Death of a Maid (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries, No. 23)
by M. C. Beaton
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Book Summary Information
Author: M. C. BeatonEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-01-01
ISBN: 0446615471
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Book Reviews of Death of a Maid (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries, No. 23)
Book Review: Maid is Well Made
Summary: 4 Stars
After Constable Hamish Macbeth wins the cleaning services of Mrs. Mavis Gillespie in a church raffle, he wonders why anyone would hire her. She does a terrible job of cleaning and he suspects she's up to something when a personal letter of his goes missing. Macbeth suspects Mrs. Gillespie is trouble and isn't terribly surprised when she is murdered. He has plenty of suspects including many of her customers and he has to solve the case while ducking the attention of a documentary crew. When he's not trying to solve the murder and avoid promotion, he is wondering about the relationship between his ex-girlfriend Elspeth Grant and Luke Teviot. Who says village life is quiet?
"Death of a Maid" is another nice entry in M.C. Beaton's charming Hamish Macbeth cozy mystery series. I love my visits to Lochdubh and all the familiar elements that make this series so delightful are in this book - Hamish hiding his intelligence in order to avoid promotion; his mooching meals; his odd pets; Blair; the village people; Hamish's tangled love life. Hamish is a multi-layered character - despite his appearance of laziness he is a hard worker who really cares about the people in his village - his reaction when fisherman Archie Maclean is about to lose his boat is one of my favorite moments in the entire series. The mystery itself is well written with plenty of suspects, although I did figure out who the murderer was pretty early on.
There were a couple of things I didn't like about "Death of a Maid". While Hamish's being unwilling to commit to a relationship is a running and sometime humorous theme in this series, it wore thing for me in this book. I was pleased there was no Priscilla in this book, but I felt there was a bit too much Elspeth. Also, the book could have ended earlier, I felt the last few chapters were unnecessary - they felt written just to up the page count. But, despite those flaws, I really enjoyed "Death of a Maid".
Summary of Death of a Maid (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries, No. 23)
Mrs. Gillespie is famous around the northwest of Sutherland for being the best charwoman ever. Of course, if anyone has any social pretensions one does not say charwoman, one talks about "my maid". Hamish Macbeth wins Mrs. Gillespie's services in a church raffle but spends most of the day trying to avoid her. She is a malicious gossip and she bangs around the furniture and clanks pots--he wonders how on earth she managed to get such a good reputation. Then she is found dead in a large house belonging to a retired professor who was out the day she was killed. She has been struck down by a metal bucket of water. Remembering Mrs. Gillespie's malicious gossip, Hamish is sure she delighted in finding out secrets and probably searched through the drawers of the houses she cleaned, which means everyone whose home she cleaned could be a suspect.Contemporary Books
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