Death of a cad

Beneath village policeman Hamish Macbeth's shy, lovesick exterior lurk the instincts of a master sleuth. The scene of the crime is Lochdubh, the Scottish ancestral home of the Halburton-Smythes, where houseguest Captain Peter Bartlett is found dead. Bartlett was unpopular: a chronic womanizer, freeloader, and drunk. The list of murder suspects includes practically everyone staying at the castle that weekend. Constable Macbeth leads an impromptu investigation; his approach is slow, methodical, and quietly effective. Death of a Cad is a sequel to the excellent Death of a Gossip (Booklist 81:926 Mr 1 85), and the author again makes fine use of both the bleak, forbidding terrain of the remote Scottish Highlands and a motley cast of local characters. The chivalrous, slothlike Macbeth solves the case while unsuccessfully wooing the Halburton-Smythes' daughter. PLR. [OCLC] 86-27921

Beaton's charming Constable Hamish Macbeth returns in the sequel to Death of a Gossip, a mirthful mystery set in the Scottish Highlands. Hamish's time is taken up with investigating a death at the Halburton-Smythe castle, and with subtly wooing the daughter of the house, Priscilla, who has brought her fiance Henry Withering to meet her parents and houseguests. Among them is Peter Bartlett, loathed by almost everyone present and found dead in the morning. The constable's inept superiors declare the death an accident, but Hamish produces evidence of murder, after which he eliminates all the suspects except the guilty one. In the course of these events, Priscilla's feelings for Henry weaken and, in contrast, flourish for Hamish, which gives hints of the next entry in the delightful series. (February 17) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A second adventure (Death of a Gossip, 1985) featuring the craggy Scottish landscape, a warm Scottish brew and red-haired village constable Hamish Mac beth, who yearns after Priscilla, daughter of Tommel Castle's Colonel Halburton-Smythe. Priscilla's engagement to playwright Henry Withering, newly famed for Duchess Darling, a current smash, is being celebrated with a house party at the castle. Guests include rich, hard-drinking Jeremy Pomfret; banker Freddie Forbes-Grant and sexy, mercenary wife Vera; china collector Sir Humphrey Throgmorton; aging debs Diana Bryce and Jessica Villiers; and Captain Peter Bartlett, a handsome, boorish Don Juan whose early morning demise by shotgun is unmourned by most. Eventually, it's Hamish who proves that the death was murder, not an accident. The poison killing of another guest, plus some inspired sleuthing in London, brings him to a formal, well-reasoned denouement al the house party's final gathering. Hamish is a gem. He deserves better than the ninnyish Priscilla and a lifetime with dog Towser in Loch Dubh village. Let's move him on! Featherweight, satisfying fun. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.