Death of a Gentle Lady

December 10, 2007
Full of the author’s trademark zest and wit, bestseller Beaton’s 23rd Hamish Macbeth mystery (after 2007’s Death of a Maid
) finds the 50-year-old Scottish detective taking pity on a beautiful Turkish maid named Ayesha in danger of being deported, and asking her to marry him. When Ayesha goes missing and her employer, Mrs. Gentle, turns up murdered, Hamish discovers that his bride-to-be wasn’t exactly who she claimed to be. The villagers thought Mrs. Gentle was a sweet old lady, but why would such a nice woman be the target of blackmail? Threaded throughout the ever-twisting plot of the murder investigation are the ongoing saga of Hamish’s love life and the vendetta against him of his nemesis, Detective Chief Inspector Blair. Beaton fans will be delighted.

January 1, 2008
The long-running Hamish Macbeth series (this is the twenty-third entry) is the fictional equivalent of Yorkshire vet James Herriotts tales. Like Herriott, Macbeth is in love with his northerly country (in Macbeths case, the Highlands of Scotland) and tends to the eccentric, cranky, sometimes villainous villagers through his professionMacbeth is the sole policeman in the tiny town of Lochdubh. In the latest, Macbeth takes a loathing to the latest transplant from Britain, Mrs. Margaret Gentle, who lives in a nineteenth-century, turreted, cliff-side castle. Gentle launches a smear campaign that results in the threatened closing of Macbeths station. This mystery is loaded with action, including a gorgeous illegal alien, fired by Gentle, whom Macbeth promises to marry; the discovery of the aliens body in a trunk in the castle; and the discovery of Mrs. Gentle in the sea crashing around her castle. Filled with Highlands scenery, sharp observation, and hairpin-turn plotting.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)