Rating: 
Summary: Better to read of Hamish's problems than deal with your own.
Review: "Death of a Celebrity" is a great diversion. Sure there are murders, but the victims really deserve what they got. The mystery is in who among the many candidates for murderer is the one.There is satisfaction of being in a different place with other people having problems instead of you. The reader has her own mysteries, such as who in the town has secrets; how are they connected with each other; why is Hamish so opposed to being promoted and when in the world will he quit obsessing over past love and see who is next to him; and finally why does he wash his boss's
underwear. Will I read the next one--yes indeed, the next time I want to escape my own intrigues.
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: Very Cozy Read
Review: Excellent book to curl up with on a cold winter night! I loved the humor along with a good puzzle.
Rating:
Summary: Good on character; irritating plot
Review: Good on character and atmosphere. But nobody actually investigates! Each plot step is that a non-detective (Hamish or his new girlfriend) suggests an obvious new angle. Some ignorant editor with a spell-checker in the American publisher changed "Gaelic" to "Gallic" a dozen times. It was a nice read on a couple of days when I needed to calm down. But frustrating.
Rating: 
Summary: no win for Hamish one more time
Review: I keep coming back to M.C. Beaton, then am put off by the fact that she NEVER lets her characters win. As I'm not into light fiction for postmodern angst, I'm going to give even dear old Hamish a pass from here on. The story was the usual. Interchangeable with previous tales. I actually liked the new love interest. But the ending. Whooh! Way lame.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best
Review: I miss the radiant Priscilla. She had an intelligence that complemented Hamish and his intuition. Please don't dump her.
I enjoyed the play of minds in previous books. Here the case is not solved by reasoning or flashes of insight, but by mysticism.
Carson is a nice addition. I see a plot brewing to snatch Hamish from Lochdubh.
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: The Best One Yet!
Review: In her latest Constable Hamish MacBeth tale, Death of a Celebrity, M.C.Beaton has outdone herself! Arguably the best yet of this cozy series, Beaton finally fulfills the potential of the series. In this book, Hamish, himself, has been fleshed-out - flaws-and-all, to the degree that on our next trip to Scotland, I expect to be able to spot his tall, red-haired form patrolling the streets of his cherished Lochdubh and the rugged Highlands, as well! Too, coming from a law enforcement heritage as I do, I recognize MacBeth's bucking of "the brass" as a behavior also resorted to by other bright, young talents who serve on police departments in the US, as well...As one who loves both the British "cozy" and the country of Scotland, itself, I have thoroughly enjoyed ALL of M.C.Beaton's books; THIS one is the very best!
| 
