Death of a Prankster

Rating:
Summary: Death of a Prankster
Review: "Death of a Prankster" is the seventh Hamish Macbeth mystery by M. C. Beaton. Andrew Trent, a rich old man, who is a terrible practical joker has called his family to his home telling everyone he is dying. It is a practical joke, but comes to pass as he is murdered. When Hamish Macbeth is told that Mr. Trent has been murdered at his home, he hesitates thinking it is just another practical joke. But Andrew Trent has been murdered. Hamish Macbeth investigates finding several people in his family that wanted him dead. Was he killed for hate, or was he killed for money? This novel is good, but some of the local Scottish flavor that is in the other books is absent in this one, but if you are reading through the series, as I am, it is worth your time.

Rating:
Summary: Not her best , but still enjoyable
Review: Hamish McBeth is called to a strange murder scene. Inveterate practical Joker Andrew Trent has been murdered by a guest in his home. The live in couple already have him laid out with candles on his billiard table. Apparently, the deceased got all of his relatives to visit him by saying that he was dying. After tormenting them with various cruel practical jokes, he is found stabbed to death in one of the guest's rooms. They all hated him enough to kill him, but which one actually did?

This wasn't the best of the series. The characters are not very sympathetic and are pretty two dimensional. Hamish and Priscilla's relationship has no real place in the story, and the ending really doesn't resolve much. A quick read, but not up to her usual standards.

Rating:
Summary: Not her best , but still enjoyable
Review: Hamish McBeth is called to a strange murder scene. Inveterate practical Joker Andrew Trent has been murdered by a guest in his home. The live in couple already have him laid out with candles on his billiard table. Apparently, the deceased got all of his relatives to visit him by saying that he was dying. After tormenting them with various cruel practical jokes, he is found stabbed to death in one of the guest's rooms. They all hated him enough to kill him, but which one actually did.

This wasn't the best of the series. The characters are not very sympathetic and are pretty two dimensional. Hamish and Priscilla's relationship has no real place in the story, and the ending really doesn't resolve much. A quick read, but not up to her usual standards.

Rating:
Summary: A Decent, Serviceable Mystery
Review: In Death of a Prankster, a mean-spirited millionaire claims he's at death's door. Assorted family members and hangers-on rush over to stay at his mansion, hoping to be rewarded in his will. Our millionaire is, of course, a prankster, and universally loathed. He wasn't dying when his guests arrive, but within days he is murdered.

Suspects include the millionaire's daughters, his biological son, his biological son's wife and her son, his adopted son, a gameskeeper, and the sons' girlfriends.

This book is neither wonderful nor terrible. It held my attention and is very thin, so it would make a good quick read when you need to quickly pick a book for a fairly short airplane ride or something of the sort.

I guessed most of the surprises, but the story was reasonably well-told, and a couple of the characters were especially well-drawn. But Death of a Prankster is certainly nothing special, and has no particularly original or distinctive elements. Lots of books use a "house party" plot. Of those, I'd rate contributions by Ngaio Marsh, Agatha Christie, Carolyn Hart, and James Anderson better than Death of a Prankster, and Walter Satterthwait's Escapade considerably worse.

Rating:
Summary: Not one of her best
Review: In this book we see Hamish called to Arrat House on the demise of the master of the house, Mr. Arthur Trent. Hamish has had a previous run-in with this man because of one of Trent's endless practical jokes, so Hamish is not sure if it's a real murder when he's called or just a prank. It turns out to be real, so Hamish sets out to find a killer. We see the odious Inspector Blair and more of Priscilla in this book. I found the plot a little thin, and it's missing a lot of the unique highland flare that shows up in Ms. Beaton's other books, but well worth a read if you're reading the series as I am.

Rating:
Summary: Not one of her best
Review: In this book we see Hamish called to Arrat House on the demise of the master of the house, Mr. Arthur Trent. Hamish has had a previous run-in with this man because of one of Trent's endless practical jokes, so Hamish is not sure if it's a real murder when he's called or just a prank. It turns out to be real, so Hamish sets out to find a killer. We see the odious Inspector Blair and more of Priscilla in this book. I found the plot a little thin, and it's missing a lot of the unique highland flare that shows up in Ms. Beaton's other books, but well worth a read if you're reading the series as I am.

Rating:
Summary: An average book by an extraordinary author.
Review: This book has a good plot, but the plot is over shadowed by the amount of descriptive detail that hovers around a hippie with pink hair.A good book, but not the greatest. I recommend Death of A Gossip or Death of A Snob.

Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: This was my first M.C.Beaton book, and so far I have read many more. My mother bought it for me becasue she enjoyed his writing for a long time. This was a funny mystery because the prankster would play pranks even after he was gone... The best M.C Beaton book i have read.
The humor and incidents leading to the crime are exciting and fast moving. I couldn't figure out who did it, and it takes a skill to make the reader wonder and not feel the need ot give up at the same time, without giving the answer away.