Death of a Valentine

March 29, 2010
The news has spread quickly that the charming, much sought after police sergeant Hamish Macbeth is to marry his constable, Josie McSween, in the Scottish village of Lochdubh—but their latest case, the one that brought them together in the first place, is unraveling so quickly and dangerously that their lives—not to mention their engagement—are soon in jeopardy. Haughty, clipped, with shades of radio drama, the hokey narration by Graeme Malcolm is a disappointment, but considering the quality of the writing, it shouldn't be much of a surprise. Malcolm has little to work with in this lackluster thriller, which offers an abundance of mystery genre clichés that go from charming and nostalgic to downright annoying in a hurry. A Grand Central hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 9).

November 9, 2009
In bestseller Beaton’s enjoyable 25th Hamish Macbeth mystery (after 2008’s Death of a Witch
), a Valentine’s Day parcel explodes in the face of the Scottish Highlands’ Lammas festival queen, Annie Fleming, as soon as she tries to open it, killing her instantly. Hamish Macbeth, newly promoted to sergeant, would rather investigate with only his trusty pets in tow, but is instead forced to tote along his new constable, the less than professional Josie McSween. Considered “prim and proper and a right innocent,” Annie turns out to have been leading a less than virtuous double life, with no shortage of suspects in her murder. A much sought after bachelor, Hamish desperately tries to break the case, while Josie, with dreams in her eyes, strives to crack Hamish’s heart. Will Josie succeed in getting Hamish to say “I do” at the altar? For all the book’s farcical moments, Beaton takes care as usual to provide a satisfying police procedural.

November 1, 2009
Police officer Hamish MacBeth finds himself in danger, and not just from a cold-blooded killer.

Despite his sleuthing success (Death of a Witch, 2009, etc.), Hamish has dedicated his life to keeping a low profile in order to stay in Lochdubh, his beloved Highland village. But now he's been promoted to sergeant and had a constable foisted on him. The newcomer is pretty Josie McSween, who requested the job because she imagines herself in love with Hamish. When local beauty queen Annie Fleming is blown up by a letter bomb on Valentine's Day, Josie is more concerned with plots to capture Hamish's heart than with solving the case. Annie hid many secrets from her deeply religious parents, including drug use and a series of men. The case escalates when Annie's heroin-dealing boyfriend is murdered after a raid on the local club where he hangs out is a bust. Suspecting that the owner was tipped off by a crooked cop, Hamish becomes the next target of a hired hit man; only his loyal pets save him from certain death. Meanwhile, an ever more desperate Josie, who's taken to drink, hatches a plot to drug Hamish, climb into bed with him and claim to be pregnant. He has a better chance of finding the killer than of escaping Josie's nefarious plot to trick him into matrimony.

The Highlands' most famous bachelor has a narrow escape in Beaton's amusing update on the irresistible Hamish and his coterie of friends and ex-loves.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

December 1, 2009
Beatons cozies set in the fictional Highland village of Lochdubh and starring the crusty village constable Hamish Macbeth are sometimes so predictable in their stranger comes to the village and gets murdered or irascible villager gets murdered plotlines that the cozy quickly becomes a drowsy. It seems that Beaton bestirred herself for this, the twenty-fifth in the series. It combines her gift for scenic description with an inventive, constantly surprising plot. Two women are at the center of the action: one is a constable from Strathbane, assigned to work for Macbeth, who lives in perpetual fear of being transferred to the urban blight of Strathbane. The other woman is the town beauty, queen of the Lammas Fest, who dies after opening a letter-bomb Valentine. This beauty queen is, we learn, what Scotland Yard terms a murderee, someone whose life invites violence. Both Beaton fans and newcomers to cozies will find her latest explosive and engaging.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)