"A wholesome mystery"
Hamish Macbeth is the village bobby in Lochdubh in the
Scottish Highlands. It is an isolated quaint little place
where everyone knows everyone else and crime is kept to a
minimum. Hamish's home is part of the village jail because
major crimes occur so infrequently. He resents newcomers
who make more work for him. If it were up to the local
bobby, there would be a gate preventing any outsiders from
coming into the village. Hamish is aghast and disgusted when Strathbane
Television sends BBC reporter Crystal French into Lochdubh
to do a show about a Highland Village. Crystal is more
interested in getting scandals individual crofters want to
hide than in doing an informative show. She gets a lot of
people riled up and the next thing Hamish realizes is that
she's shot to death in an isolated part of the village.
Her replacement is also shot and Hamish has to find out who
killed whom while fighting off the advances of a woman who
wants a relationship with him. M.C. Beaton paints a quite a picture of village life in
the Highlands of Scotland due to her character's feeling so
real. This enables the reader to picture the lifestyle of
the locals. Her protagonist is an interesting person, who
prefers being the local constable to join and prefers
the sedate pace and the wholesome virtues of village life
rather than join New Scotland Yard. DEATH OF A CELEBRITY is
a wonderful police procedural story that makes reading fun. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted November 16, 2001
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