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A review by fritz_sands
Death of a Gossip by M.C. Beaton
3.0
I have REALLY mixed feelings about this book. This is the first book I have read by this author.
The structure is a classic drawing-room mystery, where the detective gathers all of the suspects together at the end and reveals his chain of deductions and fingers the killer.
Things I liked:
The scenery -- Scottish Highlands never disappoint. And there certainly are enough local details (like the summer midges that plague everyone). And the Scottish annoyance at the English. And English snobbery. And the contempt of more urban Scots toward rural Scots.
Hamish Macbeth. His character is slowly being developed. His lack of ambition is explained a bit. And his very tight money situation. I hope his character is more fully developed in later books.
The continuing characters in the village should be interesting going forward.
Things I did not like:
Way too much effort was made to detail the loathsomeness of the victim. Everyone had a motive to kill her, fine, but by the time her corpse is found, the reader would be happy to do the job. That was heavy-handed.
The drawing room reveal. One of the precepts of the drawing room conclusion is that the reader is pitting his rationality and observation against the detective. Hamish had no actual information to reveal.
Seriously, Hamish pegged the murderer because he had speculation with little data that she had been a prostitute in NYC and showed it by having shifty eyes. I can't even.
The structure is a classic drawing-room mystery, where the detective gathers all of the suspects together at the end and reveals his chain of deductions and fingers the killer.
Things I liked:
The scenery -- Scottish Highlands never disappoint. And there certainly are enough local details (like the summer midges that plague everyone). And the Scottish annoyance at the English. And English snobbery. And the contempt of more urban Scots toward rural Scots.
Hamish Macbeth. His character is slowly being developed. His lack of ambition is explained a bit. And his very tight money situation. I hope his character is more fully developed in later books.
The continuing characters in the village should be interesting going forward.
Things I did not like:
Way too much effort was made to detail the loathsomeness of the victim. Everyone had a motive to kill her, fine, but by the time her corpse is found, the reader would be happy to do the job. That was heavy-handed.
The drawing room reveal. One of the precepts of the drawing room conclusion is that the reader is pitting his rationality and observation against the detective. Hamish had no actual information to reveal.
Spoiler
Seriously, Hamish pegged the murderer because he had speculation with little data that she had been a prostitute in NYC and showed it by having shifty eyes. I can't even.