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Review at MyShelf.Com | ||||||||||||||
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by M C Beaton Bravo to Constable and Robinson for reprinting another well-loved series so UK readers (and anybody else who lacks copies) can discover what all the fuss is about. I thoroughly enjoyed the series Hamish Macbeth when it was on TV, and wondered how well I would like the books on which the series was based, as I rarely enjoy both. I need not have worried, as here is a delightfully cozy tale about a rural constable for whom the law is somewhat stretchy. Here he has to solve the murder of the very unpopular Lady Jane Winters, on vacation in the Highlands for a week as part of a fishing school. She knows something nasty about everybody on the course, instructors included, so they all have motives - but whodunit? A house party murder set in a hotel, with tyro fisherfolk instead of party guests is a great setup for a mystery. You can even learn something about fishing, although this part of the story is very much part of the background rather than the foreground. Written over twenty years ago, it is interesting to see how things have changed since then and this gives it something of a period appeal and adds to the charm. Hamish is a truly delightful character, and as the whole story is mainly about outsiders it is an interesting way to start a series, rather akin to opening a door to something special just a crack. As an introduction to Lochdubh it serves to whet the appetite for more, and more is what is coming because the whole series is to be reprinted. |
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