Death of a Dustman

Rating:
Summary: Cookie Cutter Plot and Set
Review: Fergus Macleod, the dustman (garbage collector)in Police Sergeant Hamish Macbeth's village of Lockdubh, is a drunk and a wife-beater. When Fergus is promoted to "environmental engineer" by an ambitious member of the County Council he becomes so officious that soon half the village is threatening to kill him. Someone does and stuffs his corpse into one of his own dustbins. Hamish soon discovers that several people, including his own constable, had additional reasons to wish Macleod dead. Then a local crofter is murdered too. Hamish must solve these crimes while preserving his neighbors' guilty (but irrelevant) secrets.

M C Beaton writes classic British murder mysteries in the tradition of Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, and Ngaio Marsh. It is a genre as stylized as the sonnet or the minuet -- yet capable of infinite variation. Few readers will anticipate all the plot twists Beaton has composed for this, her seventeenth Hamish Macbeth mystery. Hamish does not possess an over-abundance of "little gray cells" like Hercule Poirot, nor upper class connections like Roderick Allyn. But he does know his Highlander neighbors intimately and always manages to ferret out the truth ahead of the detectives sent out from headquarters. Beaton laces her stories with generous dollops of broad, black comedy; often at the expense of her sleuth, Macbeth.

My only quibble with "Death of a Dustman" is that Beaton makes one character hide a crucial piece of information from Macbeth (and from the reader) on the flimsiest of pretexts until just before the climax of the book. One of the rules of the classic mystery is that the author must scatter all the clues needed to solve the puzzle so a canny reader can beat the fictional detective to the soluction.

Rating:
Summary: Hamish must find the murderer of the most hated man in town
Review: Fergus the dustman or garbage man is the most hated man in town. He drinks, he beats his wife, and since he was promoted to enviromental supervisor and given a new uniform, he's turned into a tyrant. People are required to sort and recycle and if they don't, their garbage is left. Fergus has also started to blackmail various members of the community. One day, he is found in one of the wheelie bins with his head bashed in, and Hamish has to find out who killed him.

This is another excellent Hamish Mc Beth mystery. All of the usual Lochdubh characters are involved and we meet a few new ones also. This is a really quick read.

Rating:
Summary: Life in a Small Village
Review: Hamish Macbeth is the policeman in the Scottish Highlands village of Lochdubh. While an excellent policeman, he's not terribly ambitious and perfectly content with his job and lives in fear of being promoted and having to leave Lochdubh.

In this novel, it's the dustman (trash collector), Fergus Macleod who is murdered. Fergus was promoted to environmental officer, power that soon went to his head as he sometimes refused to empty trash. While investigating the murder, Hamish also discovers that Fergus was a blackmailer.

M.C. Beaton does a wonderful job of describing life in a small village in the Scottish Highlands. You can see the village in your mind and may even wish it were possible to live in a place like this. But, while it may seem like an ideal life, Beaton does a good job of describing the downside. The villagers all have secrets and they can make Hamish's job even more
difficult.

If you like cozy mysteries, with a touch of humor, this is a perfect series for you.


Rating:
Summary: Have three hours to kill...this is your book!
Review: Having just read a heart-thumping page-turning thriller, I felt the need to read something that would bring my blood pressure back to its normal rate. "Death of a Dustman," the most recent installment in M. C. Beaton's series about Hamish Macbeth, a police officer in a small village in the Scottish Highlands, was the perfect choice.

This book has just the right mix of suspects, clues, romance and local color to keep you interested while not taxing your heart. Don't expect deep character analyses, complicated plots or dastardly villians. The darkest thing about this book is probably the weather.

I have to give the book 5 stars because it delivered exactly what I expected...about three hours of non-stressful pure reading enjoyment.

This is the perfect book to tuck into your beach bag or carry on luggage.

Rating:
Summary: A good installment in this series
Review: In America, they are called sanitation engineers, but in England they are dubiously labeled as dustmen. In the Highland village of Lochdubh, dustman Fergus Macleod is a slimy toad who drinks himself into unconsciousness and beats his wife when he is awake. His demeanor changes when he is appointed as the new Environmental Officer of the village with a doubling of his salary.

His new position goes to Fergus' head as his petty tyranny encompasses the entire hamlet. The tension is so taut no one is surprised to find the murdered body of Fergus amidst the garbage cans. Local police officer Hamish MacBeth leads the investigation, but the townsfolk close ranks to protect a "hero" from Hamish.

The clannishness of a Highland village can be a blessing to those in charge, but it can also impede the legal system as seen in DEATH OF A DUSTMAN. This is a who-done-it in which every villager could be the culprit because the victim was universally hated. The mystery is cleverly crafted, but the heart of M.C. Beaton's novel remains Hamish.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Predictable, predictable, predictable!
Review: Indeed, "predictable" is the word (or words!) for any of the Hamish Macbeth series by M.C. Beaton, and "Death of a Dustman" is no exception. Ms Beaton has, of course, worked out a very successful "formula" for her Macbeth books, but her fans don't really care! What's fun is reading them! Macbeth is the local policeman in the Scottish Highlands village of Lochdubh, and, if nothing else, Beaton's characters (primarily Hamish) and the local color (of the setting) are enough to get one going!

In "Death of a Dustman," Beaton's inimitable policeman must find the killer of one Fergus Macleod, local villager only recently appointed as the town's new dustman, in charge of a renewed campaign to keep the area environmentally friendly. Macleod is a real pain, and, thus, when he is found dead, no one really cares! Besides turning into a real tyrant--and impossible to deal with--with his silly and petty (but legal) fines of his townsfolk--he is a wife-abuser and into some blackmail as well. And when his body's found, it's poetic justice, indeed: he was left in a recycling bin. (If that's not a metaphor, what is!) But, the law's the law and a murder's a murder. And Hamish must do his duty--regardless of his personal feelings for Macleod!

As usual, Beaton provides us with suspects aplenty, and Macbeth's resilience pays off, one more time! Beaton's books are delightful to read! ([e-mail])

Rating:
Summary: Charms, Secrets and Nasty Grudges
Review: Isn't it fun to imagine that somewhere across the pond, lurks a lady who can churn out books one after another, in the same basic formula, but each a uniquely clever and original read? And she probably wanders about and no one knows of the mischief, mayhem and murder lurking behind the eyes of the deceptively normal lady? Once again, Ms. Beaton takes us along to meet the ever unambitious Hamish as he casts about the idyllic village of Lochdubh in the farthest northern part of the Scottish highlands. Where the people have their charms, secrets and nasty grudges, and there is almost always trouble simmering. To the usual wonderful cast of characters, the faithful reader meets Hamish's new constable Clary the Cook, the frightful Freda Fleming, Officer of the Environment, Lugs the Dog, a rich Greek reopening the Lochdubh hotel, as well as the Fergus McLeod and family. Ms. Beaton beautifully communicates a sense of place, a cadence of language and a refreshingly original formula cozy.

Rating:
Summary: Death of a Dustman
Review: M.C. Beaton has done it again with another delightful book in the series about Hamish Macbeth, a constable in Lochdubh, a village in the Northern Highlands of Scotland. This is the 18th book in the series, and every one of them is engrossing and entertaining. It was also great to learn that the BBC has filmed six one-hour episodes based on these books. Let's hope we see them in the U.S.

Rating:
Summary: Death of a Dustman
Review: M.C. Beaton has done it again with another delightful book in the series about Hamish Macbeth, a constable in Lochdubh, a village in the Northern Highlands of Scotland. This is the 18th book in the series, and every one of them is engrossing and entertaining. It was also great to learn that the BBC has filmed six one-hour episodes based on these books. Let's hope we see them in the U.S.

Rating:
Summary: another in the delightful series
Review: M.C. Beaton's mysteries center in a small village in the Scottish Highlands, with chief character Officer Hamish MacBeth, surrounded by other recurring eccentric characters. All the books are whimsical, engaging, and satisfying. "Death of a Dustman", easily read in an evening, is no exception. M.C. Beaton will painlessly transport you into the bleak, gray, and often chilly Highland environs. You can read her books in the heat of a desert summer, as I have done, and still take pleasure in their "cozy" genre, and maybe even mentally hear the rain bleating against your windows. Hamish is a likeable character, easy-going and blessed with an understanding and insight of his Highland people which his superior officers, from the city of Inverness, often lack. I recommend all of Beaton's tales highly.