial dislike to each other and she begins to scheme to get him fired or transferred from his beloved station in the village. Fans of Hamish will hate this "Gentle Lady" of the title right from the start and when she appears dead, silently cheer.
Additionally, poor old Hamish was badly fooled and conned by the lady's maid. She appeared to be an attractive, foreign lass in distress because she had overstayed her visa and she was afraid of deportation. Hamish was moved by her distress and attracted to her beauty and thought if he were a married man they would not move him from his village police station. He proposed marriage and she accepted. She ended up being a former prostitute from Russia who had stolen the identity of a Turkish exchange student and she also blackmailed Hamish into going ahead with their marriage. She was murdered the night before the wedding.
Clearing his name, Hamish then has to find out the murderer or murderers of both of these women. With help from his two ex-fiances and his buddies on the police force in Strathbane he goes about trying to solve these murders. Beaton includes her usual twists & turns. She also evokes the vivid scenery of the Scottish Highlands in her plot. If I can't be back in my own beloved Scottish Highland village of Port Henderson, at least I can vicariously dream myself back there through her books. Her writing is tight & keeps the pages turning. Of course, Hamish must push off the full credit for solving the crimes on others, so he will be left alone to remain the Constable in his beloved Loch Dubh.
Summary of Death of a Gentle Lady (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries, No. 24)
Gentle by name, gentle by nature. Everyone in the sleepy Scottish town of Lochdubh adores elderly Mrs. Gentle - everyone but Hamish Macbeth, that is. Hamish thinks the gentle lady is quite sly and vicious, and the citizens of Lochdubh think he is overly cranky. Perhaps it's time for him to get married, they say.But who has time for marriage when there's a murder to be solved? When Mrs. Gentle dies under mysterious circumstances, the town is shocked and outraged. Chief Detective Inspector Blair suspects members of her family, but Hamish Macbeth thinks there's more to the story, and begins investigating the truth behind this lady's gentle exterior.
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