Rating: 
Summary: More mayhem in Lochdubh
Review: 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: 
Summary: Hamish: the 'dread Scot decision'!
Review: 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: 
Summary: A fine whodunnit in the heather for the highland's finest...
Review: 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: 
Summary: The ending couldn't come soon enough...
Review: I've read every book in the series and previously have anxiously awaited the latest in the series, however.....I couldn't wait for this one to end. Absolutely no excitement, no personality, no deep mystery just the Highlands at its worst. Ms Beaton might need a sabbatical. She quoted Corinthians but I believe it should have been Ecclesiastes.
Let's see Hamish happy and the villagers quirky but likeable. Perhaps more positive and up. Perhaps even a little bit of humor. Oh, yeah, and a good mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Another fine effort by Beaton
Review: M.C. Beaton's recent Hamish MacBeth mysteries have paled next to those in the Agatha Raisin series. This book puts Hamish squarely back on solid ground and gets the series back on track after a few less than stellar entries (like Death of an Addict). Death of a Celebrity is a pretty quick read (one day will do if you are a fairly fast reader) but eminently enjoyable, well-written and well-plotted. I just wish Beaton would make her books a little longer, if only to extend my reading pleasure.
Rating:
Summary: Very Cozy Read
Review: The little Scottish village of Lochdubh has been discovered. A beautiful and ambitious TV reporter by the name of Crystal French has decided to do a show about the village. The show, supposedly about village life, is really just going to focus on old scandals that certain people thought that they had lived down. The residents are angry and Constable Hamish Macbeth is also upset because he knows that many innocent people will suffer because of the nasty news reporter dragging up hurtful information. A pretty new town resident, Elspeth Grant has taken more than an interest in Hamish, but he's still moping over his lost love, Priscilla. When a murder takes place, Constable Macbeth pulls himself together to track down the killer. As usual, the Strathbane police authorities advise Hamish to keep out of the murder investigation, but obsessed with his own theories, he stays in the middle of it all. When a second murder occurs, Hamish is committed to finding the killer. These light, but charming Harmish Macbeth mysteries are always fun to read.
Rating:
Summary: --Murder behind lace curtains--
Review: The little Scottish village of Lochdubh has been discovered. A beautiful and ambitious TV reporter by the name of Crystal French has decided to do a show about the village. The show, supposedly about village life, is really just going to focus on old scandals that certain people thought that they had lived down. The residents are angry and Constable Hamish Macbeth is also upset because he knows that many innocent people will suffer because of the nasty news reporter dragging up hurtful information. A pretty new town resident, Elspeth Grant has taken more than an interest in Hamish, but he's still moping over his lost love, Priscilla. When a murder takes place, Constable Macbeth pulls himself together to track down the killer. As usual, the Strathbane police authorities advise Hamish to keep out of the murder investigation, but obsessed with his own theories, he stays in the middle of it all. When a second murder occurs, Hamish is committed to finding the killer. These light, but charming Harmish Macbeth mysteries are always fun to read.
Rating:
Summary: Another Great Hamish!
Review: This is honestly one of my very favourite series, and each book is just as enjoyable as the last. I'm only sad that I'm getting to the end of the series, and hope that M.C. Beaton continues to write for a good long while yet. Hamish is a wonderful character and the eccentric people in his little village of Lochdubh are so real, that it seems they are actually real people. In this book we meet two new characters that I hope to see more of - Elspeth, who seems to be a wonderful romantic interest for the died-in-the-wool Bachelor, Hamish and Inspector Carson who takes the place of the odious Blair when murder of famous television celebrities occurs in and around Lochdubh. Again Hamish is thrown into a murder investigation in his quiet little village, and before he, Elspeth and Carson can solve it a few more deaths occur. For anyone who likes their mysteries cozy, with a definite wicked comic appeal, you cannot go wrong with Hamish Macbeth.
Rating:
Summary: Another Great Hamish!
Review: This is honestly one of my very favourite series, and each book is just as enjoyable as the last. I'm only sad that I'm getting to the end of the series, and hope that M.C. Beaton continues to write for a good long while yet. Hamish is a wonderful character and the eccentric people in his little village of Lochdubh are so real, that it seems they are actually real people. In this book we meet two new characters that I hope to see more of - Elspeth, who seems to be a wonderful romantic interest for the died-in-the-wool Bachelor, Hamish and Inspector Carson who takes the place of the odious Blair when murder of famous television celebrities occurs in and around Lochdubh. Again Hamish is thrown into a murder investigation in his quiet little village, and before he, Elspeth and Carson can solve it a few more deaths occur. For anyone who likes their mysteries cozy, with a definite wicked comic appeal, you cannot go wrong with Hamish Macbeth.
Rating: 
Summary: no win for Hamish one more time
Review: This is the 18th book in the series featuring a Scottish constable, Hamish Macbeth, who lives and works in the small, scenic, isolated village of Lochdubh. Hamish is very bright and clever at solving crimes, but he is not ambitious and doesn't like change. He is happy with the way things are, except for his love life. All of the 18 books follow pretty much the same format, and are light, but enjoyable reading.
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