#ReleaseSpotlight Death of an Honest Man M. C. Beaton @GrandCentralPub #Giveaway

M.C. Beaton
HARDCOVER BOOK - 1455558311 / 9781455558315
ELECTRONIC BOOK - 1455558338 / 9781455558339
Available in the U.S. Feb. 20, 2018

DESCRIPTION

Sergeant Hamish Macbeth--Scotland's most quick-witted but unambitious policeman--returns in M.C. Beaton's new mystery in her New York Times bestselling series.

DEATH OF AN HONEST MAN

Nobody loves an honest man, or that was what police sergeant Hamish Macbeth tried to tell newcomer Paul English. Paul had moved to a house in Cnothan, a sour village on Hamish's beat.

He attended church in Lochdubh. He told the minister, Mr. Wellington, that his sermons were boring. He told tweedy Mrs. Wellington that she was too fat and in these days of increasing obesity it was her duty to show a good example. Angela Brody was told her detective stories were pap for the masses and it was time she wrote literature instead. He accused Hamish of having dyed his fiery red hair. He told Jessie Currie--who repeated all the last words of her twin sister--that she needed psychiatric help.

"I speak as I find," he bragged. Voices saying, "I could kill that man," could be heard from Lochdubh to Cnothan.

And someone did.

Now Hamish is faced with a bewildering array of suspects. And he's lost the services of his clumsy policeman, Charlie, who has resigned from the force after Chief Inspector Blair berated Charlie one too many times, and the policeman threw Blair into the loch. Can Hamish find the killer on his own?

Death of an Honest Man by M. C. Beaton

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

M. C. Beaton has won international acclaim for her New York Times bestselling Hamish Macbeth mysteries, and the BBC has aired twenty-four episodes based on the series. Beaton is also the author of the bestselling Agatha Raisin novels, which aired as an eight-episode dramatic series on PBS, starring Ashley Jensen. M. C. Beaton's books have been translated into seventeen languages. She lives in the Cotswolds. For more information, you can visit MCBeaton.com.

WEBSITE: http://www.mcbeaton.com/us/
TWITTER: @mc_beaton
FACEBOOK: @MCBeatonAuthor

  

PRAISE FOR M.C. BEATON:

“Satisfying for both established and new Macbeth fans.”
---Booklist

“Longing for escape? Tired of waiting for Brigadoon to materialize? Time for a trip to Lochdubh, the scenic, if somnolent, village in the Scottish Highlands where M.C. Beaton sets her beguiling whodunits featuring Constable Hamish Macbeth.”
---New York Times Book Review

“Hamish Macbeth is that most unusual character, one to whom the reader returns because of his charming flaws. May he never get promoted.”
---New York Journal of Books

“With residents and a constable so authentic, it won’t be long before tourists will be seeking Lockdubh and believing in the reality of Hamish Macbeth as surely as they believed in Sherlock Holmes.”
---Denver Rocky Mountain News

“Macbeth is the sort of character who slyly grows on you.”
---Chicago Sun-Times

“Beaton keeps this lighthearted series fresh.”
---Publisher’s Weekly

#BookReview Death of a Ghost by M.C. Beaton

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

There are many ruined castles in Scotland. One such lies outside the village of Drim. Hamish begins to hear reports that this castle is haunted and lights have been seen there at night, but he assumes it's some children or maybe the local lads going there to smoke pot, or, worse, inject themselves with drugs. Hamish says to his policeman, Charlie 'Clumsy' Carson, that they will both spend a night there.

The keening wind explains the ghostly noises, but when Charlie falls through the floor, Hamish finds the body of a dead man propped up in a corner of the cellar. After Charlie is airlifted to the hospital, Chief Detective Inspector Blair arrives to investigate the body, but there is none to be found. Dismissed as a drunk making up stories, Hamish has to find and identify the body and its killer before the "ghost" can strike again.

**********

I have only read one book previous in this series and to be honest was I not so impressed with it. However, I thought I would give the series on more chance. The story seemed interesting and I love reading books set in Scotland.

Death of a Ghost starts off with a haunted castle, but then it quickly turns into a murder mystery when Hamish and Charlie find a body in the castle. Who killed the man and why? This is only the beginning as more the killer goes after more people. And, it's up to Hamish to put a stop to it all.

I have some problems with this book, and one major problem is the way the book is written. It's pretty much just dialog and not much description. And, the dialog feels very terse and lacks fluency. This could be just me, but I find it very hard to get into the story because of that. The characters never come to life and for instance, Hamish problem with women, is that suppose to be funny? I actually don't know because it never is funny. It's just annoying. And Charlie being clumsy is another thing that is just not working for me. Not to mention when Charlie fell for Olivia, the books female fatal. That was just cringeworthy. The only things that kept me going were that I wanted to know who the murderer was.

Death of a Ghost is my last attempt reading this series. I just can't see what's so awesome with the books. The storyline, especially towards the end of the book was just so baffling. I mean everything concerning Chief Detective Inspector Blair felt like a parody. Without being funny.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!    

   

Death of a Ghost by M.C. Beaton

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.

**********

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!