Death of a Liar by M.C. Beaton

Death of a Liar by M.C. Beaton
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Sergeant Hamish Macbeth is alarmed to receive a report from a woman in the small village of Cronish in the Scottish Highlands. She has been brutally attacked and the criminal is on the loose. But upon further investigation, Hamish discovers that she was lying about the crime. So when the same woman calls him back about an intruder, he simply marvels at her compulsion to lie. This time, though, she is telling the truth. Her body is found in her home and Hamish must sort through all of her lies to solve the crime.

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This reading experience was a bit...odd. I was expecting a cozy British mystery, but what a got was a British mystery book that was apparently trying very hard to be funny, but failed. At least for me, it failed. There were so many weird things happening all the time, two spinster sisters accusing the main character, Hamish Macbeth of being a Casanova every time he was seen with a woman, a woman getting bit by a fox, a woman finding a dead body and then she stumbles and hits her head and dies, etc. But it wasn't funny, in any way. The case in itself could have been more interesting, a woman with mythomania gets killed and it all leads to a religious cult. But it lacked depth in both the characters and the story and Macbeth's women problems get a bit too much attention.

This is the first Hamish Macbeth book I read, so perhaps you have to read them from the beginning to appreciate the books and its "humor"...
Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a free copy through Netgalley for an honest review!