Product Description

There's not a cloud in Constable Hamish Macbeth's sky....

Just plenty of warm sunshine and not quite enough of beautiful Priscilla Halburton-Smythe.

But as eight hopeful members of the Checkmate Singles Club converge on Tommel Castle Hotel for a week of serious matchmaking, the clouds roll in. The four couples, carefully matched by dating director Maria Worth, immediately dislike each other. The arrival of Maria's gross, greedy partner, Peta, kills the last vestige of romance.

And as love goes out the window, murder comes in the door. Peta soon slurps up her last meal, and Hamish is left with a baffling puzzle: who shared the fateful outing that left Peta dead with a big red apple in her mouth? Surely not one of those singles....

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #265893 in Books
• Published on: 1995-05-01
• Released on: 1995-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 176 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The seventh Hamish Macbeth mystery (after Death of a Prankster ) lacks the series' key strengths: the canny, tousle-haired, beanpole charm of the Scottish highland copper and the dour weirdness of the remote village he lives in are given scant play here. Instead, the author scrambles to assemble her cast, kill her odious and obese victim and have Hamish shyly serve up the solution in the presence of the usual cast of nasty superiors who hate his guts. A motley assortment of desperate souls, members of the Checkmate Singles Club, have come to the village hotel to spouse-hunt. Suddenly, one of the visit's organizers, a hog of a woman, dies with an apple inserted in her sizable gullet. Peta Gore wasn't exactly a lovable sort, and among the gang of timid, mousy secretaries, aspiring yuppies, big-haired bimbos and elderly lawyers, a killer surely lurks. In most Macbeth mysteries, he can be found cadging drinks, walking Towser the dog and trying to come to terms with his feelings for fair Priscilla, daughter of the local fallen gentryman. This time Towser never gets out of the tiny police station, and the Hamish/Priscilla romantic misfires seem to be repeating themselves. A minor addition to a previously winning series.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The latest Hamish Macbeth case occurs near a Scottish Highlands hotel, where someone murders an obnoxious, man-chasing fat woman. A quick read.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Maria Worth, half owner of an exclusive matrimonial agency called Checkmates Singles Club, has set up a weeklong stay for a small group of members at Tommel Castle Hotel in the Scottish Highlands. The hotel is run by Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, longtime unrequited love of P.C. Hamish MacBeth, one-man police force of nearby Lubdoch village (Death of a Prankster, etc.). Maria's careful plans are disrupted, however, by the unexpected appearance of her unwanted business partner, Peta Gore, with sultry airhead niece Crystal in tow. Peta, a widow with millions, has refused Maria's attempts to buy her out. An obese glutton, she proceeds to instill unease and disgust in guests and staff. No surprise, then, when she's found dead in a nearby quarry, and certainly none when Hamish--working, as always, around his thickheaded superior Inspector Blair--solves the case, aided by a trumped-up last-minute stratagem. Beaton's cleareyed skewering of the locals and her way with the Scots dialect are right on--but the paper-thin major characters, the caricature of a victim, and the silly plot just don't make it. Harmless diversion for Hamish's fans, but unlikely to make new ones. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Hamish Macbeth's Diet Revolution
Well, perhaps not exactly a diet revolution, but even the reader will want to be the one to murder this disgusting glutton. Ms. Beaton once again weaves her highland magic, gathering together some real characters, killing off the figure who has absolutely no redeeming qualities, and letting the reader chase all the red herrings as Police Constable Hamish Macbeth (ever unambitious, ever the mooch, extremely unlucky in love and always in trouble with headquarters) takes us along for the ride. It is summer in the highlands of Scotland, and beautifully etched by the author, who sketches the characters with the same even hand. Delightful formula, but never exactly predictable.

More Fun If You Find the Suspects Humorous
Death of a Glutton is the eighth Hamish Macbeth mystery. It's the beautiful days of summer in Lochdubh, days that are soon to be replaced with cold and rain. Hamish is looking forward to enjoying these tranquil days while they last. But that hope is soon frustrated.

The Tommel Castle Hotel (formerly the home of Colonel and Mrs. Hallburton-Smythe and their daughter Priscilla before the Colonel lost his capital) is booming. But when a fishing party cancels at the last minute, the Colonel finds he may have to lower his social standards to fill the hotel. This fear is turned into a reality when Maria Worth books the hotel for Checkmate Singles Club, which matches up matrimonial prospects from among the well-to-do. Maria has invited eight people who want to marry well and thinks she has just the prospect for each one. Immediately, each one takes a dislike to the person Maria has in mind for them, but things seem to be proceeding anyway when they strike up conversations with other singles in the group.

Those plans are put seriously awry, however, when her not-so-silent partner, Peta Gore, shows up uninvited with her voluptuous, but self-centered, young niece, Crystal. The men flock to Crystal until they find she's dull. That enrages the women. Peta turns out to be a world-class overeater with the worst possible manners. Colonel Hallburton-Smythe takes his wife and heads out, leaving this troublesome party to Priscilla and Mr. Johnson to tend.

The story builds around Peta's eating. There's a memorable picnic involving a wee trip in the ocean that has humorous consequences. The chef becomes so enraged by Peta's behavior that he takes a bet he can feed her a most unappetizing source of protein and she'll be delighted.

Hamish thinks that all he has to do is to save the hotel's reputation. Things take a different turn when Peta first turns up missing, leaving behind a curious note, and is later found dead . . . with an apple crammed down her throat.

Who did it? And why? Hamish makes a bigger hash out of the investigation than usual . . . but does eventually put his finger on the guilty party.

Hoping for central heating in his wee police station, he ends with up two unexpected surprises instead.

The main appeal of this story comes in the outrageous burlesque of Peta's eating methods. That part is nicely developed. The other characters, by comparison, are pretty uninteresting and not especially attractive either. But their cardboard outlines do help fill out the story line. The mystery isn't very mysterious. The clues are everywhere.

My impression is that M.C. Beaton intended each of these characters to be pretty funny to the readers. I think she missed in that attempt. Instead, I found them all-too-pathetically familiar. The humor needed to be exaggerated more to work.

One of the other good aspects of the book comes in the humorous ways that Hamish and Priscilla mangle their relationship whenever it starts to warm up a bit. Priscilla finds herself becoming more than a little jealous of one of Hamish's admirers which helps set up the fun.

The villagers and Towser take back seat in this book which makes the story seem less authentic somehow.

Watch what you eat!

Death of a Glutton
"Death of a Glutton" is the eighth Hamish Macbeth mystery by M.C. Beaton set in the Scottish Highlands town of Lochdubh. An exclusive dating service, Checkmate, is having some of their members meet at the Tommel Castle Hotel which is owned by Colonel Halburton-Smythe, father of Priscilla, of whom Hamish is very fond. The dating service is owned by two women, Maria Worth and Peta Gore. Peta is a terrible glutton, eating everything in sight, and making people so mad that they think of ways to get rid of her. When she is found dead with an apple stuck in her mouth, it is up to Hamish to find the murderer. As usual, he upstages Inspector Blair from Strathbane. I am reading these novels in order, and I think that this is the best one to date. It is highly recommended.