Death of a Gossip by M. C. Beaton
Published December 29, 2014

Book info
- Title
- Author M. C. Beaton
- Year
- Genres
Thoughts
This was an odd one for me to read, because I haven’t ever seen Hamish Macbeth before and only really knew it was about a Scottish detective. The story didn’t grab me to start with, particularly with all the foreshadowing. It felt like a nice, sedate murder mystery rather than the high tech crime thrillers nowadays. But that did mean a slow pace. Setting up the murder victim as being nasty to everyone so there were motives left, right and centre was a bit tedious but it paid off in the end.
I stuck with it through curiosity more than anything, and I did gradually start to enjoy it. Hamish himself is an odd central character as he’s actually off on the sidelines for much of it, and not particularly well liked by anyone involved. He does do the classic crime novel thing of investigating when he’s told not to though, so it doesn’t stray too far from the norm.
Good, if not top of my list of murder mysteries. I’ll probably see what the next one is like, so it certainly sparked my interest in Macbeth and his adventures.
Rating: Unrated