- ISBN13: 9780446612043
- Condition: New
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Product Description
Murder on the Telly Lochdubh, a remote village reached only by a one-track lane, nestles serenely amid Scotland’s hills…until well-known TV reporter Crystal French races into town in her bright BMW. And Constable Hamish Macbeth, dourly wed to duty instead of the fiancee who dumped him, promptly gives her a summons for reckless driving. Outraged, Crystal makes Macbeth’s life a misery with a TV report on policing in the Highlands. When she also rakes up old local sc… More >>
#1 by jim@coachjim.com on July 19th, 2010
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Death descends into the quiet highland village of Lochdubh once again when a muckraking t.v. presenter is found dead in her car just outside of town. It looks like a suicide but police constable Hamish Macbeth thinks differently and sets off to prove otherwise. Nothing comes easy in the highlands, though, and the more he digs into the crime, the more he discovers that many people had motive to murder….
This book is the quintessential Hamish Macbeth: sharp, witty, brooding, and oh-so-unlucky at love. Beaton offers up the most well-rounded Macbeth mystery ever, propelling her quirky (but nicely defined) characters along a briskly paced plot that’s as warm as a wee dram o’ whiskey.
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by Moe811 on July 19th, 2010
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An expose style TV program is threatening the peace of the highlands. The presenter is making a career of raking up old scandals and embarassing the residents of the area. One day the woman is found dead, an apparent suicide, but Hamish MacBeth does not think so. The CID in Strathbane as usual, have no idea where to start and Hamish and his new friend Elspeth decide to investigate.
This is a good addition to the series. Elspeth is a welcome new character as is Carson. I was getting tired of everyone treating MacBeth like the village idiot and himself without a backbone. A very good and fast read.
Rating: 4 / 5
#3 by Kurt A. Johnson on July 19th, 2010
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This is the eighteenth in a series of mysteries featuring the detective work of small town, Highland Scottish detective Hamish Macbeth, P.C. When a television star attempts to make a career by exposing all of the secrets hidden in the quiet Highlands, she quickly becomes the most hated woman around. And when she turns up murdered, it’s up to Hamish Macbeth to find who the murderer is. But, this is no simple case; suspects abound, and Hamish finds that he is getting the unwanted help of the local newspaper’s astrologer! Can Hamish unravel this particularly tough knot? You bet!
I now consider myself something of a Hamish fan (thanks to my loving wife), and I must say that I deeply enjoyed this book. As with all of the other Hamish Macbeth books, I enjoyed the stories, the setting and the interesting characters. I wasn’t totally thrilled with the inclusion of a psychic character, but it didn’t ruin the story for me. Overall, I thought that this is a great book, and I highly recommend it to you.
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by Billy J. Hobbs on July 19th, 2010
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An imminent Texas book critic has called M.C. Beaton the “Barbara Cartland” of police procedurals, if not in quantity in formula! That said, of course, readers of Beaton’s Hamish Macbeth series will once again welcome her newest addition, “Death of a Celebrity,” the 18th episode about her affable and honest constable from the
affable yet murderous village of Lochdubh somewhere in the Scottish Highlands.
To call “Death of a Celebrity” a “Scottish fling” would be a bad pun, but still. Once again, an outsider has come to the fair village, this time in the role of an irritating local television host who revels in making people miserable. Insufferable herself, TV “star” Crystal French sets about offending yea and nay, giving just about everyone but the Archbishop in Edinburgh a motive for killing her. In true Beaton style (and by page 30), we have our corpse.
Enter our Hamish, still a-fretting about his long lost love Priscilla Halburton-Smythe who’s just announced her impending marriage to another, who quickly lines up “all the usual suspects.” Thus, Beaton treats us to another littany of local characters, many of whom we’ve met in previous episodes (after all Lochdubh is a small village!).
Thus, working alone, working with a new boss, and working with a new romantic interest, Macbeth bounces here and there and eventually it is his insight, his perseverance, his knowledge of human nature that lead him, inevitably, to the solution
No surprises here, of course, and perhaps the Beaton followers (and I’m one of them) don’t want or expect anything else. A P.D. James or Ruth Rendell she is not; but her fans don’t confuse her with those two. They love her as she is.
If you want predictability and you do not wish to have to think about solving the case, any and all of the Hamish Macbeth books are for you. They’re fun to read.
Rating: 3 / 5
#5 by DeEsta Condie on July 19th, 2010
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“Death of a Celebrity” is a great diversion. Sure there are murders, but the victims really deserve what they got. The mystery is in who among the many candidates for murderer is the one.
There is satisfaction of being in a different place with other people having problems instead of you. The reader has her own mysteries, such as who in the town has secrets; how are they connected with each other; why is Hamish so opposed to being promoted and when in the world will he quit obsessing over past love and see who is next to him; and finally why does he wash his boss’s
underwear.
Will I read the next one–yes indeed, the next time I want to escape my own intrigues.
Rating: 4 / 5