A review by cheryl6of8
Death of a Greedy Woman by M.C. Beaton
3.0
I was in the mood for some fluff and this was the most accessible mystery on my BookCrossing shelf. Hamish Macbeth is a lucky man who lives in a lovely Highland village and isn't called on to do much work. He is able to enjoy the scenery and the fishing and hunting (legal and not so legal) time with his animals, and some friends. He has no great ambition to be anything more and is content with his life. Sadly, he is the village constable and people keep getting murdered around him and he keeps solving those murders and having to try to avoid promotion as a result. Luckily, his boss hates him. And he usually manages to do at least one stupid thing and have at least one eye-rollingly dumb encounter with a woman, whether it be his old flame Priscilla or some visitor at the hotel owned by Priscilla's father.
In this instance, there is a murder and a visiting woman who fancies him and a bit of back and forth with Priscilla and a dumb move on his part and an angry superior. The mystery is not the strongest of the series in terms of clues or detecting, but the flavor of the town of Lochdubh is more than half the charm of the series. The victim is rather universally loathed, so the suspects are plentiful and they are all out-of-towners, so the pleasant village life can resume when all is said and done. A great crime novel it is not -- but an amusing way to spend an afternoon, which is all I was looking for.
In this instance, there is a murder and a visiting woman who fancies him and a bit of back and forth with Priscilla and a dumb move on his part and an angry superior. The mystery is not the strongest of the series in terms of clues or detecting, but the flavor of the town of Lochdubh is more than half the charm of the series. The victim is rather universally loathed, so the suspects are plentiful and they are all out-of-towners, so the pleasant village life can resume when all is said and done. A great crime novel it is not -- but an amusing way to spend an afternoon, which is all I was looking for.