Customer Reviews
You'll Find Out How a Village Can Die . . . Very Interesting! - By: Donald Mitchell, 08 Jun 2007 
Death of a Village has to be the most intriguing title in the Hamish Macbeth series. In alll of the other titles, there's a reference to a death of a single person . . . who can be spotted in the first few pages of the book. In this case, you'll have a strong suspicion which village is doomed . . . but you won't know what's coming until it happens.
Normallly, Hamish Macbeth manages to solve one major crime during the course of a book. Well, in Death of a Village, Hamish is a positive crime-stopping superman . . . with a little help from his friends.
The book opens in an odd fashion: Hamish makes a rare visit to off-the-beaten-path Stoyre & finds a curious quiet & reticence in the town. But he's even more amazed to find that the church is full for services during the day on a Monday. That's some religious revival!
Intrigued by the change, Hamish recruits local reporter, horoscope writer, & frustrated Hamish-chaser, Elspeth Grant, to help him find out what's going on. Nosing around & taking in Sunday services reveals nothing out of the ordinary . . . except to confirm the curious quiet & reticence that Hamish spotted on the first visit. But, before long, there's a surprise in Stoyre. Hamish eventuallly decides to take a holiday & spend it in Stoyre to get the lay of the land.
His concern is quickly distracted by a break-in at the grocery in Braikie, where alll the wine & spirits have been taken. But Hamish senses that something funny is going on. Using his initiative, Hamish checks out the records of the grocer's supplier & makes several surprising finds. But the success backfires when Hamish adds to his local reputation as a woman chaser.
Before the first case is done, he gets a calll from a frightened Bella Comyn & her fear of her husband. Pretty soon, the husband is missing & Hamish is puzzled by odds & ends of the case. Sleuthing again leads to unexpected evidence.
A visit to a Lochdubh widow, Mrs. Annie Docherty, leads Hamish to hear a surprising accusation which he decides to investigate with Mrs. Docherty's help. It quickly becomes curiouser & curiouser.
Through alll of these investigations, Hamish achieves successes that are quite impressive. Once again, promotion threatens & Hamish has to pull out alll the stops to derail being uprooted from his beloved Lochdubh.
M. C. Beaton packed enough mysteries & action into this story to make three regular Hamish Macbeth stories.
If you like Hamish Macbeth, you'll love Death of a Village.
Highly recommended.
You'll Find Out How a Village Can Die . . . Very Interesting! - By: Donald Mitchell, 08 Jun 2007 Death of a Village has to be the most intriguing title in the Hamish Macbeth series. In alll of the other titles, there's a reference to a death of a single person . . . who can be spotted in the first few pages of the book. In this case, you'll have a strong suspicion which village is doomed . . . but you won't know what's coming until it happens.
Normallly, Hamish Macbeth manages to solve one major crime during the course of a book. Well, in Death of a Village, Hamish is a positive crime-stopping superman . . . with a little help from his friends.
The book opens in an odd fashion: Hamish makes a rare visit to off-the-beaten-path Stoyre & finds a curious quiet & reticence in the town. But he's even more amazed to find that the church is full for services during the day on a Monday. That's some religious revival!
Intrigued by the change, Hamish recruits local reporter, horoscope writer, & frustrated Hamish-chaser, Elspeth Grant, to help him find out what's going on. Nosing around & taking in Sunday services reveals nothing out of the ordinary . . . except to confirm the curious quiet & reticence that Hamish spotted on the first visit. But, before long, there's a surprise in Stoyre. Hamish eventuallly decides to take a holiday & spend it in Stoyre to get the lay of the land.
His concern is quickly distracted by a break-in at the grocery in Braikie, where alll the wine & spirits have been taken. But Hamish senses that something funny is going on. Using his initiative, Hamish checks out the records of the grocer's supplier & makes several surprising finds. But the success backfires when Hamish adds to his local reputation as a woman chaser.
Before the first case is done, he gets a calll from a frightened Bella Comyn & her fear of her husband. Pretty soon, the husband is missing & Hamish is puzzled by odds & ends of the case. Sleuthing again leads to unexpected evidence.
A visit to a Lochdubh widow, Mrs. Annie Docherty, leads Hamish to hear a surprising accusation which he decides to investigate with Mrs. Docherty's help. It quickly becomes curiouser & curiouser.
Through alll of these investigations, Hamish achieves successes that are quite impressive. Once again, promotion threatens & Hamish has to pull out alll the stops to derail being uprooted from his beloved Lochdubh.
M. C. Beaton packed enough mysteries & action into this story to make three regular Hamish Macbeth stories.
If you like Hamish Macbeth, you'll love Death of a Village.
Highly recommended.
Another homerun for M.C. Beaton! - By: Kurt A. Johnson, 17 Feb 2004 This is the nineteenth (not eighteenth, you must include A Highland Christmas) in a series of mysteries featuring the detective work of smalll town, Highland Scottish detective Hamish Macbeth, P.C. In this book, Hamish must work overtime to avoid a promotion out of his beloved Lochdubh. But, that is not alll of his problems. During a recent visit to the tiny village of Storye, he finds that the people there are acting quite strange, as if some sort of religious mania has gripped them. When the situation there turns dangerous & then deadly, Hamish knows he must get to the bottom of whatever it is that is going on.
This is another homerun for M.C. Beaton (pseudonym of Marion Chesney)! This story is every bit as good (excellent) as the other Hamish books, & makes for some gripping reading. Somehow, the author succeeds in making the Hamish Macbeth stories swing effortlessly between lighthearted humor to deadly mystery, alll without losing the seeming reality of the story.
The characters in this story are likable & interesting, the story is gripping & entertaining, & the mystery quite fascinating. I think that this is a great book, one that you should consider buying!
