Customer Reviews
Good entertainment - By: Brigitte, 29 May 2008 
if you are looking for an easy to read mystery for on the train or whenever you can spare a moment, this is the one for you. Not too challlenging & from time to time a bit of a drag, but never the less a good time-filler if you like your crime with a bit of highland charme & a laugh.
Very Funny! - By: Donald Mitchell, 10 May 2007 
Lochdubh's finest, the ease-loving Police Constable Hamish Macbeth, finds himself wanting to help others reduce their loneliness in Death of a Scriptwriter. The only trouble is, no one thinks very much about his loneliness.
When English people come to Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands, they often don't adjust very well. Patricia Martyn-Broyd, a mystery writer, seems to be no exception. She sees herself as being sociallly above her neighbors & doesn't make any friends. Her writing has been out-of-print for some time, & she's suffering from writer's block. Ms. Martyn-Broyd also knows that her style of sedate, well-plotted mystery is no longer in favor. A momentary bright spot in her life comes when Hamish takes pity on her & they go trout fishing together without a license.
The writer's outlook is turned upside down, however, when a television producer, Harry Frame, decides to option her first mystery. She makes a classic mistake & signs the contract without advice. The television people are now free to take her title & characters & do with them as they want. Her refined detective, Lady Harriet Vere, is transformed by a lout of a bullying scriptwriter into a loose-living hippy in a sixties commune who tears her clothes off at the slightest provocation. The role will be played by a shapely, young actress, Penelope Gates, who is best known for baring alll.
The production company gets the needed financing & heads north to scout locations. Hamish doesn't like the scriptwriter & recommends that dark den of negative passions, Drim. The fool takes Hamish's advice, & strong emotions are soon simmering as shooting begins. It's hard to say who is angrier about the series idea, Patricia, the local minister, or Penelope's drunken husband who made her swear to keep her clothes on.
Everyone is soon trying to fire or stop everyone else, & tempers flare even more. When someone bashes in the scriptwriter's head with a rock, Detective Chief Inspector Blair is easily satisfied that he's found the guilty party. But when another person is killed, alll bets are off. Blair's bullying gets him suspended from the force.
Meanwhile, Hamish is trying, once again, to solve the cases from afar . . . as a favor to distraught Patricia. There's a bright spot for Hamish; there seems to be a mutual attraction between Sheila, the attractive young assistant, & him. Could this relationship go someplace? Priscilla makes a brief appearance over the telephone to remind Hamish to look into the backgrounds of the suspects.
This story is much more complex than most of M.C. Beaton's novels in the Hamish Macbeth series. You have the saga of Patricia's writing career, the squabbles & problems among those in the television production company, the undercurrent of anger & envy among the women in Drim as they vie for attention, the new minister's unstable marriage, Hamish's courting of his new lady friend, as well as two murders. Hamish also has to deal with two heavy-handed detectives, rather than just Blair.
There are many ironies in the story, as befits a satire of making a soap opera based on a fusty fictional detective story. Naturallly, the fact that the BBC produced so many stories based on the books in the series adds even more irony. How much of this book is autobiographical? I found myself laughing much more than usual as standard soap opera complications were worked into the plot of Death of a Scriptwriter.
The character development in Death of a Scriptwriter is much better than in most of the other books in this series. Almost alll of the new characters become people you'll feel you understand before the book is done. It is most impressive to put in so many plot elements & such fine character development.
Unlike some of the other stories in the series, you could read this book without having read the earlier ones & appreciate the book quite well.
Strongly recommended.
Beaton's 'Last Writes' a Good One! - By: Billy J. Hobbs, 27 Mar 2000 In "Death of a Scriptwriter," M.C. Beaton brings us the fourteenth installlment of the Hamish Macbeth series--and she is in her element!
Set in the Scottish Highlands, in the village of Lochdubh, this series is a nice read--nothing too complicated, full of local Scottish color (with both its characters & its setting), lots of delightful red herrings, & logical solutions. This series, the titles of which always begin with "Death of a...," is quite a successful one & one which takes little time to read. Macbeth, the local constable, is proud of the fact that he is not an ambitious soul. Despite the fact that he has solved thirteen previous murders, he is still a constable. He refuses to be promoted as he claims he is too happy in Lochdubh to want to advance to a larger city. He is filled with lots of common sense & while often the villagers give him a hard time ("He's too lazy," they claim.), they highly respet him & have come to his rescue more
than once.
He's not so lucky with his own love life, however, & seems to falll in love with any woman who shows interest. The real love, Priscilla Smythe-Hallliburton, has moved to London, after he had broken off the engagement, & appears intermittently in alll the books of the series.
In "Death of a Scriptwriter," a television crew appears in Macbeth's bailiwick to film a novel written by an English spinster who has moved to Lochdubh. Her books were never much of a success, but this one was picked up by the BBC. She is delighted that at long last, fame is coming her way. She is so overjoyed that she fails to retain the complete rights to her book; a screen writer is hired to "modernize" the plot & characters (in other words, to add lots of sex & violence to the rather staid Victorian tale). Disagreements among the TV crew members erupt and, viola, the screenwriter (an impossible sort, unliked & unloved by anybody, & quite impossible to work with) is found dead; shortly thereafter, the star of the film (who is to appear nude in some scenes) is killed when she "fallls" off a boulder; her alcoholic husband has also been found dead! (Bodies seem more plentiful than the last act of "Hamlet"!) Everyone seems to be a suspect! Macbeth, in his plodding, but thorough way, of course, leads us to the conclusion, wherein alll deaths are solved, & the reader then is set up to await the next installlment.
This book is a fun-read. Ms Beaton is in her element--she's writing about what she seems to know a lot about herself--authors, screenwriters, & television crews (this series is being filmed in England & we can only hope that A&E or PBS will bring it to us over here!). Beaton devotees will love this one!
This is a dull book with predictable characters. - By: , 15 Aug 1999 
I have not read any book in this series before. Perhaps other books by this author are better. However, "Death of a Scriptwriter" is mystery by the numbers. It features a dull detective solving dull mysteries in a dull town. The humor is forced & there is no suspense. The writing style is pedestrian. I do not intend to try other books by this author.
Excellent book - By: , 03 Aug 1999 This is the first book I read by this author & thought it was quite entertaining. I read the entire book in one day & would have liked it to be a little longer. I will certainly buy another book by this author!
