Product Description

After a romantic disappointment and an undeserved demotion, Scots village bobby Hamish Macbeth decides a week's holiday at the coastal village of Skag might be just the ticket. He's dead wrong, of course: the food is dire, and the man in the next room nags his wife so loudly and continuously that more than one person at the Friendly House bed-and-breakfast wishes him dead, though only Hamish is heard threatening him. When this chap's body is found floating in the river Skag, Hamish is the prime suspect. While clearing his name, the lanky Scot has to deal with the widow who's suddenly making eyes at a refined bachelor, two leather-skirted Glaswegian beauties intent on raising disco hell, and the rude revelation of one family man's secret life. Some holiday! Praise for M.C. Beaton: 'The detective novels of M. C. Beaton, a master of outrageous black comedy, have reached cult status' - Anne Robinson, "The Times".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20841 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

About the Author
M. C. Beaton worked as a Fleet Street journalist. She is the author of the Agatha Raisin novels, the Hamish Macbeth series and an Edwardian murder-mystery series. She divides her time between Paris and the Cotswolds, where she lives in a village very much like Agatha Raisin's beloved Carsely.

Customer Reviews

A good mystery
This is the eleventh in a series of mysteries featuring the detective work of small town, Highland Scottish detective Hamish Macbeth, P.C. In this story, Hamish sets out for a quiet (and cheap) vacation at the North Sea resort town of Skag. However, when he discovers the body of one of his fellow vacationers (a loud-mouthed nag of a husband), Hamish suddenly finds himself the prime suspect in a murder investigation. And so, with his faithful dog Towser in tow, Macbeth sets out to find out who caused the death of a nag.

My wife has been a big Hamish Macbeth fan for years, and she has now brought me into the fold. This was not my favorite Hamish Macbeth novel, in particular I found the ending sadly cynical, but I did enjoy reading it. I liked the setting and the characters, and think that M.C. Beaton is an excellent. So, if you are interested in a story set in modern Scotland, or just a good mystery, then I highly recommend this book to you.

Macbeth takes a holiday!
In "Death of a Nag," M.C. Beaton returns with her eleventh Hamish Macbeth mystery, and he is continuing to keep Lochdubh safe and sound. And the Scottish Highlands couldn't be in better hands! Aside from his on-again, off-again romance with Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, Macbeth takes his responsibilities quite seriously (there are those in the village who think of him as lazy, no-good, and quite irresponsible for "letting" Priscilla go!). In this episode, Macbeth has taken off a few days

to "recharge his batteries," but, alas, the charming seaside resort (Friendly House) is teeming with the usual Beaton characters. Macbeth finds the company tiresome, the food inedible, and, sure enough, a body: that of one of the guests, a terrific nag. And who better is the suspect that the victim's wife, whom he publically ridiculed (and nagged!). Beaton makes sure that all of the characters are suspects (a "regular" ingredient of Beaton's works!), but only Macbeth is able to sort

out the culprit. Charming, easy-to-read, and worthwhile.

Holiday House of Horrors

This is the 11th Hamish Macbeth mystery. At the end of Death of a Charming Man, Hamish breaks his unofficial engagement with Priscilla. It wasn't just that she tried to run his life; she was too good at it! Also, Priscilla couldn't warm up to him at male-female level which left him feeling bereft. Naturally, the sturdy citizens of Lockdubh and his police colleagues think that Hamish must have lost his mind. He gets full blame for the breakup. Hamish is also demoted back to police constable for his mistake at the end of Death of a Charming Man. Feeling pretty bad, he decides he needs a wee holiday. Finding a low-priced boarding house in Skag, Hamish heads off with Towser.

Arriving in Skag, Hamish finds that he's jumped out of the pot into the fire. The boarding house (so-called Friendly House) serves inedible food that seems spoiled, and the owners are openly hostile. Not only that, someone has been into his things. His next-door neighbors never stop arguing, and the husband is always nagging his wife about something or the other. The only respite comes when Hamish slugs the nag in self-defense and threatens to kill him if he doesn't stop on his wife. Naturally, the husband calls in the local constabulary. Hamish is saved from jail by the wife's willingness to defend him. After that contretemps, Hamish tries to organize outings with the more amiable of the fellow guests and starts to have a good time . . . when he suddenly spots the nag's body in the water. Naturally, Hamish is suspect number one . . . until a retired teacher gives him an unexpected alibi.

Hamish finds himself drawn into the investigation, but he's got a tagalong, police constable Maggie Donald, who wants to use her female wiles to get ahead. Through some pretty unusual detective methods, Hamish begins to uncover the secrets of his fellow boarders . . . and plenty of motives for murder.

Before the book is done, Hamish has suffered another great loss. The book concludes on a sad note that strikes against optimism about love conquering all.

In many ways, this story has better development than most of ten books that preceded it. But the book lacks charm and appeal. Frankly, it's a bit of a downer.

But for a continuing series, this story fits nicely and lays the groundwork for further series developments that I'm sure will reward readers in the future.

But if you don't feel like you need to read every book in the series, you could skip this one.

I usually devour one the Hamish Macbeth books at one sitting. In this case, I found myself going very slowly. It was just such a downer. I give Ms. Beaton great credit for being able to capture that mood and transmit it to me.

Ultimately, the story's weakness is that the characters aren't very attractive. Even the ones you don't like in a normal Hamish Macbeth story are interesting enough that you want to know more about them. In this case, I didn't find any of the new characters to be particularly interesting.