Product Description

"Splendid fun." The New York Times Book Review

A Hamish Macbeth mystery.

Wealthy Maggie Baird is neither nice nor kind nor generous. Once she was beautiful, but now, although middle-aged, she retains the appetites of a beautiful woman. When Maggie's car catches fire with her inside it, suspicion focuses on the five houseguests staying at Maggie's luxurious Highlands cottage: her timid niece and four former lovers, once of whom Maggie had intended to pick for a husband. All five are impecunious. All five had ample opportunity to monkey with Maggie's car. So finding who did it requires all Police Constable Hamish Macbeth's extraordinary common sense and insight into human nature. And lazy lout though he may be, Hamish lets no grass grow under his feet when it comes to solving a murder. Especially when he may be the next target.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45646 in Books
• Published on: 1991-09-23
• Released on: 1991-09-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 160 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780804107686
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
The Scottish village of Lochdubh has a problem: the beloved police constable, Hamish Macbeth ( Death of a Perfect Wife ), has been transferred to Strathbane because of a dearth of local crime. In a successful bid to get him back, the villagers, led by newcomer Maggie Baird, organize a crime wave. On his return, Hamish is confronted with a possible murder. Maggie, who in younger and slimmer years had amassed a fortune as a well-rewarded kept woman, dies, ostensibly of a heart attack during a car fire. Suspects include her niece and heir, Alison, who had been living with Maggie after recuperating from lung cancer, and four of Maggie's former lovers and present suitors, whom she had invited for a visit: an ad man, a car salesman, a manager of a gambling club and a fading pop singer, all of them in dire need of money. Hamish draws on his knowledge of the local people and of human nature to solve the case. Meanwhile he continues his off-again, on-again romance with a daughter of the local gentry and attempts to stay out of hot water with his superiors, who resent his unpredictable approach to life and policing. Beaton's newest continues one of the finest, and most offbeat, police procedural series around.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The Scottish village of Lochdubh successfully initiates a crime wave in order to get their one policeman, Hamish MacBeth, transferred back to town. Their harmless crime reports turn into something quite different when a wealthy, retired prostitute decides to write a tell-all biography, invite a few of her old lovers to town, and change her will. Lots of red herrings here, but Hamish finds the culprit and brings his little village back to relative peace, disturbed only by local bickering. It is this underlying grumbling as well as the ugly murders that ruin the beautiful setting and detract from the lightheartedness of Beaton's story. The cast of unpleasant people make it hard to care which one is guilty. Davina Porter offers a fine reading with her musical Scottish accent and flexible voice. Recommended for larger mystery collections. Juleigh Muirhead Clark, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Lib., Colonial Williamsburg Fdn., VA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap
"Splendid fun." The New York Times Book Review
A Hamish Macbeth mystery.
Wealthy Maggie Baird is neither nice nor kind nor generous. Once she was beautiful, but now, although middle-aged, she retains the appetites of a beautiful woman. When Maggie's car catches fire with her inside it, suspicion focuses on the five houseguests staying at Maggie's luxurious Highlands cottage: her timid niece and four former lovers, once of whom Maggie had intended to pick for a husband. All five are impecunious. All five had ample opportunity to monkey with Maggie's car. So finding who did it requires all Police Constable Hamish Macbeth's extraordinary common sense and insight into human nature. And lazy lout though he may be, Hamish lets no grass grow under his feet when it comes to solving a murder. Especially when he may be the next target.

Customer Reviews

Macbeth to the rescue (again!)
Ahhh! If a good draught of single malt and a Hamish Macbeth mystery won't cure you, then you really need to see a doctor! M.C. Beaton's well-established series featuring Lochdubh's finest, Macbeth himself, is right on cue with this edition.

PC Macbeth is called upon to investigate the death of--you guessed it--a "hussy"! Seems that Maggie Baird, besides being a wealthy, once-beautiful middle aged woman, is also something of a pain! So much so that she goes up in flames--in her car! This is no "hot date in the Highlands," but murder out and out! And there are suspects aplenty: four former lovers and her own niece! All certainly had the means and the motive.

Macbeth to the rescue, of course! Hamish himself has a few pieces of personal baggage as well, as we've learned through the series. His long on-again, off-again romance with Priscilla Haliburton-Smythe, superiors who are jealous of his successes, and his "lack of ambition" (he's quite happy, thank you, to stay in this wee Scottish village, as promotions are not his desire, prefering instead to stay "small town"! Of course, as we know from the series, this small town seems to have an inordinate number of murders! No matter. Beaton provides us with a delightful (albeit lite!) bill of fare! (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

The Best Book in the Hamish Macbeth Series!
What's a hussy? The definition that fits this book is "an immoral woman." As you can imagine, hussies are not well regarded in the conservative Scottish highlands. Put a hussy in that locale, and the results can be explosive.

If you love Hamish Macbeth mysteries, you have a great treat ahead of you with Death of a Hussy. But if you haven't read any of the books in the series, you owe it to yourself to begin with the excellent, Death of a Gossip. Then go on to read the books in order of their publication. You'll enjoy the development of the ongoing characters better that way.

As the book opens, Hamish has been banished to Strathbane to be beat officer. His new partner there proves to be a good foil for lots of humor. But he misses Lochdubh. Feeling forlorn, rescue comes from an unexpected direction: New resident Maggie Baird suggests that the locals make up imaginary crimes to force the powers to be to send Hamish back . . . even though she's never met him. Strathbane capitulates and Hamish returns. Then the story leaps forward in time as Maggie retires from the scene to work on recovering her previous good looks from the days when she was a highly sought-after companion for rich men. Her timid niece, Allison, remains behind with one thing on her mind: Becoming a driver. Hamish is pressed into duty as her driving instructor. The book alternates between Hamish and Allison as the narrators, and the contrast enlivens the story development. Maggie unexpectedly returns, much thinner, more toned, with freshly dyed and cropped hair, and wearing expensive clothes. But she's in a bad mood. She has set up four of her former lovers in competition to marry her for her money. In the meantime, Maggie makes life difficult for Allison, her heir. When Maggie dies following a suspicious car fire, the criminal investigation part of Death of a Hussy begins. You probably won't have any trouble figuring out who the murderer is, but it's a most enjoyable story. There's also a development on the Priscilla-Hamish front to look forward to.

Death of a Hussy has several qualities that make it stand out from other books in the series:

1. The subplots are long, interesting, and invariably humorous.
2. The time involved isn't compressed into just a few days. As a result, there's more room for interaction and development in relations among the characters.
3. There's more variety of locales than usual.
4. The humor is much stronger throughout the book. You almost get a sense of M.C. Beaton as being a perfectly happy person in reading this book.
5. The plot nicely brings out new dimensions of the on-going characters in ways that strengthen the series for future books.

This book shows much more care in planning and execution than the earlier or later books in the series. It's as though M.C. Beaton realized that she had a potentially bigger winner on her hands if she made some mid-course corrections in the series . . . and those corrections are perfect!

Fast and Fun read
Hamish is stationed in Strathbane, due to the downsizing of constabularies in the Highlands. He is unhappy with living in the city and with the attitude of his new partner. The residents of Lochdubh are unhappy with the situation also. A new woman in town suggests that they stage a series of fake crimes to get him back, it works. Mrs. Baird is something of a femme fatale, encased in a layer of fat. She is a former professional hussy and has amassed a fortune with her looks. She has taken in a niece recovering from cancer, and turned her into a secretary, unpaid of course. When she goes away to restore her looks, her niece is charged with typing up her filthy memoirs. The girl wants to learn how to drive and to get a proper job, but Mrs. Baird forbids it. Hamish teaches her to drive and she is feeling independent until her aunt returns home and announces that she is getting married again and cutting the niece out of her will. She is killed shortly thereafter and the niece and Mrs. Baird's four suitors are the main suspects.

This is a typical Hamish McBeth book. The mystery isn't difficult, but the characters and story line are alot of fun.